Sentence arrangement

Depending on the arrangement of the words within a sentence and the placement of emphasis, a sentence may be classified as "loose", "balanced", "periodic", or "cumulative".

A loose sentence expresses the main thought near the beginning and adds explanatory material as needed.:We bashed the piñata for 15 minutes without denting it, although we at least avoided denting one another's craniums and, with masks raised, finally pried the candy out with a screwdriver.

A cumulative sentence places the general idea in the main clause and gives it greater precision with modifying words, phrases, or clauses placed before it, after it, or in the middle of it.:Eyes squinting, puffy, always on alert, he showed the effects of a week in the forest, a brutal week, a week of staggering in circles driven by the baying of wolves.:(The phrases "eyes squinting", "puffy", and "always on alert" look forward to the pronoun "he" in the main clause; the phrases after the word "forest" look back to the word "week" in the main clause.)