Page 3 Sentence Variety
Completion requirements
Page 3 Sentence Variety
Lack of variety can be boring in art, music, food.
Talia's Art
Robert's Art
Sasha's Art
Imagine eating the same food for every meal, every day.
You might like apples, but if you ate only apples day after day, life would lack zest.
Variety?
Public Domain via Wikimmedia Commons
Similarly, variety in writing provides style, or voice. Variety enables your reader to tell which ideas are the most important.
Consider variety in sentence:
-
structure
-
length
-
impact (additional words, phrases and modifiers)
Simple Sentences
A simple sentence (independent clause) contains a
subject and a
verb.
It expresses a complete thought, and it can stand alone.
It expresses a complete thought, and it can stand alone.
In the following sentence, subjects are purple and verbs are green.
I gave my cat a bath the other day. Cats love baths. My cat just sat there and enjoyed it.
It was mostly fun for me, too. I didn't enjoy the fur sticking to my tongue.
Compound Sentences
I don't work on weekends, or any day that ends with "Y".
In a compound sentence, two complete sentences are joined with a coordinator.
The coordinators (acronym fanboys) are as follows: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.
Except in a very short sentence, coordinators always are preceded by a comma. This is because the two parts are two independent sentences.
The coordinators (acronym fanboys) are as follows: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.
Except in a very short sentence, coordinators always are preceded by a comma. This is because the two parts are two independent sentences.
Example:
I put my phone in airplane mode, but it's not flying!
Example:
I went to a restaurant that serves "breakfast at any time." This is a complete sentence.
I ordered French Toast during the Renaissance. This is also a complete sentence.
They can be joined as follows.
I went to a restaurant that serves "breakfast at any time," so I ordered French Toast during the Renaissance." - Stephen Wright
Complex Sentences
A complex sentence is a complete sentence joined by one or more dependent clauses.
A complex sentence always has a subordinator such as because, since, after, although, or when or a relative pronoun such as that, who, or which.
A complex sentence always has a subordinator such as because, since, after, although, or when or a relative pronoun such as that, who, or which.
Examples of dependent clauses include the following:
if you divide...
when they asked the queen
that she hires...
Dependent clauses such as the ones above cannot stand alone as a sentence, but they can be added to a complete sentence to form a complex sentence.
If you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its diameter, you get pumpkin pi.
When they asked the queen for her ID, she took out a quarter.
My cat is so lazy that she hires other cats to nap for her.
|
Self-Assessment Click here to identify types of sentences. |
Please contact your teacher if you have questions.