+

Sentence Variety and Weak VerbsStyle sentences that provide a degree of complexity and charm to keep your reader engaged.

+"To Be" Verbs

Be (used with modals, after "to")

(imperative form)

Is, Are, Am (present tense)

's 're 'm (in contractions)

Was (past tense)

Were (past tense)

Been (past participle)

Being (-ing form, gerund)

+felt, looked, seemed…

Weak verbs that indicate a state of being.

He felt weak.

His body collapsed into a puddle of wet tears and wrinkled cotton shirts.

+Trying, starting, beginning

Just do it. Nike.

I’ll try to explain it.

Here goes. The dog died.

He began to swim.

He leapt into the pool and swam across its breadth.

She started to sing.

Holding her breath too long until the tension forced a reedy gasp from her throat, she killed the lyrics and stumbled off the stage.

+SIMPLE SENTENCE

A simple sentence, also called an independent clause, contains a subject and a verb, and it expresses a complete thought.

Example: The boy slept through the storm.

+COMPOUND SENTENCE

A compound sentence contains two independent clauses joined by a coordinator or semi-colon. The coordinators are as follows: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.  Except for very short sentences, a comma always precedes coordinators.

Example: The boy slept through the storm, and he never stirred once.

+COMPLEX SENTENCE

A complex sentence has an independent clause joined by one or more dependent clauses. A complex sentence always has a subordinator such as because, since, after, although, or when or a relative pronoun such as that, who, or which.

Example: While it stormed outside, the boy slept.

+COMPOUND/COMPLEX SENTENCES

A compound-complex sentence contains at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.

Example: While it stormed outside, the house shook and the windows rattled.