Writing Clearly

Using a Variety of Sentence Structures

Using the same sentence structure to express your ideas over and over leads to a monotonous reading experience. Moreover, using a mix of sentence structures is an effective way to give some ideas more emphasis than others and to establish specific relationships between various ideas. Thus, varying your sentences helps you communicate more clearly, and the GRE essay scorers look for this feature in your writing.

Here are four common sentence structures:

TYPE	DESCRIPTION	EXAMPLE
Simple sentence	One independent clause (one subject, one predicate)	The new product is unlikely to be profitable.
Compound sentence	Two independent clauses (joined by a coordinating conjunction)	The new product is unlikely to be profitable, and management should not invest in its development.
Complex sentence	One independent clause, one dependent clause (joined by a subordinating conjunction)	Because the new product is unlikely to be profitable, management should not invest in its development.
Compound-complex sentence	Two independent clauses, one with an associated dependent clause	Because the new product is unlikely to be profitable, management should not invest in its development, but other new products may show more promise.

• MONOTONOUS: The government should take care of all its citizens. The poorest citizens should be guaranteed a basic standard of living. They should receive food and shelter. Children should be given an education.
• INTERESTING: The government should take care of all its citizens, guaranteeing even the poorest a basic standard of living. They should receive food and shelter, and children should be given an education as well.

Note that when you use non-simple sentences, your choice of connecting words is very important because it tells the reader the direction of your thinking: Are you continuing your thought with a discussion of a closely related idea or a consequence of the first idea? Or are you turning toward a new or contrasting idea? The road signs you look for as a reader in the Verbal section of the test, where they are clues to the author’s meaning, are the same road signs you will use as a writer of GRE essays to help readers understand your meaning.

• EXAMPLE: Although the government should take care of all its citizens, it should guarantee the poorest no more than a basic standard of living. While children should be given an education, adults should receive only food and shelter.

Even though most of the words are the same, by rearranging sentence structures and using different connecting words, the writer in this example is making a different point than the writer in the “interesting” example above.

Using a Variety of Sentence Structures Practice Set

Revise the passages to vary the sentence structure.

1. Many plant and animal species benefit humans directly. Some as-yet undiscovered species may benefit us in unknown ways. Every species should be saved from extinction if possible.

2. The bread riots of medieval Europe were not political in nature. Hungry peasants ransacked their lords’ grain silos to get food. The peasants did not envision overthrowing the feudal order.