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Patterns for Sentence Variety and Effectiveness
1. Free modifier:
The bird fell, twisting in a great, soft spiral, spinning down and down, landing dead at my feet.
2. Nominative absolute:
Stanley tossed the ball to first, his throw beating Winfield by a step.
3. Compound sentence joined with a semicolon:
Rage is anger beyond control; it is a dictator of destruction.
4. Compound sentence with elliptical construction:
The Eskimo lives in an igloo; the American Indian, in a teepee.
5. Compound sentence with explanatory statement connected with a colon:
The empty coffin had a horrifying meaning: Dracula had left his tomb to stalk the castle.
6. A series of modifiers, most effective in triplets:
With wisdom, patience, virtue, Queen Victoria directed the course of England.
7. A series of balanced pairs:
His ambition and ruthlessness, his skill and cunning, his hatred and crimes brought about the fall of
Richard III at Bosworth Field.
8. An internal series of appositives or modifiers:
The American coed’s dream—becoming a bride, producing babies, acquiring a suburban
mortgage—can turn into a nightmare.
9. Dependent clause in a pair or series:
When he smelled the pungent odor of pine, when he saw the startled doe, the hunter knew he had
reached the heart of the forest.
10. Repetition of a key term:
Every writer must obey the “eleventh commandment,” the commandment not to bore his reader.
11. Repetition of the same word(s) in a parallel structure:
Few know my sorrow, fewer know my name.
12. An interrupting modifier between a subject and a verb:
A drop of ink, falling like dew upon a thought, can make millions think.
13. Introductory participles, singly or in a series:
Perservering , determined to succeed, the pioneers forged a civilization out of the wilderness.
14. A single modifier out of place for emphasis:
Below, the traffic looked like a necklace of ants.
15. Introductory prepositional phrase(s):
In all the forest no creature stirred.
Patterns for Sentence Variety and Effectiveness
16. Object or complement before the subject and verb:
His kind of sarcasm I do not like.
17. Parallel constructions with either/or, neither/nor, not only/ but also, if not/at least, the more/the
more, the former/the latter:
Each man lives not only his personal life but also the life of his era.
18. A short question for dramatic effect:
What caused the change?
19. A series of tripled verbs in a simple sentence:
The murderer crept to the door, took a deep breath, and plunged desperately into the darkened room.
20. A fragment, deliberately and effectively used for description, transitions, to structure questions, or
to give emphasis:
So much for that. When then?
Also remember these comma rules that will enhance sentence structure:
I. Introductory Element
A. Dependent clause
B. Succession prepositional phrases
C. Participial phrase
II. Nonessential Elements
A. Noun of address
B. Nonessential participial phrase
C. Nonessential clause
D. Appositive
E. Parenthetical expression
F. Contrasting elements
III. Essential clause
IV. Essential participial phrase