An adverb at the beginning of a sentence. A comma follows an opening adverb. All adverbs give information an action.

Adverbs that tell how an action happened(quickly, slowly, rapidly) always end in ly. Other adverbs tell when an action happened (now, then, yesterday), or where an action happened (Overhead, nearby, underneath)

How: Unfairly, we poked fun at him, often in his presence.
--Sue Miller, While I was Gonei

When: Then, Harry felt as though an invisible pillow had quite suddenly been pressed over his mouth and nose.
--J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Where: Outside, I found a taxi for her.
--Maya Angelou, The Heart of a Woman

Sentences can contain single or multiple opening adverbs.

Single opening adverb: Incredibly, the man was still chasing after us.
--Annie Dillard, An American Childhood


Multiple opening adverbs: Then, slowly, he fell to his knees and pitched forward onto the road, blood pooling red on the black asphalt.
Robert Ludlum, The Moscow Vector

Practice 2: Unscrambling to Imitate- In the model and the scramblist, identify the opening adverb. Next, unscramble a write out the sentence parts to imitate the model. Finally, write your own imitation of the model and identify the opening adverb.

Model: Suddenly, Alfred, who had heard the fight from the across the street, attacked from the rear with his favorite weapon, an indoor ball bat.
John Steinbeck, Cannery Row

Suddenly

d. afterward c. Jasmine b. who had read the novel for over two hours a. sat up in the bed with her nightly snack e. a mini Oreo cookie

Own Sentence: Then, Jack, who had been running for thirty minutes, stopped and had a heart attack.

Practice 3: Combining to Imitate

In the model, identify the opening adverb. Next, combine the list of sentences to imitate the model. Finally, write your own imitation of the model and identify any opening adverbs.

Model: Outside, the doctor's car was surrounded by the boy while Finny was being lifted inside by Phil Latham.
John Knowles, A Separate Peace

a. This happened inside.
b. The younger children were involved with games.
c. While they were involved, Laura was being tutored near them.
d. The tutoring was by their teacher.

Inside, while, the younger children were involved with games, Laura was being tutored by their teacher.

Own Imitation Sentence: Outside, while the storm raged, Kelsey ran for the puppies.

Practice 4: Imitating
Identify the opening adverbs in the model and then write your own example.

1. Here, relatives swarmed like termites.
--Wallace Stegner, Crossing to Safety
Here

Own Imitation: Here, I had only a bottle of dr. pepper.

2. Slowly, methodically, miserably, she ate the jellied bread.
Toni Morrison, Beloved
Slowly Methodically Miserably

Own Imitation: Quickly, orderly, gladly, i shot the enemies with my sniper rifle.

3. Very slowly and very carefully, Harry got to his feet and set off again as fast as he could without making too much noise, hurrying through the darkness back toward Hogwarts.
--J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Slowly Carefully

Own Imitation: Very hesitantly and very slowly, the man started to move towards the station, afraid that he might get shot in the back.

A adjective place after the word described is a delayed adjective. A delayed adjective may be a single word or the first word in an adjective phrase. An adjective phrase begins with an adjective and then continues the description.

Commas punctuate a delayed adjective--one comma if it occurs at the end of the sentence, two if earlier in the sentence.

Sentences can contain single or multiple delayed adjectives.

Single delayed adjective: People under the helicopter ducked down, afraid, as if they were being visited by a plague or a god.

--Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams

Multiple delayed adjectives: Each snowflake was different, Sister Zoe said, like a person, irreplaceable and beautiful.

--Julia Alvarez, "Snow"

Delayed adjective phrase: A dog came bounding among us with a loud volley of barks, and leapt round us, wild with glee at finding so many human beings together.

Practice 1: Matching

Match the delayed adjectives with the sentences. Write out each sentences, inserting and underlining the delayed adjectives

1. Milk, ^, attracted every small flying thing from gnats to grasshoppers.

Toni Morrison, Beloved

c. sticky and sour on her dress

2. It seemed dreadful to see the great beat lying there in agony, ^.

George Orwell, "Shooting an Elephant"

e. powerless to move move and yet powerless to die

3. The water in this pool has a dark clarity, like smoked glass, ^.

Edward Abbey, "Aravaipa Canyon"

d. transparent but obscure

4. Picture poor old Alfy coming home from football practice every evening, bruised and aching agonizingly tired, ^.

Paul Roberts, Understanding English

a. scarcely able to shovel the mashed potatoes into his mouth

5. I am an enthusiastic laudress, ^, but a terrible house keeper.

Nancy Mairs, Plaintext

b. capable of sorting a hamper full of clothes into five subtly differentiated piles

Practice 2: Unscrambling to Imitate

In the model and the scrambled list, identify the delayed adjectives. Next, unscramble and write out the sentence parts of imitate the model. Finally write your own imitation of the model and identify the delayed adjectives.

Model: They ate like men, ravenous and intent

Toni Morrison, Beloved

ravenous and intent - men

a. They sang like angels.

b. The angel were pure.

c. And the angel were sweet

They sang like angels, pure and sweet.

Own Sentence: They danced like warriors, brutal and unclean.

Practice 3: Combining to Imitate
In the model, identify the delayed adjective, Next, combine the list of sentences to imitate the model. Finally, write your own imitation of the model and identify any delayed adjectives.

Model: He forgot that his Lesser Warders were watching, afraid to interfere.

--Stephen King, The Eyes of the Dragon

afraid to interfere - Lesser Warders

a. She knew something

b. What we knew is how her sister were feeling.

c. Her sisters were happy to help.

She knew what we knew is how her sisters were feeling, happy to help.

Own Sentence: I remembered that they were listening, eager to learn.

Practice 4: Imitating

Directions: Identify the delayed adjectives in the models and sample imitations. Then write an imitation of each model sentence, one sentence part at a time.

1. Dumpster diving is outdoor work, often surprisingly pleasant.
--Lars Eighner, "On Dumpster Diving"

Surprisingly pleasant - outdoor work

Sample: Doing homework is necessary discipline, sometimes incredibly helpful.

Working out is a rather hard chore, although very satisfying.

2. The baby's eyes were the shape of watermelon seeds, very black and cut very precisely into her small, solemn face.
--Anne Tyler, Digging to America

very black - baby's eyes

Sample: The unspoken pain was the weight of river rocks ,very heavy and embedded most certainly into her aching body.

The darkened room was the upstairs bed, clean and inviting.

3. I shivered as he tossed the feathered corpse of the dead chicken, limp as a cloth, into the back of the truck.
--Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams

limp as a cloth - dead chicken

I shrugged as he stated the comment, dead as his head, toward the men.

Sample: I stared as he threw the battered ball from the garbage can, smelly as a foot, into the field of the pitcher.


Practice 5: Expanding

The delayed adjectives are omitted at the caret mark (^) in the following sentences. For each caret, add a delayed adjective or adjective phrase, blending your content and style wit the rest of the sentence.

1. The man topple to one side, crumpled against the railing, ^.
--Robert Ludlum, The Prometheus Deception

sick from drunkenness

2. The spiders like of their sides, ^ and ^, their legs drying in knots.
--Annie Dillard, "Death of a Moth"

thin and writhing

3. He was twenty-six, dark haired, ^, ^, ^, and ^.
--John Steinbeck, Cannery Row

tall, thin, fair-faced, and gay