IELTS TOEFL Essay Writing - How to Achieve Sentence Variety

hi welcome to right to top I'm Adam in today's video we're going to look at sentence variety we're going to have a bit of an introduction into sentence types but we're also going to look at different ways that you can make your sentences varied you can have different types of sentences within each sentence type now before I get into it I just want you to understand this is a bit of a complicated lesson it might seem a little bit Advanced to some of you but it's very important that you understand how you can change a sentence's composition how to make use of different elements to get Variety in your sentences make your writing a little bit more interesting and especially for those of you taking the IELTS TOEFL or any English exam where you have to write an essay how to get the sentence variety points okay because they're looking for different types of sentences they don't want to see only simple sentences so let's get right into it and look at the sentence types now I will say to you right now that there will be individual lessons for each of these types so we can get a little bit more deeply involved in each but for today I just want to give you a bit of an introduction make sure you understand the four types what they consist of and what we can do with them so a simple sentence contains only one independent clause now this independent clause can come in different forms it could be just a subject and a verb it could be a subject and a predicate meaning a subject a verb and an object verb and complement verb and adverbial Etc so there are different types of independent clauses but again I'll look at that more deeply in its own video a complex sentence has one independent clause and at least one dependent clause dependent clauses noun clause adjective Clause adverb clause that complement Clause again another video and different videos for each one of those clauses a compound sentence has at least two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction and but or so Etc and a compound complex two independent clauses with a compound with a coordinating conjunction and at least one dependent clause so at least three clauses so now the main thing to understand is that you can have sentence variety by using different ones different types of sentences like these make sure that you don't have all simple sentences that's a very boring read for the person reading it it's very it's very monotonous it's like the same same same sometimes having a few simple sentences together has a purpose you can create Pace you can create flow you can create emphasis but in a overall essay you don't want to have only one type of sentence because it's very boring for the reader to read plus again for those of you taking the test you're going to lose points for that try to have different sentence types so let's look at examples the economy for simple the economy has recovered subject verb subject economy has recovered verb that's a complete sentence complete idea independent clause you can also make it SVO subject verb object the economy has regained regained what it's upward momentum okay subject verb object still a simple sentence complex the economy which had been stagnant has recovered the economy adjective Clause giving you a little bit of information about the economy and then your verb compound the economy has recovered but job listings have remained stagnant so the economy has recovered period complete sentence job listings have remained stagnant period complete sentence join them together with a conjunction but and you have a compound sentence compound complex the economy which had been stagnant for some time has finally shown signs of growth but job listings nevertheless remain flat the economy has finally shown signs of growth independent clause which had been stagnant adjective clause about the economy and again but job listings and other independent clause with a coordinating conjunction now these are all very basic sentences and for example the complex sentences I will tell you right now the most common dependent clause that people use is the adjective clause and the adverb clause with although or when try to have different ones if you can especially the noun Clauses people don't use noun Clauses enough in their essays so just keep all these in mind now people often ask me how do I make a simple sentence complex it's actually very simple add an independent sorry add a dependent clause right Jeff bought a car with his father's gift money Jeff subject bot verb what a car object how with his father's gift money but you have an independent clause only with some modifiers Jeff bought a car with the gift money which gift money that his father gave him adjective clause and you have a complex sentence but when they're talking about census variety on these exams that's not what they're talking about they don't want to just have very simple simple sentences and very simple complex sentences or I shouldn't say simple I'm going to use the words basic and elaborate okay and I'll show you what I mean in a moment these are very easy sentences these are the sentences that everybody tries to use on their exams and you know what it doesn't get you the extra points because they're very easy so I'm going to show you different elements that you can use besides the different sentence types to get Variety in your writing to make your writing more sophisticated more interesting and have a lot of power in terms of controlling the pace that emphasis the details all these things so let's get started with that okay so when we're talking about sentence variety there are a few things that you can do to make your sentences varied you can change your sentence type simple complex compound Etc you can also change the composition or the Styles