Sentence Variety

Types of Sentences:
1. Simple—one independent clause
ex: I'm going home now.

2. Compound—more than one independent clause, joined by a coordinating conjunction or semicolon
ex: I'm going home now, and I'll see you later.
I'm going home now; I'll see you later.

ü Use coordination to relate equal ideas.

3. Complex—one independent clause + one dependent clause, joined by a subordinating conjunction
ex: Because I'm going home now, I'll see you later.
I'm going home now because I'll see you later.

ü Use subordination to emphasize main ideas.

4. Compound-complex—more than one independent + one dependent clause
ex: Because I'm going home now, I'll see you later, and then we can talk about what we should do this weekend.

Sentence Beginnings
1. introductory phrase
prepositional: On a busy street in Tokyo, the traveler was lost.
infinitive: To prove his point, he turned to the encyclopedia.
participial (verb ending with –ing or –ed and acting as an adjective):
Waiting for the movie to begin, my friends ate popcorn.
Forced to work late, they ordered pizza with mushrooms.

2. introductory dependent clause, or a clause condensed to a phrase
While my clothes were hanging on the line, a dense storm moved in.
While hanging on the line, my clothes were drenched by a dense storm.

3. introductory appositive (a short, descriptive word or group of words)
A skilled thief at the age of ten, I took pride in my daring and expertise.

Sentence Length
· Follow a long, complex sentence with a short sentence that packs a punch.
· To analyze patterns in your sentence lengths: in 1-2 paragraphs, put a slash mark at the end of each sentence; then, examine sentence variety.