Sentence Variety

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Sentence Variety

• By
• Alfred Taylor

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Sentence Variety

• Please practice utilizing these nine sentence
  patterns throughout the semester. Good sentence
  variety keeps writing from becoming dull.
• Understanding these sentence patterns will
  improve your ability to communicate.

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Sentence Variety

• 1 Simple Sentence
• Spock drank a Pepsi.
• Alfred bought a diamond ring for his lovely wife
  Thuy.

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Sentence Variety

• Both of the sentences are simple sentences
  because they each only have one clause. The
  second may have more adjectives and adverbs, but
  it is still a simple sentence.
• Sub Verb Art Adj
  Do/ noun prep PN
• Alfred bought a diamond ring for his
• Adv Adj Ido / Proper Noun
• lovely wife Thuy.

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Sentence Variety

• 2 Compound Subject / Verb / Object
• A compound sentence has two subjects or two
  verbs or both.
• Kirk and Spock drank Pepsi.
• Spock slurped and gulped his drink.
• Spock drank Pepsi and Diet Pepsi.
• Note There are no commas in these sentences

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Sentence Variety

• Sentences utilizing a compound subject, verb, or
  object are still simple sentences because they
  only have one clause. A clause is a phrase that
  contains both a subject and a verb. It is
  possible to have a sentence that has a compound
  subject, verb, and object.
• Kirk and Spock ate and drank pizza and Pepsi.

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Sentence Variety

• Please dont confuse a sentence with a compound
  verb with a compound sentence.
• Compound Verb
• Spock drank Pepsi and belched loudly.
• Compound Sentence
• Spock drank Pepsi, and he belched loudly.
• A compound sentence must have a subject on both
  sides of the coordinating conjunction.

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Sentence Variety

• 3 Compound or Coordinate Sentence
• A compound sentence uses one of the seven
  coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, for,
  nor, so, yet) and connects two complete simple
  sentences. Each half of the sentence is equally
  important to the meaning of the sentence. The
  coordinating conjunction must be proceeded by a
  comma.

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Sentence Variety

• The seven coordinating conjunctions are also
  known as FONYBAS words. If These words are
  written out, the first letter of each one spells
  FONYBAS.
• For
• Or
• Nor
• Yet
• But
• And
• So

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Sentence Variety

• Joining two simple sentences together with a
  semicolon does not create a strong sentence
  however, it does create a sentence that is
  awkward and difficult to understand. This type
  of sentence may have worked in High School, but
  college instructors expect well developed
  sentences.
• I hate semicolons!

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Sentence Variety

• The chicken got well we had salad.
• These two sentences seem to be completely
  unrelated when joined with a semicolon.
• The chicken got well, so we had salad.
• When joined with a coordinating conjunction, the
  sentences meaning is more clear.

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Sentence Variety

• Each time the coordinating conjunction is
  changed the meaning also changes.
• The chicken got well, for we had salad. The
  chicken got well, yet we had salad. The chicken
  got well, but we had salad.
• The chicken got well, and we had salad.
• The chicken got well, so we had salad.

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Sentence Variety

• sub verb art obj C.C.
  Sub verb obj.
• Spock drank a Pepsi, and he enjoyed it.
• This is a compound sentence because it has a
  complete sentence on both sides of the
  coordinating conjunction, the sentences make
  sense together, and the coordinating conjunction
  makes sense with the sentences.

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Sentence Variety

• Spock drank a Pepsi, or he enjoyed it.
• Spock drank a Pepsi, nor he enjoyed it.
• These are examples of faulty coordination since
  the coordinating conjunction does not make sense
  with the sentences it is connecting.

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Sentence Variety

• Spock drank a Pepsi, so computers hate people
  who have poor usage skills.
• This is another example of faulty coordination
  because these two sentences dont make any
  logical sense together.

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Sentence Variety

• 4 Expletive Sentence
• An expletive construction consists of there or
  it plus a form of the verb be.
• There was a man from Orlando.
• It is a good day to study English.

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Sentence Variety

• Forms of Be
• I am
• You are
• He/She/It Is
• I was
• You were
• He/She/It was
• I will be
• We/They are
• We/They will be
• I/You/They have been

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Sentence Variety

• Expletive sentences should be used sparingly.
  They tend to be wordy and they have weak subjects
  and verbs.
• There was a man who drank Pepsi.
• The subject of this sentence is there, and the
  verb is was. Both of these are weak words.
  Avoid using be verbs whenever possible.

