•Open with an adverb. Notice the comma. Sample adverbs: quickly, rapidly, slowly, painfully, ironically, angrily, sadly, happily.
---Enthusiastically, Debbie discusses fishing, figure skating and frisbees.
---Angrily, Mithil Munshi threw his alarm clock across the room when it rang loudly at the early hour of 11:00 A.M.
---Happily, Hassan runs kites for Amir.
---
•Open with an adjective. Notice the comma.
---Weak and weary, Dung stumbles into the classroom.
---Bewildered, Mithil Munshi finds himself trapped in a Toyota Camry.
---Perplexed, Hamlet struggles to avenge his father.
---Hungry, the bear searches for honey.
---Satisfied, the thief surveyed his loot.
---Contententedly, Brutus hummed and polished his dagger.
•Open with a prepositional phrase. Notice the comma. Prepositions tell time (after, at, before, by, during, in, until), position (above, across, against, among, around, behind, beneath, upon), direction (along, down, from, into, over, through, toward, up), means (by, with, without).
---With great kindness, Mithil thanked Mr. Bowen for all of his work with video production.
---With absurd idiocy, the San Francisco 49ers gave Alex Smith a contract extension.
---In 5 minutes, the school bell will ring.
---At the ball, Lizzy meets Darcy.
---Across the universe, a star winked out of existence.
---Beside the cavernous tomb, wildflowers wept.
•Open with an adjective and a prepositional phrase. Notice the comma.
---Happy with her senior project, Brianna gave her teacher a “thumbs up.”
---Distracted by an AT&T customer, Alex Riad looked in horror as his favorite suit burned on the ironing board.
---Lost in thought, I walked into a pole.
---Bewildered by complex commands, the directionally challenged zebra collided with an ice-cream truck.
•Open with a verb. Remember this pattern is associated with dialogue. yelled, asked, laughed, cried, screamed, declared, said.
---Shouted Mr. Bengford, “Strike the set!”
---Exclaimed Katie Johnson, "Jump rope is a sport!"
---Thought Nick, "I don't understand how the Patriots lost to the Giants in the Super Bowl?"
---Cried Romeo “I defy you, stars!”
---Concluded Mercutio, "I really got the sore end of this deal."
•Use an appositive. a noun phrase that describes another noun. Phrase is set off by commas.
---Mr. Evans, my English teacher, is too hyper (ADD?).
---The Beatles, an influential rock group, performed their last live concert in San Francisco.
---Michelle Stowell, an incredibly studious student, lost some of her credibilty when she admitted to watching the anime show, Naruto.
---William Shakespeare, the author of 37 plays, was born at Stratford-upon-Avon.
---Peter Pan, the boy who never grows up, whispered, “To fly would be an awfully big adventure.”
---Kermit, a possessed toy frog, brings laughter and joy to children around the world.
•Use a semi-colon. 2 sentences that are similar/related are combined.
---Vidya likes The Office; Katie Jo cherishes Saved by the Bell.
---Diane Hoang loves Clay Aiken; Mr. Evans raves about the Beatles.
---Cats love to play with mice; dogs enjoy chasing cats.
---Some are sweetly cheerful and eternally kind; others are Paris Hilton.
•Use a colon. Place a colon at the end of a sentence to focus the reader’s attention on a word or phrase.
---The saddest day for the AP English teacher comes in June: graduation.
---Shan Aggarwal lives for one food: steak.
---The candidate had one goal: universal healthcare
---In the past, Americans fought for one reason: freedom.
---There is one ultimate power which few can resist: Captain Planet! (He's our hero!)
•Open with a present infinitive. To (an infinitive) is added to a verb in the present tense. To be, to listen, to respond.
---To earn a high grade, Abe brought his teacher root beer and cool ranch doritos.
---To prove that she is truly insane, Britney Spears re-shaved her head.
---To get great seats at the concert, Josh waited in line at the ticket booth for three straight days.
---To solve a mystery, detectives must gather myriad evidence.
---To find the clue, we have to use our minds and take a step at a time.
•Open with a present participle. -the “-ing” of a verb. Examples: drumming, twisting, launching, spelunking. Serves like a verb and an adjective, like a verb expresses an action, like an adjective.
---Sprinting for another score, Reggie gave USC a 45 point lead over UCLA.
---Watching in horror, Chelsea Franza sees that her backpack has been excessively taped to her desk.
---Crying “Wolf!”, the young boy ran down the hill.
---Spitting out beefy meat bits, Upton Sinclair declares his eternal dedication to vegetarianism.
•Use parallel structure.
---Noun with adjective---The ecstatic boy, the energetic girl, and the apprehensive mother went to the amusement park.
---Nouns---At Projekt Revolution, Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, and Placebo performed for thousands of screaming fans.
--- Brian's purse, makeup, and evening gown all perfectly matched his guitar.
---Verbs---Jimmy ran to the ball, picked it up, and threw it at Bob.
--- Bob ran to Jimmy, picked him up, and threw him at the house.
---Adverbs---Slyly, swiftly, and silently the robber broke into the house and took the jewelry.
---Stealthily, cunningly, methodically the burglar stole the cookie from the cookie jar.
---Adjectives---When I saw the long, smooth, venomous snake, I ran.
---After realizing that the itsy, bitsy, teeny-weeny bikini didn't fit, I became enraged at all yogurt.
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