Other ways to write and introduction to a sentence?

Question

Can anyone give me a list of ways to start a sentence to answer the question "Why did the author choose to include..." without starting off the answer by writing "The author chose to include this by..."?

For example,
Q. Why did the author choose to include suspense in the novel?
A. SOMETHING BESIDES "The author chose to include..."

You dont have to answer my example question!

Answer 1

You could start that sentence off many ways. "Some authors include suspense in their novels because..." "I believe the author chose to include suspense because..." "Suspense in a novel keeps the reader interested and involved in the book"

Answer 2

In his novel "XYZ," Author ABC utilizes (let's say) recurring images to a large extent. By using these images, the author draws the reader's attention to the elegance of nature and the futility of trying to control it.

With suspense, "Novel A" is propelled along a steam engine track towards excitement and mystery, two key elements in any major work which draw the reader into the story and takes him or her from a passive audience member to an active participant.

Man, I should write a book on this crap.

Answer 3

I'd imagine the way to begin to answer the question of "Why did the author choose to include..." would vary depending on what the question is and what the book/novel/story it's about is. Let me use this question in relation to an asspect of Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and try to give some ideas how the question could be answered

"Why did the author choose to include the shattered pumpkin by the bridge?"

1. "Irving was setting up for the reader the idea that it was not, indeed, a spirit Ichabod Crane had faced that fatefull night."

2. "The shattered pumpkin was a representation of the mortal, rather than an immortal, foe who chased Ichabod."

3. "It, the shattered pumpkin, was meant to show the reader that the Headless Horseman may not have actually have been a ghost."

4. "Although we tend to think of pumpkins as being large, heavy objects that could not be mistaken for heads, a small pie pumpkin could easily be seen easily be mistaken one a dark night for a head."

5. "By having a shattered pumpkin found near Ichabod's hat, Washington Irving is suggesting to the reader that the Headless Horseman who accosted him was not actually a spirit."

6. "It is later suggested in the story that Brom Bones may have had something to do with Ichabod's disappearance that night and the shattered pumpkin is offered as proof."

Okay, so what I try doing here was to provide starter sentences, each with a different introduction. And each specific to the example question.

In the very first example answer I included the author's name (or more accurately his surname) which allowed me to eliminate "The author" from the start of the answer, which thus makes clear that I know who wrote the book/novel/story.

In five of the examples I tried incorperating the subject of the question. In this case the shattered pumpkin, which I tried refeing to as early as possible in most of these.

Still using Irving's story, I'll try appling some starter sentences to your example question, with a slight change in the question to reflect that this is a short story and not a novel.

"Why did the author choose to include suspense in the story?"

1. "Washington Irving's use of suspense was designed to set up the tone of the latter half of the story."

2. "When Ichabod left the Van Tassel's that fateful night, the tone of the story changed to a more mournful, frightening one and suspense was used to set up that change."

3. "Suspense was used to mark the change the story."

4. "In a story such as "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," suspense can be used to let the reader know the fateful meeting between the protagonist and the antagonist of the movie is about to begin."

5. "The use of suspense in this story not only alters the atmosphere of the story but also causes the reader to realize something big is about to happen."

6. "As in any story or novel, suspense can be used to mark a change in the story or an approaching encounter."

Again in one of the example answers I start off by making it clear I know who the author is. But unlike the first set of example questions, here I touch on the subject of the question in every answer. I tried to find a different way to start each of the second set of example answers, in each case I didn't use "The author chose to include this by..." as the start of my answer.

Answer 4

By including A, author does B.

Q may be a less used way to do B, but the author uses Q to great effect.

In a stroke of genius, the author does B by including A.

I mean, depending on what you want to say and prove, there are a ton more. Don't forget to keep action in the verb and watch for vauge pronoun references though... I have problems with those two things.

Answer 5

Suspense was included in the novel to...........................