1
© Stacey Lloyd 2015 Varying Sentence Beginnings Starting every sentence with a noun, pronoun or noun phrase can make your writing extremely repetitive and boring. In order to make your writing more complex and fluent, you should learn to vary the structure and beginnings of your sentences. James was extremely tired. He had been up all night thinking about his history exam. He sat at the kitchen table just staring into his bowl of cereal. James’s stomach was churning. He couldn’t bring himself to eat anything. James could hear his parents talking but he couldn’t make out their exact words. James drank some coffee to calm his nerves. James just knew deep down that this was going to be terrible day. He knew that coffee wasn’t going to help. As he had been up all night thinking about his history exam, James was extremely tired. Sitting at the kitchen table and staring into his bowl of cereal, his stomach was churning. However, James couldn’t bring himself to eat anything. Although he could hear his parents talking, he couldn’t make out their exact words. So, to calm his nerves, James drank some coffee. But deep down, James knew that coffee wouldn’t help; this was going to be terrible day. Compare these two paragraphs: ONE TWO Can you see that paragraph two is more fluent? You too can achieve this fluency in your writing, if you learn to vary the way in which you start your sentences. Examples of ways to vary sentence beginnings: Start with a PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE: Ken ran the race with a smile because he knew he would win. With a smile, Ken ran the race knowing he would win. Start with a PARTICIPLE (-ing /-ed) PHRASE: Knowing he would win, Ken ran the race with a smile. Start with a DEPENDENT CLAUSE: Because he knew he would win, Ken ran the race with a smile. Start with an ADJECTIVE / ADVERB: Happily, Ken ran the race knowing that he would win. Start with an INFINITIVE: To win, Ken ran the race smiling, sure of his success. These are just some of the many ways in which you can rearrange a sentence so that you don’t just start with the noun or pronoun. Transitional Words & Phrases Another way to keep your writing fluent and to vary your sentence beginnings is to use transitional words and phrases. EXAMPLES » in the first place » as a matter of fact » in like manner » in addition » coupled with » in the same fashion / way » first, second, third » in the light of » not to mention » to say nothing of » equally important » by the same token » again » however » therefore » on the one hand » also » then » equally » identically » uniquely » like » moreover » as well as » together with » of course » likewise » comparatively » correspondingly » similarly » furthermore » additionally
