Lesson Seven: Emphasis
March 3, 1998: class did not meet  
Class met on March 17, 1998 

How a sentence begins determines clarity, 
How a sentence ends determines clarity, emphasis,  and vigor. 

Begin a sentence with a short and clear subject + verb sequence;
long, complex units such as  lists,  conditions,  and abstract nominalizations
should be moved to the end of a sentence. 
``Simplicity first, complexity last.''


Fixed:      topic 
variable:   old, short, simple       new, long, complex 

fixed:      subject      verb      complement
variable:   character    action 


A reader can better understand an unfamiliar 
 technical term if it is at the end of sentence rather than 
at its beginning, in the topic position. 

The first sentence that introduces a passage: 
Readers find signals for the central concepts in the passage 
from the last few words of the introductory  sentence. 

Fixed:      topic                    stress 
variable:   old, short, simple       new, long, complex 

fixed:      subject      verb      complement
variable:   character    action 

Just as readers look for a topic at the beginning of a sentence, 
so do they   emphasize  in their ``mind's ear'' 
the final words of a sentence.  Hence the concluding stress position 
of  sentences  determines whether  a reader judges  some writing  to be 
strong and emphatic.  

Managing Ends for Emphasis

Tactical Revisions: 

1. Trim superfluous words from the end. 
2. Shift metadiscourse and peripheral ideas to the left. 
3. Move important ideas to the right. 

Seven Syntactical Devices to Shift Elements to the End of  a Sentence 

1. Passive voice 
2. Beginning a sentence with There is...
3. What shift: throws special emphasis on words following a 
lnking verb 
What we need is an educated electorate...
4. It Shift 1: It was in .... that we .... 
emphasize topic and stress at the same time

5. It shift 2 
Using it as a subject move a longand complex introductory clause to the end

All five devices above use extra words, so use sparingly.

6. ....not only X, but Y as well. End with positive half of 
construction, unless there is a reason to emphasize the  negative.

7. Substitute a word at the end of a sentence if 
it has been used to end previous sentences  by means of a pronoun. 
(Our voice tends to drop at such repeated words.)

Exercise 7.3.4

This severe condition is caused  by 
a  toxin produced by the vibrio 
that changes   the permeability of the vascular and mucosal  cells.
This explanation is supported by changes in the small
capillaries at  the basal surface of the epithelial cells, 
and also microvesicles appearing in the mucosal cells.
The change in permeability enables fluid to move 
from the capillaries into the interstitial tissue, and then through 
the mucosa into the lumen.