7 Ways to Vary Sentence Structure

Although readers may not consciously realize it, they look for
sentence variety when they delve into a book, news story, or
magazine article. One of the best writing tips a first-time author
can receive is to embrace varied sentence structure—no matter
your writing style. Here are some writing tips to inject sentence
variety into your work.

1. 1. Embrace short sentences. If your first sentence is a compound

sentence with multiple clauses, make your second sentence
short and simple. Shorter sentences are powerful when free
from vague words. Many great writers, from Ernest Hemingway
to Judy Blume, made their name on short sentences. There’s
a place in writing for wordy sentences, but short, clear
sentences help keep your reader engaged.
2. 2. Follow dense sentences with simple sentences. A dense sentence
might be one like a compound-complex sentence, which has at
least two independent clauses and at least one dependent
clause. Using compound-complex sentences are great, but two
in a row can be tedious. If you write one, follow it up with a
different type of sentence. For instance, you could write a
compound-complex sentence, like: “Frantic with hunger,
Marlene opened the refrigerator, for she knew there was
leftover soup inside.” That’s a nice long sentence, so it makes
sense to trail it with a simpler sentence, like: “Her stomach
rumbled.”
3. 3. Use the active voice when possible. Active voice verbs describe a
person doing something. “He caught the ball” is active. “The
ball was caught by him” says the same information using
passive voice, and it’s a less appealing sentence construction.
Sometimes you need to write a passive sentence to accurately
describe a situation, which is great for sentence variety, but
you’ll typically want to use the active voice.
4. 4. Use a variety of transition words. A transition word can be a
coordinating conjunction (“and,” “but,” “for,” etc.), a
subordinating conjunction (“although,” “because,” etc.) or a
conjunctive adverb (“however,” “therefore,” “moveover,” etc.).
These words are great as long as you vary them and don’t fall
back on pet phrases.
5. 5. Cut down on conjunctions by using semicolons. In a compound
sentence, two independent clauses are joined together—
typically with a coordinating conjunction. But in your quest for
varying sentence types, you can replace the conjunction with
 a semicolon after the first independent clause. The words will
retain their meaning, but you’ve added variety to your
sentence patterns.
6. 6. In persuasive writing, start paragraphs with a pithy thesis statement. A
thesis statement is the type of sentence that is direct and
declarative. Longer sentences can serve as theses, but
shorter tends to be better. Follow up these theses with more
descriptive sentences in the body of your paragraphs.
7. 7. Use rhetorical questions. Rhetorical questions are statements
phrased as questions intended to stimulate a reader’s mind.
For instance: “What if there was no such thing as war?” These
types of sentences have a place in both creative writing and
content writing. The key is to use them judiciously.