so placement where you put information where you put your modifiers is very important in terms of the meaning or the style or the tone that you want to set in your writing now modifiers are anything that changes or adds to to the meaning of like let's say a subject or something else right we're gonna look at that more specifically so and there are different elements you have different parts of speech that you can use you have different tools in the grammar in the language basically that you can apply to make for example a independent clause seem very sophisticated I'm going to look at what I call Basic and elaborate sentences basic means like it's just very you know simple and doesn't have too much to it it has the minimum requirement basically you have the elements of the independent clause you finish your sentence you move on to the next sentence elaborate means you're adding a lot more information you have very detailed Rich modifiers now what what can be a modifier what can be used to add information to change something to show a sort of relationship you have all kinds of phrases gerund phrases noun phrases you have participles again different video for the phrases I'll show you all the different types that you can use and how to use them linking words or adverbials like however nevertheless all of these things in addition furthermore participles these are ing or Ed words that basically contain a subject and a verb inside of them and you have to know how to use these as well a separate lesson adverbs prepositions so lots of different elements that you can use and I'm going to show you some good examples of sentences that went from basic to elaborate but maintained their sentence type okay so let's look at a simple example a simple sentence meaning one independent clause so look at look at a basic sentence Trevor based his decision on several criteria now you want to know what did what did he have to decide on what were the criteria when did he do it all these things so I have a very basic sentence seven words in it only and I can have different sentences with all the other information or I can have a very elaborate sentence this one has 45 words one sentence and it has all the information that I need before deciding on the most suitable school for his chosen course of study Trevor weighed all the positives and negatives of each School according to several criteria including their professors national rankings and rates of graduate employment not to mention the tuition and living costs now the first thing I want you to notice about this sentence yeah it's very long but that's not what I want you to notice there is only one clause in the entire sentence Trevor weighed all the positives and negatives of each school that is your independent clause that is the only clause which means that this is a simple sentence it looks very long it looks very complicated or complex or however you want to see it but it's a simple sentence lots of modifiers before deciding on you have a participle the school for his chosen course of study the most suitable school okay that would have been enough but I added a part of a prepositional phrase for his chosen course of study according to so basically I'm adding more information the criteria including participle all the different things in the list and then at the end not to mention so this is basically a linking I'm adding a little bit something with a bridge phrase to it but still a simple sentence now let's look at another example I'm still going to look at the simple sentence I'm going to look at basic the Zeus manager management team was sent to the San Diego Zoo one the team comprised not only the chief Handler but the CEO CFO and a group of senior managers so right right away I have an inversion so I'm already adding a little bit of variety they were sent there in an effort to upgrade the zoo's operational structure and to ensure the best possible care for both its animals and their handlers they were sent to San Diego's famous facilities to undergo specialized training in modern husbandry taking care of animals and such as well they participated in seminars on the business of zoo and theme park operations and Logistics lots of information there five sentences 88 words in total now is this what you want to present in your essay you could there's nothing wrong with it but simple sentence simple sentence simple sentence Etc each one has an independent clause only so look what I did with all of this information here I have the same information I have one sentence believe it or not this is all one sentence 72 Words which means I cut out 16 words so I already did something good because if you can say something in four words don't use six brevity is a good is a tool basically it's a good weapon for a writer try to say as much as you can with as few words as you can but that that basically means you have to include all these different elements and get your variety so I'm not going to actually read it out to you it's all the same information you can press pause on your video player read it slowly and carefully but the main thing I want you to notice here is that even though this is one sentence there is still only one independent clause in this sentence no other Clauses okay so what I did here I took a comprising is the only thing that I changed I took the verb and subject and I squished it or I squeezed it sorry I should say it's a better word into a participle that way I maintain phrases only it's all modifiers phrases linking words Etc I kept all the same information and I have one sentence now do I recommend that you try to do this absolutely not do not do this imagine you're writing a 300 or so word essay if this is 72 words that's almost a quarter of your essay on one sentence you don't want to do that okay if you're writing