![]() ![]() ![]() Learn more about “ Connecting Paragraphs and Sentences” (Student Learning Commons). If you focus on clear topics and actions and follow the general principles of “old/given + new” information, your writing will seem clear and readable rather than boring or monotonous. But this advice can backfire if, for the sake of variety, you lose track of your topics and actions or don’t check your sentences for flow. One last thought: You may have been told to show more variety in your sentence structures. Revised: It’s important how we deal with the delegates’ hostile reactions.Before: The way we deal with the hostile reactions of the delegates is important.Revised: For the most part, the committee’s arguments are incomplete.Before: The arguments made by the committee are incomplete, for the most part.Options include trimming “wordiness,” turning a secondary or peripheral idea into an introductory phrase, or shifting a deserving idea to the end of the sentence. Do sentences end with the words or phrases deserving the greatest attention? So look closely at the last few words of sentences. The principle is that people remember the endings best. The end of a sentence is usually the best place for “stress” or emphasis (sometimes called climax). This “new” concept or term then becomes “old information” when starting the next sentence. Shift unfamiliar language, concepts, or new terms toward the end of a sentence. This in turn makes it difficult to trace the main topic or theme within a paragraph (see “Turning Subjects into Topics” above). Īvoid over-using “this is, it is, there is/are.” Frequently relying on these constructions (known as expletives) makes it harder for readers to recognize the topic of a sentence. Revised: This illustration provides details about our plan.Before: We think it useful to provide a detailed illustration of our plan.Revised: Our conclusion recognizes the importance of.Before: However, it is important in arriving at such a conclusion to recognize.Revised: The candidate’s decision made good sense politically.Before: And, therefore, politically speaking, the candidate’s decision made good sense.Start sentences directlyĪvoid unnecessary, indirect phrases or “throat-clearing”: Ex: "an improvement of our test results will occur" becomes "will improve our test results." Ending the sentence with "test results" emphasizes that important idea. TIP: Convert noun and prepositional phrases into topics or actions, or else delete them. Try: The new policies governing laboratory health and safety will improve our test results. A paragraph of sentences like these would impede flow and focus. The ending may not stress the most important part of the message. The passive verb “is anticipated” does not convey action. Why? The grammatical subject “It” does not convey what the sentence is about. ![]() Needs improvement: It is anticipated that the new policies governing laboratory health and safety will mean that an improvement of our test results will occur. Sentences without clear topics can seem unclear and unfocused: When sentences have clear topics, readers can more easily see connections among ideas and trace the evolution of a topic within a paragraph. Stress or climax - what reader will take away Topic/Subject-what you’re talking about (topic should be the same as the grammatical subject) Using this pattern, your sentences can incorporate highly complex ideas without losing clarity or flow: By contrast, “new” information tends to be unfamiliar to readers or more complex: something readers can’t anticipate.Old/given information may be present in a previous sentence or two, or apparent within the context of a sentence, or simply part of readers’ general knowledge of a topic. “Old” or given information is anything familiar to your readers.One way to improve cohesion is to put old information near the beginning of a sentence (the first half) and shift new information to the end or second half of the sentence. Here are four techniques to address problems with cohesion: Use an “old-to-new” information pattern When sentences don't clearly connect, the paragraphs will likely be hard to follow. If your readers have trouble understanding how your ideas fit together, this may mean your sentences lack cohesion. Coherence (sometimes also referred to as 'flow") refers to how groups of sentences-particularly paragraphs-interrelate to convey a unified message or theme.Cohesion refers to how ideas fit together within a sentence and between pairs of sentences. ![]()
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