Suggestions for Increasing Sentence Variety

Writing all sentences with a similar pattern, makes our writing appear boring. Sentence variety rather than merely writing longer sentences is an important way to keep our readers' interest in what we are writing.

Vary sentence openings:

1. Open sentences with transitional expressions:

• Nevertheless, we still must complete the project before Friday.
• In fact, they have never visited Kagoshima, just read about it.

2. Open sentences with introductory phrases:

• After a sleepless night, I finally called my neighbour to complain.
• Laughing hard, I watched the latest Jim Carey movie.
• To make it to work on time, I had to get up at 5:30 a.m.
• Defiant and angry, the mob marched to the conference site.
• Slowly and cautiously, I opened the door to my over-filled closet.
• Gracefully, the dancer moved across the floor.
• Our minds made up, we bought a new iMac computer.

3. Open sentences with adverb clauses:

• When the doorbell rang, I was just getting out of the shower.
• Because of the long drive, we were tired and hungry when we arrived.

Combine sentences:

1. Form compound sentences:

• Dark clothing protects us from UV-rays, but light clothing is cooler.
• Trucks usually burn diesel; cars gasoline.
• Jack did not like to study; however, he needed to graduate.

2. Form complex sentences:

• The dog which we love got hit by a car.
• The students asked the university when the entrance exam was.
• Because we exercised every day, we lost 6 kilos over the summer.

Use inverted word order:

• On a forgotten shelf in the museum lay a Rembrandt sketch.
• Particularly impressive was his command of written English.

Use commands, questions, and quotations:

• Consider the consequences.
• Unless we reduce CO2 emissions how can we avoid global warming?
• "He jumped on his horse and rode madly off in all directions."
  

Here are some links to exercises in writing different kinds of sentences.

Start by going to the sentence patterns page to review the different types of sentences.

Then look at the information about different types of English sentences below.

| Compound Sentences | Complex Sentences | Compound/Complex Sentences | Parallelism