Sentence starters and useful vocabulary
6 styles of writing
Diary writing
Information texts (non-chronological reports)
Instructions and procedures
Invitations
Narratives
Recounts
20 great sentence starters for a 7 - 11 year old
As . . .
As I see it . . .
Despite the fact that . . .
Even though . . .
Finally . . .
For example . . .
Furthermore . . .
In addition . . .
In conclusion . . .
In general . . .
In my view . . .
In spite of . . .
I would like to . . .
Meanwhile . . .
Moreover . . .
So . . .
Subsequently . . .
Therefore . . .
Whilst . . .
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1) Diary writing
Some words and phrases to start a diary sentence with:
Hopefully
Fortunately
Unfortunately
Luckily
Unluckily
Thankfully
Lately
Recently
For once
Anyway
Conversational manner with ‘speech like phrases’
By the way . . .
To tell you the truth . . .
I must tell you about . . .
You’ll never guess what happened?
Right now I’m . . .
You will never believe it but . . .
I hope that . . .
To be honest . . .
I imagine that . . .
I should have told you that . .
I have been looking forward to . . .
I am looking forward to . . . (I am not looking forward to . .)
I am worried about . . . (I am not worried about . . .)
I was looking forward to . . .
I expect that . . .
I think that . . .
I don’t expect
You know what?
The best bit is . . . (The best bit was . . .)
The worst part is . . . (The worst part was . . .)
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2) Information texts (non-chronological reports)
Some useful sentence starters for information texts
_____ are . . .
_____ is . . .
They are . . .
They are also . . .
They like to . . .
They don’t like . . .
They avoid . . . because . . .
They don’t . . .
It doesn’t . . .
They can . . .
It can . . .
Instead they . . .
In addition, . . .
Usually . . .
As a rule . . .
They can be . . .
They are usually . . . (It is usually . . .)
They are rarely . . . (It is rarely . . .)
They are never . . . (It is never . . .)
They are a very . . . (It is a very . . . )
Like many . . .
Unlike . . .
This is a . . .
Sometimes . . .
Often . . .
Frequently they . . .
Be careful if you . . .
More than half . . .
Less than half . . .
Most
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3) Instructions and procedures
First . . .
First of all . ..
To start with . . .
Firstly . . .
Next . . .
After . . .
Afterwards . . .
After that . . .
When . . .
At this point . . .
Lastly . . .
Finally . . .
More advanced language constructions
To begin with . . .
Begin by . . .
Secondly . . .
The next step is to . . .
Continue by . . .
Carry on . . .
Do this until . . .
Stop when . . .
When you have done this . . .
Try to . . .
Try not to . ..
Avoid . . .
Don’t forget to . . .
Be careful of . . .
Don’t worry about . . .
Concentrate on . . .
Focus on . . .
Try to make sure that . . .
4
Whatever you do, don’t . . .
I would suggest that . . .
To conclude . . .
Before . . . remember to . . .
Whilst you are . . .
Use the time you are waiting to . . .
4) Invitations
Polite directives
Please come to . . .
It will be . . .
It will take place at . . .
It starts at . . .
It finishes at . . .
I am having a party because . . .
I’m looking forward to . . .
More advanced language constructions
I would like to invite you to . . .
During the afternoon we will be . . .
At two O’ clock there will be . . .
There will also be . . .
The easiest way to get here is . . .
At around . . .
I think that . .
I expect that . . .
The thing I am looking forward to most is . . .
If you would like you can . . .
It would be good if . . .
I hope that you will . . .
Try to/try not to . . .
Don’t forget to . . .
If it’s okay with you . . .
If you can remember to . . .
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Ten time connectives
First of all
Later
Afterwards
After that
Next, we will . . .
Soon after
At about . . .
Following that
Finally
At the end of the afternoon/evening
5) Narratives
Words/phrases signifying the passage of time
Instantly
Immediately
Just at that moment
Before long
So
Presently
Soon
Later
Afterwards
After a while
Much later
At last
Next day
The next evening
Eventually
Towards nightfall
At dawn
At dusk
As the sun set
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Simultaneously
Finally
Words/phrases to change the focus of the story
Suddenly
Meanwhile
Not far away
Some distance away
While
During
6) Recounts
Useful language constructions
Last week we . . .
First . . .
Next . . .
After . . .
Afterwards . . .
After that . . .
When . . .
Suddenly . . .
Just then . .
Soon . . .
Meanwhile . . .
Finally . . .
So
Later on
Before long
Next
Moments later
Seconds later
Much later
Within minutes
At that very moment
7
At precisely
Presently
In a flash
When this was complete . . .
Eventually
More advanced language constructions
To begin with . . .
Before long . . .
Eventually . . .
As it happened . .
As a result of . . .
Consequently . . .
Subsequently . . .
Evidence of viewpoint
I found it interesting when . . .
My favourite activity was . . .
It was funny when . . .
I liked the part when . . .
I didn’t enjoy . . .
The best part was . . .
The worst part was . . .
I was surprised that . . .
I was pleased that . . .
I didn’t expect that . . .
It was difficult to . . .
