VARYING SENTENCE STRUCTURE S-2
Revised Summer 2012 1
VARYING SENTENCE
STRUCTURE
with
BOY FANS,
CHIN FAT TO MOM,
and
BE WISE AT WAR
Created by Kathleen C. Volz
FCCJ, South Campus LAC
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Complex Sentence Structure, Essays (university) of English Language
Sentence variation required in essay writing.
Typology: Essays (university)
2017/2018
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VARYING SENTENCE
STRUCTURE
with
BOY FANS,
CHIN FAT TO MOM,
and
BE WISE AT WAR
Created by Kathleen C. Volz FCCJ, South Campus LAC
VARYING SENTENCE
STRUCTURE
with BOY FANS, CHIN FAT TO MOM,
and BE WISE AT WAR
Have you ever listened to a speaker who talked in a monotone, never varying his or her pitch, vocal inflections, or tone? How did you feel as you listened—perhaps bored, listless, unengaged?
Just as some speakers talk in a monotone, so also do some writers express themselves in a monotonous voice, one that lacks variety in sentence style and length. Readers can quickly lose interest in a paper composed of a string of simple sentences that do not connect related ideas. Examine the short and choppy sentences below:
Mattie loved to drive sports cars. She bought a red Mustang. She had fun driving it.
What do you notice about these sentences? Perhaps they seem to stop and go, stop and go, stop and go, much as you do while driving your car during rush hour traffic. When you write, just like when you drive, you do not want your trip to be constantly interrupted by your hitting the brakes and then pressing the accelerator. Rather, you want to travel at a steady and constant speed. You can avoid the pitfall of creating short and simple sentences by learning to use coordinating conjunctions, adverbial conjunctions, and subordinating conjunctions.
Review of a Simple Sentence To understand these concepts, however, let’s begin by reviewing the definition of a simple sentence. A sentence, which expresses a complete idea, is composed of three parts: a subject, a verb, and a completer. While a subject is who or what the sentence is about, a verb expresses action (read, smile, walk, paint, see) or conveys a state of being that is, it expresses the time, location, or condition of someone or something.] For example, be verbs such as am, is are, was, and were reveal a state of being: “It is late (time).” “The children are at home (location).” “I am ill with the flu (condition).” Finally, a completer finishes the thought begun by the subject and verb. Study the models below. Note that the completers are separated with parentheses.
S V C
The young man sent (his wife a dozen long-stemmed red roses).
S V C
The dog barked (loudly at the neighbors).
Additional examples:
IC + coordinating conjunction + IC
- Dave likes to watch movies but his sister prefers to read books.
IC + coordinating conjunction + IC
- She bought a Monet print for her apartment, for she loves impressionistic art.
!!!PUNCTUATION ALERT!!!: Did you know that you can also join two independent clauses by placing a semicolon (;) between them? In fact, the semicolon takes the place of a comma and a coordinating conjunction. It is used to connect two closely related ideas of equal importance. See the examples below:
IC + Semicolon + IC
- Mrs. Nicholson is an excellent employee; she recently received the Employee of the Month award at her office. IC + Semicolon ÷ IC
- Judy has a dog named Ollie; Christine has a cat named Cranston.
In addition to coordinating ideas with the BOY FANS and the semicolon, you can enhance your sentence construction by experimenting with adverbial conjunctions, another form of coordination.
II. Adverbial Conjunctions
Another useful technique for varying sentence style, the adverbial conjunctions are more commonly known as transitions. Any good English handbook will provide a comprehensive list of the transitions, but you can remember some of the most frequently used ones in college writing with yet another acronym, CHIN FAT TO MOM:
C ONSEQUENTLY
H OWEVER
I NDEED
N EVERTHELESS
F URTHERMORE
A S A RESULT
T HEREFORE
T HUS
O N THE OTHER HAND
M OREOVER
O THERWISE
M EANWHILE
By using adverbial conjunctions, you can connect closely related ideas and once again vary your sentence style. When you use a CHIN FAT TO MOM word to join sentences, follow this pattern for punctuation:
IC; transition, IC IC + transition + IC
Example: Mattie loved to drive sports cars; therefore she bought a red Mustang.
Notice that once you join the simple sentences with a transition, you can see the relationship between them much more easily.
Additional Examples:
IC + transition + IC
- Katherine majored in English and education, furthermore she minored in Spanish.
Dependent clauses are easy to recognize because they always begin with a subordinating conjunction, such as when, where, while, who, after, before, since, because , etc. Though not a complete list of all the subordinating conjunctions, the acronym, BE WISE AT WAR, will help you remember some of the commonly used ones:
B E
E VEN IF
W HEN
I F
S INCE
E VEN THOUGH
A LTHOUGH
T HOUGH
W HILE
A S
WHE R EAS
Subordinating conjunctions work in one of three ways. First, they can start a dependent dame at the beginning of a sentence. Secondly, they can lead to a dependent clause in the middle of a sentence. Lastly, they can create a dependent clause at the end of a sentence. Let’s examine these three methods for using BE WISE AT WAR words.
