Sentence Variety

1
Sentence Variety

• Parallelism or Parallel Structure
• Review Practice
• Unit Test

2
Parallelism or Parallel Structure

• Parallelism or Parallel Structure is an effective
  way to add smoothness and power to your writing.
  Parallelism is a balance of two or more similar
  words, phrases, or clauses.
• 1- She likes dancing, swimming, and to jog.
• 2- She likes dancing, swimming, and jogging.
• Dancing, swimming, and jogging are parallel.
  They are each ing verbs, used here as nouns, and
  express parallel ideas.
• 1- The cable runs across the roof, the north wall
  where it runs down.
• 2- The cable runs across the roof and down the
  north wall.
• Across the roof and down the north wall are
  parallel prepositional phrases, each consisting
  of a preposition and its object.
• 1- He admires people with strong convictions and
  who think for themselves.
• 2- He admires people who have strong convictions
  and who think for themselves.
• In sentence 2, who have strong convictions and
  who think for themselves are parallel clauses
  beginning with the word who.

3
Sometimes two entire sentences can be parallel

• 1- In a democracy we are all equal before the
  law.
• 2- In a dictatorship we are all equal before the
  law.
• In what ways are these two sentences parallel?
• Certain special constructions require parallel
  structure
• 1 The fruit is both tasty and fresh.
• 2 He either loves you or hates you.
• 3- Paul not only plays golf but also swims like a
  pro.
• 4- I would rather sing in the chorus than perform
  a solo.
• Each construction has two parts both/and,
  (n)either/(n)or, not only/but also, and
  rather/than.
• The words, phrases, and clauses that follow each
  pair MUST ALSO be parallel tasty/fresh, loves
  you/hates you, plays golf/swims like a pro, and
  sing in the chorus/perform a solo.

4

• Rewrite each of the following sentences using
  parallel structure to accent parallel ideas
• 1 Teresa is a gifted woman a chemist, does
  carpentry, and she can cook.
• 2- The classroom was spacious and it had
  air-conditioning.
• 3- Chia, my dog, is overweight and moves
  clumsily.
• 4- He is an affectionate boyfriend, a dutiful
  son, and kind to his pets.
• 5- She is a woman of great talent and who is
  compassionate.
• 6- Jane is the funniest woman I know she has
  the most style of any woman I know
• 7- Joe would rather work on a farm than spending
  time in an office.

5
Now, write one sentence that is parallel to each
sentence below, creating pairs of parallel
sentences.

• 1- On Friday night, she dressed in silk and
  sipped champagne.
• 2- The child in me wants to run away from
  problems
• 3- The survivors were people who saw disaster as
  a challenge.
• 4- Work hard and keep your mouth shut is my
  mothers formula for success.
• 5- The home team charged enthusiastically onto
  the field..

6
Review and Practice

• Mixing short and long sentences.
• Adding an occasional question, command, or
  exclamation.
• Beginning with an adverb Unfortunately, the
  outfielder dropped the fly ball.
• Beginning with a prepositional phrase With great
  style, the pitcher delivered a curve.
• Joining ideas with a compound predicate The
  fans roared and banged their seats.
• Joining ideas with an ing modifier Diving chin
  first into the ground, Johnson caught the ball.

7
Review and Practice

• Joining ideas with a past participle modifier
  Frustrated by the call, the batter kicked dirt
  onto home plate.
• Joining ideas with an appositive Peanuts, the
  cause of much messiness, should not be sold at
  games.
• Joining ideas with relative clauses Box seats
  which are hard to get for important games, are
  frequently bought up by corporations.
• Use of parallel structure The batter swung,
  missed, and struck out.
• Mixing coordination and subordination
• The fans hissed (,but however) the
• umpire paid no attention.
• (Although) T(t)he fans hissed, (although) the
• umpire paid no attention.

8
Now, take a few minutes to look over your notes

• You will have a quiz over
• Sentence Variety shortly

9
Sentence Variety Test

• Revise and rewrite these paragraphs, using
  sentence variety in each. Vary the length and
  pattern of the sentences and vary the beginnings
  of some sentences. Join two sentences in any way
  you wish, adding appropriate connecting words or
  dropping unnecessary words. Punctuate correctly.
• 1 Our beagle loves to hunt. Someone opens the
  back door for her. She barrels down porch steps
  into the yard. She runs back and forth across
  the lawn in ecstasy. Her nose cruises the wet
  grass for smells. These are smells of cats,
  rabbit smells, and other presences too subtle for
  human detection. She sniffs. She spins her tail
  in quick circles. It spins clockwise first.
  Then it spins counterclockwise. These two
  activities always occur together. They are
  sniffing and spinning. They seem to propel her
  along.

10
Sentence Variety Test

• Revise and rewrite these paragraphs, using
  sentence variety in each. Vary the length and
  pattern of the sentences and vary the beginnings
  of some sentences. Join two sentences in any way
  you wish, adding appropriate connecting words or
  dropping unnecessary words. Punctuate correctly.
• 2 A man reaped Americas first fortune. He was
  John Jacob Astor. He was a German immigrant. He
  made his initial money trading Indian furs. He
  was lowborn, uneducated. Astor never learned to
  speak English properly. He carried on his
  business to the end in an accent. The accent was
  redolent of the Hamburg gutters.

11
Sentence Variety Test

• Revise and rewrite these paragraphs, using
  sentence variety in each. Vary the length and
  pattern of the sentences and vary the beginnings
  of some sentences. Join two sentences in any way
  you wish, adding appropriate connecting words or
  dropping unnecessary words. Punctuate correctly.
• The Government Printing Office in Washington
  D.C., is a source of much useful information.
  Few people know about it. It is the official
  publishing house for the federal government. The
  GPO publishes pamphlets and books on a vast
  number of subjects. These subjects range from
  the dangers of X-rays from home TV sets to the
  identification of mushrooms. About 27,000
  publications are offered through the
  Superintendent of Documents. Many of them are
  inexpensive. There is no charge at all for some
  of them.