Ever hear a speaker drone on in a monotone? It doesn't take long before you're stifling a yawn and are ready to interrupt his spiel, excuse yourself or simply grit your teeth and hope he'll tire soon.
In writing, there's an equivalent to the monotone speaker. It's writing using repetitious sentence structures. That can mean assembling a string of sentences like, "Acme is launching a new sales campaign. The campaign will start in June. Everyone is expected to participate." There's nothing grammatically wrong with these sentences, but they're repetitive in length and in their simple structure. Each starts with a subject (Acme, the campaign, Everyone) that's followed by a verb and an object. Hook enough of these subject-verb-object sentences together and you'll soon have readers eyes' going glassy.
The solution is to vary sentence length and structure. Combine short, simple sentences like those above with longer, more complex sentences that include introductory clauses (Given the need to boost sales, Acme is launching a new sales campaign.), and parenthetical clauses (Everyone, including middle managers and C-suite personnel, is expected to participate.).
Keeping this simple concept of sentence variety in mind will spice up your copy and help prevent your written work from resembling a grade-school reading book.
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