Read the passage. (1) edward ii, king of england from 1307 to 1327, was an ineffective ruler who was often at odds with his barons and with his wife, queen isabella, who objected to the way he treated the barons. (2) forced to resign by isabella and others who were loyal to her, edward left office. (3) succeeding him as king was his son, edward iii. (4) young edward, who was only 15, was king in name only. (5) the real rulers were the queen and roger mortimer, her sweetheart, both of whom had been instrumental in the ousting of edward ii. (6) in november of 1330, edward had roger mortimer executed, and shortly thereafter the young king assumed full power. which is the most effective way to vary the sentence patterns in the passage? divide sentence 1 into two or more sentences. invert sentence 3. vary the way the sentences begin. combine sentences to lengthen them.

sentences vary by structure as well as by function. there are compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences.

simple sentence

i like to read.

a simple sentence has one independent clause.

compound sentence

i like to read, and i also like to write.

a compound sentence includes more than one independent clause, connected by a coordinating conjunction (and, but, for, nor, or, so, or yet).

complex sentence

i prefer to read books that are bestsellers.

a complex sentence includes one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses. (a dependent clause is one that cannot stand alone.) types of dependent clauses include relative clauses (i kicked the boy who pinched me), adverb clauses (i am going home now because i have a curfew), and noun clauses (i don't know what to do next).

compound-complex sentence

although i prefer to read current bestsellers, i do like to read old agatha christie mysteries, and i also like some 20th-century science fiction.

compound-complex sentences take a bunch of clauses (multiple independent clauses, and one or more dependent clauses) and toss them together like a salad. although these sentences take practice to write in a grammatically correct fashion, they can hold a tremendous amount of meaning, and are common in academic writing.