This lesson is part of the free email course.
Lesson 4: The topic position holds the reader's hand
In this fourth lesson of Clarity in Academic Writing, we'll learn how and why to start each sentence with information that the reader already knows.
Familiar information at the beginning
The topic position (= the subject) needs to contain information that is already familiar to the reader.
It's like holding the reader's hand as they jump over the break between sentences. You place this familiar information in the beginning to make sure the reader stays with you for another sentence.
AI-generated image
Familiar information can take different forms:
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It can be information you were just talking about:
We used X analysis. This analysis works in this way…
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It can be information that the reader already has in mind from the general context of your paper:
Diabetes is usually treated…
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It can be general information that everyone is familiar with:
Patients usually experience...
Menopausal women suffer from...
The DNA was analyzed...
Use concrete or human nouns
To make the topic position comfortable for the reader, choose concrete nouns and human nouns whenever possible. Stay away from abstract nouns in the topic position.
Example 1
Abstract vs concrete information:
To participate in activities in daily life,
To participate in activities in daily life, children need more than just athletic competence.
Example 2
Long, new information vs short, human information:
Since there are no validation criteria to quantify proteins with LC-MS/MS,
Since there are no validation criteria to quantify proteins with LC-MS/MS, we used recommendations from the AAPS Bioanalytical Focus Group’s Protein LC-MS Bioanalysis Subteam.
Why does this work?
Readers are learners: they are learning the information in your text. We all learn by connecting new ideas to what we already know. Readers need to connect each piece of new information they receive with something that they are already familiar with. So you must first give them something that they know, then you can give them something new. Readers can connect the information as they read.
Now you:
Highlight the topic position of each sentence in a single paragraph of a text you are writing. If you have a complex sentence, you may have multiple topic positions. How often were the highlighted words familiar to the reader before they read that sentence?
Until tomorrow!
“Begin series of sentences in a unified passage in a consistent way, with words that your readers will think constitute a reasonably unified set of ideas. Do not begin sentences randomly.” (Williams, Style & Grace)