Sentence Variety: Exercise

EXTRACT 2

"I continued for the remainder of the day in my hovel in a state of utter and stupid despair. My protectors had departed, and had broken the only link that held me to the world. For the first time the feelings of revenge and hatred filled my bosom, and I did not strive to control them; but, allowing myself to be borne away by the stream, I bent my mind towards injury and death. When I thought of my friends, of the mild voice of De Lacey, the gentle eyes of Agatha, and the exquisite beauty of the Arabian, these thoughts vanished, and a gush of tears somewhat soothed me. But again, when I reflected that they had spurned and deserted me, anger returned, a rage of anger; and, unable to injure anything human, I turned my fury towards inanimate objects. As night advanced, I placed a variety of combustibles around the cottage; and, after having destroyed every vestige of cultivation in the garden, I waited with forced impatience until the moon had sunk to commence my operations.”

            In this extract, there are predominantly PERIODIC SENTENCES. Examples:

- “allowing myself to be borne away by the stream, I bent my mind towards injury and death”.

- “unable to injure anything human, I turned my fury towards inanimate objects”.

- “after having destroyed every vestige of cultivation in the garden, I waited with forced impatience until the moon had sunk to commence my operations”.

            These sentences are periodic sentences because they create suspense, keeping the main clauses (darker ones) until the end; this encourages the reader to read on.

            But, there also are some LOOSE SENTENCES. Examples:

- “I continued for the remainder of the day in my hovel in a state of utter and stupid despair”.

-“My protectors had departed”.

            These are loose sentences because the main clause is at the beginning, without using a delay element.

            As you can see, the structure of simple, complex and compound sentences influence the effect of loose and periodic sentences. The loose sentences are commonly simple sentences, and the periodic sentences are commonly complex sentences.

            Finally, how do these sentences build the intended effect of the extract?

            These predominate sentences (periodic sentences) help to build a mysteriously paragraph, with the suspense by using the main clauses at the end.