Do you feel like you are being pushed to your limits when you have to write? You don’t know where to begin? Your sentences are always identical?
Before we start discussing the possible solutions for this confounding issue, let’s first take a look at the example given below.
Alex was sauntering back home from school. He heard the distant rumbling of thunder. He searched his backpack for his umbrella. He realised that he had forgotten his umbrella at school. Alex was terrified of thunderstorms. He ran towards his home as fast as he could.’
First of all, make sure that you carry an umbrella with you wherever you go. The second and the most crucial thing – please don’t start all your sentences agreeing with the subject-verb-object rule you were taught in elementary school. It is grammatically correct, but at this point, to be honest, no one really cares whether Alex has reached home safe and sound.
What if we tell you that there are many secrets up our sleeve to avoid this awkward situation? We don’t mind spilling the beans with you. Let’s see if we can make poor Alex’s story a bit more appealing.
a) You can start your sentence with onomatopoeia (sound word). Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically resembles the sound it describes.
‘Clap! The sudden rumbling of thunder startled him.’
b) Another way to start your sentence is by using adverbs ending with ‘ly’. Don’t forget to use a comma after that.
‘Frantically, he fished around his backpack for his umbrella.’
c) Adjectives are also good sentence starters. You must always put a comma after an opening adjective.
‘Perturbed and dejected, he gave up his search realising that he had left it at school.’
d) Begin the sentence with a prepositional phrase. A prepositional phrase is a group of words consisting of a preposition, its object and any words that modify the object.
‘With his backpack flopping, he ran as fast as he could.’
e) Start the sentence by describing when or where the event is happening.
‘Down the Abbey Lane, he sprinted like a wild hare.’
Now let’s rewrite the entire paragraph.
‘Alex was sauntering back home from school. Clap! The sudden rumbling of thunder startled him. Frantically, he fished around his backpack for his umbrella. Perturbed and dejected, he gave up his search realising that he had left it at school. With his backpack flopping, he ran as fast as he could. Down the Abbey Lane, he sprinted like a wild hare.’
Well, what do you think? The difference is apparent, right? Next time you are asked to write a sentence, we are sure that it will be a cakewalk for you. Happy writing!