Topic : Sentences and Paragraphs

Day 3 Sentence Variety and Conjunctions

 

What is meant by sentence variety?

In order to have variety in your paragraphs and essays, you must have variety in your sentences. Pay attention to the following points -

A. SENTENCE BEGINNINGS

1.   Check your sentences when you are ready to revise to make sure that you have not begun more than two sentences in a row with the same word.

For example:

She was fed up with his behavior.  She wanted to tell him, but he had a very bad temper and she was afraid.  She tried thinking of ways to say it, but each way was dangerously sarcastic.  She couldn't ignore it any longer but she didn't want to walk out of the relationship.  She was sure that she loved him.

Do you see how boring that sounds?

This would be an improvement:

She was fed up with his behavior, but he had a bad temper and she was afraid to tell him.  Each way she thought of for expressing her frustration was dangerously sarcastic.  Unable to ignore it, she still refused to walk out of the relationship because she was sure that she loved him.

 

2.  Be sure that you don't begin each sentence with the subject (alone, or with "the" or "a" or "an").  In the following examples, the subject is underlined.

For example:

The ship had sailed hours ago and the festival had begun.  They began eating and drinking right away.  The food was delicious.  The champagne flowed freely.  David had given her this cruise as an anniversary giftSarah had truly been surprised by this loving gesture.

This would be an improvement:

The ship had sailed hours ago and the festival had begun.  Served delicious food and free-flowing champagne, Sarah was already enjoying David's anniversary gift.  Surprised by this loving gesture, she considered herself a lucky winner.

B. SENTENCE LENGTHS

All sentences in a paragraph should be of different lengths.

For example – This paragraphs sounds too boring:

She was fed up with his behavior.  She wanted to tell him, but he had a very bad temper.  She was afraid.  She tried thinking of ways to say it. Each way was dangerously sarcastic.  She couldn't ignore it any longer. She didn't want to walk out of the relationship.  She was sure that she loved him. (8 sentences)

This would be an improvement:

She was fed up with his behavior, but he had a bad temper and she was afraid to tell him.  Each way she thought of for expressing her frustration was dangerously sarcastic.  Unable to ignore it, she still refused to walk out of the relationship because she was sure that she loved him.  (3 sentences)

Notice what we did here.  The first two sentences in the poor paragraph were combined with "but" and "and."  The next sentence combined 2 sentences from the poor paragraph.  The last sentence begins with a phrase, rather than the subject "she" by changing "she couldn't ignore it any longer" into "unable to ignore it."

THIS IS WHAT YOU DO WITH YOUR WRITING AFTER YOU'VE WRITTEN YOUR FIRST DRAFT.

C. SENTENCE TYPES

You just learned about simple, compound, complex and compound-complex sentences.  When you are revising your work, you will probably automatically include a variety of sentence types while working to do the above revisions. 

For example:

She was fed up with his behavior.  She wanted to tell him.  He had a very bad temper.  She was afraid.  She tried thinking of ways to say it. Each way was dangerously sarcastic.  She couldn't ignore it any longer. She didn't want to walk out of the relationship.  She  loved him.

Every sentence above is a simple sentence.  Now remember, simple sentences are not always short like the ones above.

This would be an improvement:

She was fed up with his behavior, but he had a bad temper and she was afraid to tell him.  Each way she thought of for expressing her frustration was dangerously sarcastic.  Unable to ignore it, she still refused to walk out of the relationship because she was sure that she loved him.

In this paragraph

Sentence 1--compound sentence (Two sentences made into one using a conjunction)

Sentence 2--simple sentence

Sentence 3--compound-complex sentence (Two sentences or more without only a conjunction)

 

D. Conjunctions

A conjunction is a word which joins together sentences or words.

Example –

He is rich.  I am poor.

We can join these two sentences in one like this.

He is rich, but I am poor.

More examples -

 

Have you seen the opera by Scott Joplin? Have you heard the opera by Scott Joplin?

Change to -

Have you seen or heard the opera by Scott Joplin?

 

I wanted to sit in the front of the balcony. I ordered my ticket early.

Change to -

I wanted to sit in the front of the balcony, so I ordered my ticket early.