Sentence Variety

Varying Sentences

​SENTENCE STARTS AND WORD ORDER

• We sort our rubbish into boxes before we put it outside.

• Before we put it outside, we sort our rubbish into boxes.

​

​Look at these two sentences and tell me what you know about sentences.

• sentences are statements

• they start with capital letters and end with full stops

• they can join each other with conjunctions

• commas are used to mark different bits of information in sentences

​

Some things we already explored:

I put the rubbish out every week. I sort it into boxes before I put it outside. I don’t mind doing this although I always moan when I have to do it.

​

Read these sentences:

​There's nothing grammatically wrong, but the paragraph is boring. How could we make it more interesting?

Open Ended

Every week, I put out the rubbish. Before putting it outside, I sort it into boxes, and although I always moan about it, I don’t mind putting out the rubbish.

Improve this!

Every week, I put out the rubbish. Before putting it outside, I sort it into boxes, and although I always moan about it, I don’t mind putting out the rubbish.

​

Possible Improvement

Sentence Variety

​Every week, I put out the rubbish. Before putting it outside, I sort it into boxes, and although I always moan about it, I don’t mind putting out the rubbish.

The first sentence now starts with information about ‘when’ (an adverbial), thus emphasising the time demanded by the chore. Because the subject now does not start with the ‘doer’ (the subject), the opening phrase must end with a comma. This rule also applies to the second sentence, which has been made more fluent by being joined to the third sentence. The word ‘and’ has replaced the full stop dividing the information in the original sentences two and three.

Task

Reorder the following sentences. Follow the instructions

(I have removed the capital letter and end punctuation :) )

Reorder

Reorder the following

(begin with a conjunction)

• because

• they get

• in the way

• adverts

• can be annoying

1

2

3

4

5

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Reorder

Reorder the following

(begin with a subject pronoun

• they are unavoidable

• because

• they are on TV,

• in the street

• and on the internet

1

2

3

4

5

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Reorder

Reorder the following

(begin with a coordinating conjunction)

• and whenever

• we are enjoying

• our favourite TV programmes,

• adverts

• interrupt them

1

2

3

4

5

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

​When we put them together we get:

Because they get in the way, adverts can be annoying. They are unavoidable because they are on TV, in the street and on the internet, and whenever we are enjoying our favourite TV programmes, adverts interrupt them.

Sentence Variety

​Task

Think of a chore you have to do, or something that often annoys you. Write three sentences about the chore or the thing that annoys you.

If you are really stuck, you could try beginning your three sentences like this:

• What annoys me is .... 

• Because (or Although/While) …

• Whenever (or When) …

Open Ended

Sentence 1

What annoys me is ....

Open Ended

Sentence 2

Because (or Although/While) …

Open Ended

Sentence 3

Whenever (or When) …

​Improving your writing

Read back over your sentences. Check that you have:

• varied the way you start your sentences

• varied the order of the parts of the sentences

• made your writing sound lively and interesting

Sentence Variety

​Assessing other students' writing

What follows are the sentences that three other students wrote.

Read the three pieces of writing (A, B and C) and then:

• Decide which is best, which is second best, and which is third.

• Rewrite the second and third best to improve them

Poll

Which do you think is written better?

• A

• B

• C

​B

A

C

​Suggested order is:

Open Ended

What have you learned in this lesson?