SENTENCE EMPHASIS AND VARIETY

Effective writing focuses the reader’s attention by putting emphasis, or special stress, on words that express important ideas.

Sentence emphasis

Vary structures to give distinctive treatment to the idea you want to attract the attention.

Placing ideas at the beginning or the end is a way to emphasize.

You can get the reader’s attention with the first or last words.

Old and new information in sentences

You have to think about how you want to make emphasis in the information you give to the readers.

Everything they know is called old information and it is presented before the new information you give them.

It helps the readers to see the difference between both, old and new, but emphasizing the new by placing it last.

Varying sentence length

Short and long sentences, both mixed provide variety as well as emphasis , specially if you break a pattern of short or long sentence with a new length.

You have to think about your reader’s needs.

You use long sentences to clarify relationships between ideas.

Short sentences

Sound direct and honest. They have power. Each idea goes alone and asks for

reader’s attention. To give another effect to your ideas try

considering them into as few words as possible.

Long sentences

Most academic writing requires that you fully develop your ideas and establish relationships among them.

Show the relative importance of ideas and the connections between them.

Coordination and subordination are valuable tools for long sentences.

>_< Don’t overdo long sentences. A sentence shouldn’t cover more territory that a reader can span in a single stride.

Varying sentence types

Grammatical type Rhetorical type Functional type

Grammatical sentence types

simple sentence: has a single independent clause

E.g.: Pollution is a problem Compound sentence: has two or more

independent clauses joined either by a comma and a coordinating conjunction or by a semicolon.

E.g.: pollution is a problem, and its affects every aspect of our lives.

…… Complex Sentence: has one

independent clause and one or more dependent clause.

E.g.: because the problem continues to grow our legislature must act before it is too late.

Compound-complex sentence: has at least two independent clauses and more dependent clauses.

E.g.: pollution can be prevented , and we must take action to stop it , because there is no other way to survive on this planet.

Rhetorical sentence types and word order

Should you put the main point first within a sentence and the less important information later? Or should you first establish the context and then deliver the main message?

These questions refer to rhetorical sentence types.

When you place the main idea first , you create a CUMULATIVE SENTENCE.

.. Othello smothers the delicate Desdemona in a fit of anguished passion and boiling fury.

He kills the loves most because he has trusted the lies of the vicious lago

When you save the punch for the end , you create a PERIOD SENTENCE.

In a fit of anguished passion and boiling fury , Othello smothers the delicate Desdemona. Because he has trusted the lies of the vicious lago , he kills the person he loves most .

. Cumulative sentences are common in academic writing because they allow you to make a point and support it then.

Inverting subjects and adverbs

When any of the following structures is placed at the front of a sentence , the subject goes after the first auxiliary (a form of HAVE or BE or a modal such as COULD) of the independent clause. If there is no auxiliary , the subject goes after the main verb.

. Adverb of extent or degree: so

antagonizing had the speaker been that members of the audience walked out.

Negative adverb of frequency: seldom has a verdict created such an outrage among citizens. (ever,hardly,only once, rarely)

Other negative adverbs or adverb phrases: Under no circumstances should funding for this program be cut

Conditional clauses: Only if we take measure now will we rescue our city from urban blight

. When the following structures are at

the front of a sentence, the subject after goes both the auxiliary ( if there is one ) and the main verb of the independent clause.

ADVERB OF POSITION: Near the campsite appeared a doe and two fawns.

COMPARATIVES : More intriguing than the main plot of the novel are several of the subplots

PARTICIPLES AND MODIFIERS : Lying on my desk should be a large sealed envelope

.Functional sentence types :DECLARATIVE: The number of violent

crimes committed by strangers has gone down in the past ten years.

QUESTION : So Why has the public’s fear of crime gone up?

EXCLAMATION : The news media manipulate us all!

COMMAND : write The program director of your local TV station and protest!

VARYING SENTENCE OPENING Another way to get important

information into a sentence early is to invert the expected word order. As you edit, consider using inverted word order for a stong special order

Standard : the land onto which they wandered was hard to barren.

Inverted : Hard and barren was the land onto which they wandered.

ANGHEL GOMEZ

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