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Making the Most of Your Sentences October 31, 2007

Posted by arussell in : Style , trackback

Once you have a strong idea for your paper, think about the way you are presenting that idea. One way to make a paper sound more interesting is to mix up the types of sentences you are using. Don’t use all simple sentences or all compound or complex sentences. Placing short sentences between longer ones give the shorter sentences a punch–they stand out more.

Here are some other sentence types to consider:
A loose sentence is the type of sentence that is most common. At the beginning of the sentence is the main idea (subject and verb) and then all the other less important information follows. For example: “I left the restaurant feeling dizzy and sick to my stomach as all my surroundings swirled before my eyes.” In this case the subject (I) and the verb (left) are at the beginning of the sentence.

A periodic sentence is not as common and must be used with care. With this type, there is a build-up to the main idea. For example: “Looking at the rose, at its soft petals and thin folds, I saw beauty.” Here, the main idea (I saw beauty) is at the end of the sentence and all the other details lead up to this idea. If used sparingly, this can help your sentences to not all sound the same and give them some flair.

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