a 10 page essay yeah I absolutely have once in a while you can have something like this don't do it too often now the main reason I don't recommend it having a sentence this long is very it's very easy to make mistakes along the way it's very easy to lose connections it's very easy to misplace a modifier in such a way that The Logical connection breaks and then the whole sentence falls apart because the reader gets confused and doesn't know what what's going on doesn't know how to follow the information so it gets a little bit confusing also it's a little bit demanding on the reader because the reader now has to carefully read the sentence make sure he or she reads piece by piece to get the whole information so if you find yourself writing a sentence that's overly long split it at least into two separate sentences something this long I would even split into three but here it is split into two different sentences notice I only added two words so after training I have a period and then I have the team that's the only thing I added I have two sentences each one with one independent clause two simple sentences all the information remains so the reason you don't want to have a long sentence as well run on sentences are very common I've seen lots of test takers have run on sentences now a run on sentence is a sentence that has at least two independent clauses but no conjunction so is where it should have been split it wasn't so you have the thing just keeps running on one on to the other and it doesn't make sense surprisingly it's also very easy to have a sentence fragment meaning that you you're missing a subject or you're missing a verb and therefore you don't have a complete Clause okay so very careful when you're writing long sentences but try to have one or two of these longer sentences in your essays for a little bit higher scores now if you're aiming for a six or a 6.5 let's say an IELTS you don't really need to get too deep into sentences like this if you want to get the eight you need to have at least you have to at least demonstrate that you can write some more elaborate sentences okay now what you can do is just the easiest thing to do is just add a dependent clause in here somewhere or another independent and change the sentence type but still use a lot of modifiers to make it a little bit more elaborate so let's look at the next one so let's look at uh let's look at a complex sentence and I'm going to do the same thing I'm going to go from basic to elaborate and just all I'm doing is just adding information without adding extra Clauses or changing the essential uh independent clause the author whose best-selling book The Garden has been on the New York Times bestsellers list for over 18 months has announced the release date for her upcoming Memoir okay so I have a independent the author has announced the release and I have uh adjective class who's best-selling book now all I'm gonna do is just add some more information and I'm going to add another dependent clause or more the author whose best-selling book The Garden has been on the New York Times bestsellers list for over 18 months has announced that their release date for her upcoming Memoir which many critics have already hailed is the must read book of the summer will be delayed until the fall so the author has announced announced what that now I'm giving you a noun clause okay as an object to announce to what so the object to announced inside the noun clause I have an adjective clause which many critics okay so the key if what you should be practicing is putting Clauses inside Clauses dependent clauses inside in the dependent clauses which work with an independent clause dependent inside dependent working with independent again I know it's not easy all of this stuff will be laid out in more detail in separate videos but for now I just want you to be able to look at this at least I want you to recognize what is happening now a lot of you will be doing a lot of very heavy reading very academic reading this is the kind of stuff you're going to see this is the kind of stuff you're going to have to work with and analyze and basically separate into its different pieces so that you end understand the message remember the independent clause always carries the core message everything else is modifying everything else is adding information changing relationships Etc you have to understand how to look at this compound now generally I don't recommend making a basic compound sentence into an elaborate one it's very easy to get to make mistakes here if you want to add an extra independent clause go ahead generally I personally when I write I try not to have three independent clauses in one sentence I'll have two and then I'll put the third one into its own sentence with other information it's very easy to get confused it's very easy to make the reader confused but regular exercise helps to build muscles and a proper diet provides these muscles with the nutrients for this growth so very basic two very basic independent clauses now if you want to add some sort of variety and if you want to make it a little bit more elaborate don't worry about too many Clauses change the style of the writing change the elements you're using so instead of regular exercise exercise being a simple noun I change it to a gerund exercising regularly regular becomes regularly exercise becomes exercising helps the body build muscles now because I changed the first one to a gerund and I have and I want to have a parallel structure it creates a bit more of a balance it creates a bit of more a better flow for the reader so and eating properly allows these muscles to get the nutrients necessary for sustained growth I'm adding a little bit more sustained growth instead of just growth okay I'm giving a little bit making a little bit more detail