Which sentence has the most traditional syntax?
a) stepping onto the sidewalk, her tears and breath were deep and drying.
b) she took a deep breath and stepped onto the sidewalk as her tears were drying.
c) tears drying and a deep breath, she stepped onto the sidewalk.
d) with a deep drying breath, she stepped onto the sidewalk with tears.

The correct answer is B) She took a deep breath and stepped onto the sidewalk as her tears were drying.

Syntax has to do with the way that words in a sentence are ordered. In English, the traditional order of words is S-V-O, which means Subject-Verb-Object. If you take a look at the examples above, you will see that only sentence B has this particular structure. The other examples do not start with the subject, but rather with some adverbial phrase.