IELTS composition: An introduction to ways to diversify the beginning of sentences

IELTS composition: An introduction to ways to diversify the beginning of a sentence

In many years of writing teaching, the author found that many IELTS candidates are unable to diversify the sentence structure in their writing. Many candidates struggle with this and don't know where to start practicing to diversify the sentences in the article. In fact, we can diversify our sentences with different sentence starters.

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Experts from the Overseas Examination Research Center believe that you should not always use the subject-verb-object structural sequence when writing, but should try to expand it in different ways. a sentence. Different sentence beginnings can not only beautify the sentence, but also make the sentences transition naturally and connect naturally, so as to avoid relying too much on transition words. In the IELTS and new TOEFL exams, writing examiners also attach great importance to the diversity of sentence structures.

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Below, experts will introduce to the candidates several ways to diversify the beginning of sentences.

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Beginning of adverb

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(1) Adverb modifies the whole sentence

Luckily, he didn 't know my phone number; otherwise, he would bother me.

Incredibly, Helena got straight A in her school report this semester.

Interestingly, cats and dogs can hardly get along well in a house.

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Commonly used adverbs to modify the whole sentence are: obviously, undoubtedly, apparently, fortunately, clearly, unfortunately, incredibly, luckily, unluckily, surprisingly, frighteningly, etc. .

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Most of these adverbs express the speaker's view of the whole sentence, which is equivalent in meaning to ?It is... adjective that...?.

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For example:

Obviously, he is nervous about the test.

=It is obvious that he is nervous about the test. test.

Unfortunately, he tripped over and fell in the mud.

=It is unfortunate that he tripped over and fell in the mud.

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(2) Emphasis on adverbs

Hurriedly, the man drew me a scratch map to show me the direction.

Dangerously, the drunkard sped down the street. < /p>

Slowly and gently, snowflakes were drifting down from the sky.

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(3) Adverbs indicate a certain region or a certain field

< p> Geographically, Canada is the biggest country in the world.

Financially, she is independent, but emotionally she is dependent.

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Beginning of parenthesis

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Begin with a parenthesis to express the speaker's attitude or make the meaning of the sentence more precise:

Strangely enough, Jennifer does not enjoy sunshine and beach.

Generally speaking, winter in Vancouver is gloomy.

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Similar parentheses are: no wonder, no doubt, in other words, in my opinion, in conclusion, in fact, as a matter of fact, etc.

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Starting with adjectives and adjective phrases

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Beginning with an adjective, coordinating adjective or adjective phrase to modify the subject of the sentence, Indicates the characteristics or state of the subject:

Frantic, the young mother rushed out the door with the baby in her arms.

Tasty and crisp, potato chip is a favorite snack for both children and adults.

Happy at his good marks at school, the little boy skipped on his way home.

Desperate and hopeless, the poor man committed suicide.

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Beginning of participles and participle phrases

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(1) Modify the subject of the sentence, indicating the state of the subject or another comparative state of the subject at the same time. Secondary action of predicate verb

Scared, the girl moved timidly and cautiously into the dark room. (state)

Cased by my dear pet cat, the mouse dashed into a small hole . (Status)

Spoiled by his parents, the naughty boy always insists on things he wants. (Status)

Puffing and hugging, he finished his run. (Another action)

Looking at herself in the mirror, she fingered her silk scarf on her shoulder. (another action)

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(2) Modify the predicate verb, Expressing reason, time, etc.

Lying down on the couch, he felt much relaxed. (time)

Feeling bored, she turned on the TV and switched from channel to channel. (reason )

Wanting to find out the business hour, she called the store. (reason)

Having completed the form, he mailed it out immediately. (time)

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Start with a prepositional phrase

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Start with a prepositional phrase

, indicating the time, place, manner, reason, condition, etc. of the occurrence of the predicate verb of the sentence:

On seeing him approach, the girl immediately turned her face to a shop window pretending to look at something there. (Time)

Around the corner, a crowd gathered.

Unlike his father, Peter touches neither cigarettes nor alcohol.

Due to the limit of seats, he was not accepted. (reason)

In case of fire, use the stairways. (condition)

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Beginning with the infinitive< /p>

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Beginning with the infinitive of the verb, emphasizing the purpose of the action of the predicate verb:

To celebrate the arrival of the Millennium, we held a grand party in the hotel.

To show my trust on him, I deposited $ 10,000 into his bank account.

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Beginning of an independent participle phrase

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Begin with an independent participle phrase to give the sentence a formal feel:

Birds singing in the tree, another routine day starts.

Sea gulls flying over the water, the old fisherman flung his fishing meat into the open sea.

A dog following them, the police searched every suspect.

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Beginning of transitional sentence

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Begin with a transitional sentence to indicate the relationship between this sentence and the previous and following sentences:

Consequently, I slowed down to avoid a fine ticket.

In fact, she was a kindhearted woman.

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Beginning of appositive

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A signing officer of the bank, Jane signs her name hundreds of times each day at work.

A TV addict, Jim watches TV movies one after another

every evening until after midnight.

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Beginning of an adverb clause

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Beginning with an adverb clause to indicate the occurrence of the predicate verb in the main clause Time, place, reason, method, conditions, etc.:

When you are in need of help, give me a call.

Wherever you go, I follow.

Since your children love hamburgers and fries, we might as well eat in MacDonald.

As if it were summer, everybody wear shorts and a T-shirt.

In case that you get lost, call me at this number.

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Beginning with a noun clause

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Beginning with a noun clause as The subject of the whole sentence:

Whether you take the position or not makes great difference to me.

Why I am unhappy is something I can't explain.

What they should do about the hole in the roof is their most pressing problem.

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From the many sentence starting methods and examples introduced above, we can understand the sentence structure Diversity of change. If candidates can master the above methods, they will find that we have changed from the most commonly used sentence patterns with nouns and pronouns as subjects to such a variety of sentence starters. At the same time, it is no longer difficult to flexibly use sentence structures to diversify sentence structures.