Varying sentence structures can enhance narrative voice and engagement.

Evidence

The cockroach as antagonist is getting characterization. … As readers we’re invited into the joke. After all, what we’re talking about here is a fact-based science article dancing on the edge of epic. The clauses tend to begin with subjects who are agents and actors in this drama: the insect, researchers, cockroaches, manufacturers. The sentences tend to be paratactic. Perhaps more important, the sentences are varied and build in that first paragraph to a climax. Simple sentence. Simple sentence. Simple sentence with a prepositional phrase (“In the centuries long war”). Complex sentence. Compound sentence, but this one using a colon to connect two simple sentences, a device that accelerates emphasis on the final clause: “Cockroaches, like us, simply couldn’t resist their sweet tooth.” — Tilar J Mazzeo, How to Write a Bestseller, 515

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Tilar J Mazzeo, How to Write a Bestseller, 515
• XREF: connects to: General audience writing fosters deeper reader engagement through narrative structure. — Tilar J Mazzeo, How to Write a Bestseller, 198; Placement of silent pauses in spoken text can encode complex layered meaning — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute…, 248; Capturing actual genteel speech requires ear for skewed phrasing and periphrasis — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 387 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• General audience writing fosters deeper reader engagement through narrative structure. #expands (0.75) — Tilar J Mazzeo, How to Write a Bestseller, 198
• Placement of silent pauses in spoken text can encode complex layered meaning #exemplifies (0.70) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 248