- If a dependent clause comes before an independent one, place a comma after the dependent clause and before the independent. Follow the pattern below:
DC,+ IC DC IC
Example: Because Mattie loves to drive sports cars , she bought a red Mustang.
DC IC
Example: If you diet and exercise regularly , you will lose weight.
!!WARNING!! COMMA ALERT!! Note that the comma goes after the dependent clause, not after the subordinating conjunction.
- Sometimes a dependent clause will occur in the middle of a sentence. In this pattern, the dependent clause will interrupt one part oldie independent clause front another. When you have this pattern, place a comma both before and after the dependent clause. Note the model below:
Part of IC, DC, + Part of IC
Part of IC DC Part of IC
Brandon, after he defended himself against the class bully , was respected by all his peers.
Part of IC DC Part of IC
You do not know, until you take a risk , how much success you might achieve.
- If a dependent clause comes after an independent one at the end of a sentence, use no punctuation. Follow the pattern below:
IC DC
Example: Mattie bought a red Mustang because she loves to drive sports cars.
IC DC
Example: You will lose weight if you diet and exercise regularly.
!!WARNING!! COMMA ALERT!! Many college writers make the mistake of placing a comma after an independent clause and before a dependent one. You can avoid this error by remembering that a comma goes after a dependent clause, not before one.
Try the following exercises to test your understanding of these three concepts.
Practice One: Coordinating Conjunctions
Directions: Use one of the BOY FANS to join simple sentences below. Be sure to add a comma where needed.
- Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream was written around 1595 _________ audiences enjoy seeing it performed today.
- This play is often referred to as a comedy of errors __________ its characters find themselves in one confusing situation after another.
- Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream refers to the English tradition of “midsummer night,” the day before Saint John the Baptist’s festival, ___________ Shakespeare’s audiences associated this night with magic, merrymaking, and witchcraft.
- This play has four subplots _______ at times it can be challenging to understand.
- The play begins with a scene between Theseus and Hippolyta, an aristocratic couple engaged to be married, _______ these characters do not appear again until Act IV.
- Throughout the rest of the play, little supernatural beings known as fairies intervene in the human world ______ no character except Bottom ever gets to see them.
- The playful fairies are not rational _________ are they responsible.
- Due to the fairies’ intervention, several strange events occur on a midsummer evening _________ later none of the characters can clearly recall what happened.
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream portrays love as being inconstant __________ it represents lovers as being fools.
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream could be read as a play-within-a-play __________ it could be read as a comedy about human folly.
Practice Two: Adverbial Conjunctions
Directions: Use one of the CHIN FAT TO MOM words to join the simple sentences below. Be sure to include correct punctuation.
- When preparing for a multiple choice test, find out as much as you can about it from the professor_ _____________make up questions about the material that you believe the professor might ask.
- You should study thoroughly for the test by taking notes and reviewing the material _________ you will feel well-prepared on the day of the exam.
- On a multiple choice test, you should answer all the easy questions first ________ you skip the difficult ones and return to them upon finishing the exam.
- Consider these hard-to-answer questions closely __________ experience shows that your intuition will often help you make the right choice.
- Each multiple choice test item has a stem (an incomplete statement) __________ this stem is followed by four or five possible answers.
- First, study the term __________ read all the options carefully.
- Next, eliminate any obviously wrong answers by crossing them out __________ you will enhance your chances of making the right choice.
- Watch for negative or extreme words such as “not” and “except” ___________ they are frequently found in incorrect answers.
- Her only connection to the literary world of her day was a minor author and critic named T.W. Higginson. _________ he could not understand Dickinson’s poems _____ he encouraged her not to publish them.
- _________ Dickinson died in 1886 ________ her sister discovered nearly two thousand poems tucked away in her dresser.
- __________ it were not for this fortunate discovery _____ Emily Dickinson’s poetic insights into life, love, and death would have remained completely unknown to the literary world.
Answer Key
Because some answers may vary, please see an English tutor.
Practice One
- ,but ,yet
- ,for
- ,and
- ,so
- ,but ,yet
- ,but ,yet
- ,nor
- ,but ,yet
- ,and
- ,or
Practice Two
- ;in addition, ;moreover, ;furthermore,
- ;therefore, ;consequently, ;thus,
- ;in addition, ;moreover, ;furthermore,
- ;in fact, ;indeed,
- ;in addition, ;moreover, ;furthermore,
- ;then (note that a comma does not usually follow “then”)
- ;therefore, ;consequently, ;thus,
- ;in fact, ;indeed,
- ;however, ;nevertheless, ;nonetheless,
- ;on the other hand, ;however,
- Practice Three
- Although Even though +,
- Although Even though +,
- after
- because -
- While Although Even though +,
- Since Because +
- although even though
- Since Because +
9.When + ,
10.If+,