Other things to do:

Vary sentence openings: Variation // Purdue Writing Lab

Combining sentences if you have a lot of short sentences or fragments: For Short, Choppy Sentences // Purdue Writing Lab

When writing on same topic for a while, embedding ideas within other sentences by use of relative pronouns, participles, and prepositions: For Repeated Subjects or Topics // Purdue Writing Lab

Strategies to break up patterns: Similar Sentence Patterns or Rhythms // Purdue Writing Lab

Connecting sentences together for coherence: Style: Coherence – ENG 2100: Writing I, Spring 2021 (cuny.edu)

If time, we could take a look again at the paragraph to apply any of the above:

The speeches given at the gala prior to Rob’s all mention equality, diversity, and community. All these are grand and amazing sounding ideas, as Joffe-Walt explains, but within the setting of the gala, they seem out of place. She draws attention to the contrast by noting that the gala is full of wealthy white people and the venue is in an Italian Renaissance inspired palace. To us, the paradox is obvious: the white and wealthy gala attendees are preaching about the importance of diversity when there is none to begin with at the gala. There is only one race and one economic group present. By doing this, Joffe-Walt has shown the podcast listeners that it’s possible that the gala attendees are not aware of and cannot understand how those who aren’t white and rich live. This gap in experiences between the white gala attendees and people of color establish that the decisions and ideas the white parents have may not be in the interest of the students of color.