When writing a paragraph, you want to make your writing as interesting as possible. Writing is more interesting if you use a variety of sentence styles. Here are the three basic types of sentence structure:
simple sentence – This sentence is one independent clause and has only one thing happening in it. A simple sentence may have one subject doing one thing, one subject doing two things, or two subjects doing one thing.
The dog barked. The dog barked and ran in circles. The big dog and the little dog both barked.
compound sentence – this sentence has two complete independent clauses (two simple sentences) joined by a comma and a coordinating conjunction (one of the FANBOYS)
The dog barked, and the bird chirped.
complex sentence – this sentence combines an independent clause with a subordinate clause to show two different things happening in the sentence. The subordinate clause begins with a subordinating conjunction.
While the dog barked, the bird chirped.
In order to make your writing more interesting, try to use all three of these sentence structure types.
▶Now you try it. Rewrite this group of sentences so that you have written a simple sentence, a compound sentence and a complex sentence. Bob is my dog. Jack is my dog. Jack is a big dog. Bob is a small dog. The dogs bark every time the doorbell rings. I go to school. I come home from school. I feed the dogs.