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Vary Sentence Structure and
Length
6 Vary sentence structure and length.
One surefire way to keep a reader’s interest is to vary sentence
structure and length. If you fall into the habit of writing one-clause
sentences that all have the subject first, followed immediately by the
verb, your writing may fall into an unfortunate sing-song pattern. By
the same token, if your sentences are all approximately the same
length, inject some variety. Surprise the reader with a short, pithy
sentence. Throw in a question. Begin a sentence with a prepositional
phrase.
Varying your sentences is a skill that you will develop as you practice
writing. It will come naturally as you become a better writer. For now, if
you are not satisfied with the sentence variety in your essays, try
editing your papers for sentence variety after you have written them.
In the following paragraph, all sentences have similar structure and
length:
