Often we get repetitive in our use of sentences and this can make our writing tedious. Look at these sentence patterns and imitate several in your own writing:
Improving Sentence Variety
Students can gain practice in varying their sentence patterns by using models from established writers. This can be included in the revision stage of the writing process. The degree to which the students simply imitate patterns or reach a fuller understanding of the structures they are using will depend on the teacher and level of the class. Below are some examples of patterns and the imitations written by non-professional writers:
Example:
On the pleasant shore of the French Riviera, about halfway between Marseilles and the Italian border, stands a large, proud rose-coloured hotel. - F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Non-Professional:
Just off a cobblestone street, in a drowsy, postcard city of Guernavaca, Mexico, sprawls a rambling whitewashed hacienda.
Possible points of discussion: use of comma, prepositional phrases, placement of verb and subject.
Example:
A half moon, dusky gold, was sinking behind the black sycamore tree. - D.H. Lawrence.
Non-Professional:
The autumn sun, orange-red, settled slowly beneath the brassy horizon.
Possible points of discussion: two colour adjectives following the subject followed by third colour later.
Example:
The lazy October afternoon, bathed in a soft warmth of a reluctant sun, held a hint of winter's coming chill. - Ruth Firor
Non-Professional:
The frail kite, tossed and battered by the March wind, took one last dive and was swallowed by the tall grass.
Possible point of discussion: personifying words.
Example:
Streaming with perspiration, we swarmed up the rope, and coming into the blast of cold air, gasped like men plunged into icy water. - Joseph Conrad
Non-Professional:
Straining with tension, I clambered up the castle wall, and coming in through the gallery windows, shuddered like a man in his death rattle.
Possible points of discussion: use of comma, participates, simile.
Example:
Even as she was falling asleep, head bowed over the child, she was still aware of a strange wakeful happiness. - Katherine Ann Porter.
Non-Professional:
As he sat before the doctor, his mangled hand dripping blood, the fluorescent light accented the pallor of his skin and the fear in his eyes.
Possible points of discussion: function of comma, function of the adjectival phrase.
Well it's obvious that he's lying about the black eye, but as I don't fancy being used as a human football again, I don't say anything, even thought I'm a bit surprised. - Janni Howker
[Ist person, present tense, colloquial thought patterns]
In the towns, on the edges of the town, in fields, in vacant lots, the used car yards, the wreckers', the garages with blazing signs, - Used Cars, Good used Cars, Cheap Transportation. - John Steinbeck
The houses sit on their handkerchiefs, and early in the morning begin to sneeze. - Patricia Grace
[Personification, figurative language]
Far below, deep under the keel of a ship, a humpback whale sported and fed. - Keri Hulme
The ice cracked, moaned, shivered and susurrated with rippling glissandi a giant organ playing a titanic symphony. - Witi Ihimaera
[Use of verbs, metaphor]
