ELA6, CSS, Sferrazza

Mini-Lesson: Look at sentence variety. 

Sentence variety is important. How can you vary sentences?

• You can vary sentences by adding the occasional question or exclamation.
• You can vary sentence length. Include some short, some medium, and some longer (but not "too long" or "run-on") sentences.
• You can vary the way you start sentences. (A common error is to start more than one sentence in a paragraph with "I", "Then", or "Next". Please do not overuse these words!)

Here are some options for varying the way you start:

1. Subject (who or what is doing something; examples - person's name, he, she, it or they)
2. Preposition (a word that shows position, time or location and is part of a phrase; examples -on, at, in, after, down, near... 
3.   Adverb (usually tells how, or when something happened and ends in -ly..... examples: unfortunately, eventually, suddenly
4.   -ing word  Example:  Screaming, the child fled from the malicious mad man. 
5. Clausal ( where,when, while, as, since, if, although)

Example: (Notice the underlined words) 

Seconds before (#2 - starting with a preposition) the old, faithful alarm blared a distorted top-forty through its tiny top speaker, the thick, burnt scent of roasted coffee tickled the tip of my nose. Wiping (#4 - starting with an "ing" word) away the grit of last night's sleep, the starch white sunlight blinded me momentarily as I slung my arm like an elephant trunk along the top of the alarm, searching for the snooze button. While (#5 - starting with a clausal word) stretching hands and feet to the four posts of my bed, my eyes opened after several watery blinks. I (#1 - starting with the subject) crawled out of the comforter, edging awkwardly like a butterfly from a cocoon, swinging my legs over the side of the bed. The dusty pebbles on the chilled, wood floor sent ripples spiraling from my ankles to the nape of my neck when my feet hit the floor. Grabbing (#4 - starting with an "ing" word) the apricot, terri-cloth robe, recently bathed in fabric softener and October wind, I knotted it tightly at my waist like a prestigious coat of armor. I was ready to battle! (short sentence, exclamation) 

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