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📘 Why every sentence should not march

You walk to the slide. You sit. You eat your sandwich. You walk home. Every sentence starts with you. Every sentence is a tiny drum hit, then another, then another. After four of them a listener already knows the next one is coming. Purdue'

5
lessons
~25 min
to learn
Adults
level
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What you’ll learn

  1. When every sentence marchesHear when a paragraph uses the same sentence length and opening over and over, and name the four clause patterns and the three Grade 5 moves: expand, combine, reduce.A metronome is not a song. Same structure, same length, same start puts a reader to sleep. Grade 5 asks you to expand, combine, and reduce so the page has a pulse.
  2. Stretch the thin onesExpand a simple sentence with adjectives, adverbs, and phrases without adding a second clause, and vary a sentence opening while keeping the same fact.Dogs bark can become Dogs bark louder after midnight and still be simple. The thirsty girl drank lemonade. Fifteen doors can open the same Super Bowl coincidence.
  3. Glue what belongs togetherCombine two related sentences into a compound sentence with FANBOYS or a complex sentence with because, when, or although, and fold extra facts into an appositive or relative clause.And makes equals. Because makes a reason. A period hides the relationship. A hinge shows it. An appositive or a who/which clause folds a leftover sentence into the noun.
  4. Cut the extra wordsReduce a wordy sentence by firing empty words, folding a one-job sentence into its neighbor, and recognizing primer, stringy, and tangled style.Twenty-two words can become ten. Ludwig's three castles do not need a second sentence for the number three. Choppy, stringy, and tangled each want a different repair.
  5. Change how it startsVary sentence length and openings in a paragraph you already wrote, using a five-step hunt that starts with reading aloud.Short sentences land after long ones. If more than two openings match, change one. Tonight, rewrite five sentences and ask whether the next one earned its shape.

Questions this course answers

The clown frightened the little girl, and she ran off screaming. What kind of sentence is this?

The clown frightened the little girl is a complete thought. She ran off screaming is another. And joins those equals, so the sentence is compound. Purdue uses this circus pair as the model.

Match each revision to the Grade 5 move it used

Expand tucks a leftover fact inside the same clause. Combine glues two thoughts and shows how they belong. Reduce fires words that do no work. Varying the opening changes the first door without needing a new fact.

Put the paragraph hunt in the order you should use it

Hear the march first, see the repeated openings, count the clauses, then make one deliberate move. Changing words before you hear the beat is how you tangle a paragraph that was only a little choppy.

Choose the word that names a clause that can stand alone

An independent clause has a subject, a verb, and a complete thought, so it can stand alone. A dependent clause leans. Compound means two independents sharing a hinge.

The weather was perfect. The girls were playing soccer. Which revision makes the second fact a reason for the first?

And makes two equals. Adding in the park only expands place. Because makes the weather the reason. The last option is two fragments, not a sentence.

In your own words, why can a very short sentence be the strongest one in a paragraph?

Purdue says short sentences can maximize a crucial point, and long ones carry a lot of information. The King rewrite lands on They really are kings after a long run. The short line works because the lines around it are not also short.

Grounded in trusted sources

  • Purdue OWL, Strategies for Variation, https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/sentence_variety/index.html
  • Purdue OWL, Sentence Types, https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/sentence_variety/sentence_types.html
  • Purdue OWL, For Short, Choppy Sentences, https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/sentence_variety/for_short_choppy_sentences.html
  • Purdue OWL, Concision, https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/conciseness/index.html
  • Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts, Language Grade 5, L.5.3.a Expand, combine, and reduce sentences for meaning, reader/listener interest, and style, https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/L/5/
  • Towson University Writing Support Program, Kinds of Sentences and Their Punctuation, https://webapps.towson.edu/ows/sentences.aspx
  • Towson University Writing Support Program, Sentence Combining, https://webapps.towson.edu/ows/moduleSENTCOMB.aspx
  • LibreTexts / Chabot College, 8.5 Using Sentence Variety, https://human.libretexts.org/Courses/Chabot_College/College_Success_and_Advanced_ESL_Writing/08%3A_Achieving_Your_Final_Draft/8.05%3A_Using_Sentence_Variety

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