rich so a person needs to do both in order to maintain a fit physique and I'm giving you a concluding uh conclusion another independent clause three independent clauses again that's more of a writer's choice I personally don't like to do it not wrong if you want to go ahead compound complex many legal experts believe her story and they think that the attorney general has a duty to investigate okay many legal experts believe her story independent clause and they think so now I'm already they think is already in your second independent clause joined by and so there's your compound what do they think that the attorney general has a duty to investigate so noun clause as object to think two Independence one dependent basic uh compound complex sentence elaborate just start loading information in it more Clauses more uh phrases more modifiers Etc although many legal experts believe that her story is credible and that the attorney general has a duty to investigate so I that her story is credible and that the Attorney General so two noun Clauses as objects to believe all inside an adverb clause beginning with although most of them also understand there's your independent clause what another noun clause that inside the noun clause I have again an adverb clause if that if the details of the story were made public it would ruin the careers of many of the nation's top politicians now I have another adjective clause about politicians many of whose names have been linked to this candle so and now I have another compound uh another independence with a compound with a coordinating conjunction so they want this investigation to be conducted and private and handled internally now again if you want to try to write these kinds of sentences absolutely try it practice but remember it takes practice and just be very careful if you want if you're not sure that everything is full and correct and proper first thing you want to do is count all your verbs for every tense verb not infinitive like two verbs or base verbs no all uh tensor verbs the ones that take a Time past present future make sure that you have a subject to go with them if you don't something's missing okay now then make sure that every subject and and ver subject and verb combination is part of one um Clause so if you have so many Clauses make sure that you have the Clause conjunctions like although or that or if or which right so everything has to have a proper place a proper structure and everything has to work together and everything has to be logically connected right if the reader is reading and gets lost halfway through your sentence you've written a bad sentence if you've written a bad sentence you've written a bad paragraph if you've written a bad paragraph you've written a bad essay okay everything is connected to everything else you have to be very careful about this now again the main the main thing I want you to take away from this particular lesson is not to try to write long sentences like this I want you to be able to read long sentences like this and understand exactly what is happening what the subjects are what the verbs are what the independent clauses are what the core message is what the external message or messages are okay so a little bit tricky a little bit complicated it just takes practice now the most important thing you have to remember about all of this in order to make these elaborate sentences you have to very clearly understand what a phrase is what types or phrases there are how to use them where to place them what their function is some of them are very specific functions you have to know the linking word the transition words you have to know how adverbs work you have to know how participles work not enough people use participles in their writing study the participles they are very very important they give you so much leverage leverage basically means they let you do so many different things that give you so many options that your writing can only improve and get better and better and your scores go up and up now when you go to university and you will be writing 10 page papers for your professors they're going to want to see this these types of sentences especially in Academia they like long sentences there not necessarily good sentences they're just like long sentences but correct sentences so learn all the different parts you can go to my website right to top.com you have basically an introduction to all of these different elements there that you can get started with and again I will be making videos for each different element I am currently working on a writing course and the first unit it's a video course with workbooks and everything the first unit is the sentence where I go into very detail about all these all all these different uh elements and structures Etc I hope it will be ready by fall this year 2017 September hopefully and but I'll update you as we go along now if you have any questions about this by all means please ask Below in YouTube in the comments section or my Facebook page if you like this video give me a like if you liked it a lot subscribe to my channel lots more coming grammar vocab test tips Etc all this stuff so I hope to see you again very soon

Channel: Write to the Top

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Keywords: ielts, English writing, English, writing, language test, English test, task 2, IELTS academic essay, TOEFL, independent task, independent essay, how to write, essay writing, skills, reading, sentence structure, pass the IELTS, ielts high score, toefl high score, pass toefl, language skills, how to write an essay, better writing, writing skills, how to write in English, IELTS high band, sentence types, sentence variety, grammar

Id: sBEHGsHpoC0

Length: 24min 33sec (1473 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 10 2017