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Sentence Variety

• 5 Infinitive phrase
• An infinitive phrase consists of To plus a
  verb.
• To go into space was Captain Kirks Dream.
• If a word interrupts the infinitive phrase, it
  is called a split infinitive.
• To boldly go where no man has gone before.

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Sentence Variety

• 6 Appositive
• An appositive renames a noun in a sentence,
  usually the subject of the sentence. This helps
  to make the significance of the noun more clear.
  An appositive is usually separated from the
  sentence by a comma.
• A monster-dog, a two-hundred pound
• German Shepherd, stole my lunch.

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Sentence Variety

• There are two types of appositives, essential or
  restrictive and nonessential or nonrestrictive.
• A nonrestrictive appositive may be removed from
  the sentence without changing the meaning of the
  sentence. To indicate that it can be removed, it
  is set apart with commas.

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Sentence Variety

• If a restrictive or essential appositive is
  removed, the meaning of the sentence will change.
  Since a restrictive appositive is essential to
  the meaning of the sentence, it is not separated
  by commas.

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Sentence Variety

• Students who use debit cards eat more fast food.
• Missy a lazy dog chased three parked cars.
• Cars with bad spark plugs get poor gas mileage.
• Anna a good student studied English all night.

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Sentence Variety

• Students who use debit cards eat more fast food.
• Restrictive or Essential
• Missy a lazy dog chased three parked cars.
• Nonrestrictive or Nonessential
• Cars with bad spark plugs get poor gas mileage.
• Restrictive or Essential
• Anna a good student studied English all night.
• Nonrestrictive or Nonessential

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Sentence Variety

• We will discuss restrictive and nonrestrictive
  modifiers in greater detail later in the semester.

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Sentence Variety

• 7 Subordinate or Complex Sentence
• Complex sentences consist of a dependent clause
  and an independent clause. The independent
  clause is the important part of the sentence.
  The subordinate clause is only additional
  information. There are many varieties of this
  sentence. A comma separates the dependent clause
  from the independent clause when the dependant
  clause precedes the independent clause.

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Sentence Variety

• Dependent clauses are created by placing either
  a subordinating word or a relative pronoun in
  front of a sentence.
• independent clause
• Spock drank a Pepsi.
• dependent clause
• When Spock drank a Pepsi.

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Sentence Variety

• Common subordinating words include
• as because If after
• since provided before where
• unless whether while once
• when although so that until
• though whenever than as if
• Common relative pronouns include
• which what who that
• whom whatever whoever

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Sentence Variety

• When Spock drank a Pepsi.
• This is a dependent clause because it doesnt
  express a complete thought and must rely upon an
  independent clause to give it meaning. When
  Spock drank a Pepsi, what happened?

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Sentence Variety

• dependent clause independent clause
• When Spock drank a Pepsi, he slapped Mr. Sulu.
• When the dependent clause comes first, separate
  the clauses with a comma.
• Independent clause dependent clause
• Spock drank a Pepsi when he slapped Mr. Sulu.
• When the independent clause comes first, no
  comma is necessary.

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Sentence Variety

• 8 Prepositional Phrase
• A prepositional phrase begins with a preposition
  and ends with an object. A preposition is a word
  with some meaning of position, time, or other
  abstract relation. Words like above, below,
  near, far, from, of, to, after, before, and until
  are all prepositions.

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Sentence Variety

• After lunch, the Universe exploded.
• In this example, after is the preposition, and
  lunch is the object of the preposition. The noun
  or pronoun that follows the preposition is object
  of the preposition that makes up the
  prepositional phrase.

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Sentence Variety

• 9 Conjunctive Adverb
• Two independent clauses joined by a conjunctive
  adverb. Each independent clause must be a
  sentence with a subject and a verb. A semicolon
  precedes the conjunctive adverb and a comma
  follows it.
• We saw a Star Trek double feature hence,we were
  labeled Trekies by our coworkers.

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Sentence VarietyCommon Conjunctive Adverbs

• Accordingly
• Also
• Anyway
• Besides
• Certainly
• Consequently
• Finally
• Furthermore

• Hence
• However
• Incidentally
• Indeed
• Instead
• Likewise
• Meanwhile
• Moreover
• Nevertheless

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Sentence Variety

• A writer should only use a conjunctive adverb
  when she wants to get her readers attention.
  Conjunctive adverbs force the reader to pause and
  pay attention to the sentence however, if
  conjunctive adverbs are overused, they lose their
  impact upon the reader.

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Sentence Variety

• Please practice with these sentence patterns
  whenever writing a essay. Understanding how and
  when to use these types of sentences will improve
  the coherence of your writing.

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Sentence Variety

• The End