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3) Beginning with an ‘ly’ word
For this third example of sentence variety, we begin the sentence with an adverb (an
‘ly’ word) which gives us more detail on how the verb is performed. For example:
Happily, Mr Bruff wrote a 15,000 word revision guide over the holiday.
So what would it look like if you were to use these three types of sentence variety in an
exam response? Well, let me take part of the article from earlier in this chapter and edit the
structure of some of the sentences.
This is our starting text:
Copyright MrBruff.com
Without the adverb ‘happily’, the reader
would have no idea how I felt about making
the eBook. On top of that, it again avoids
having to start your sentence with the
subject.
‘In a recent article Michele Hanson argued that her ‘make do and mend’ generation knew
something about how to save the environment. Of course, what she failed to mention was
why they were make do and mending in the first place: World War 2. Oh yes, whilst Mrs
Hanson was washing her tin-foil, Mr Hanson was being shipped off the Poland, destroying
natural landscapes with tanks, clogging up the Polish air with fuel emissions from the
machinery of war (not to mention the killing).’
Here’s the same text with some sentence variety added in:
Disillusioned and despondent, Michele Hanson recently argued that her ‘make do and
mend’ generation knew something about how to save the environment. Curiously, what she
failed to mention was why they were make do and mending in the first place: World War 2.
Hoping to be economical, Mrs Hanson was washing her tin-foil whilst Mr Hanson was being
shipped off the Poland, destroying natural landscapes with tanks, clogging up the Polish air
with fuel emissions from the machinery of war (not to mention the killing).
The most notable thing here is that altering the sentence structure does not alter the
content of your answer – the content stays the same, but the quality of written
communication is dramatically improved.
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