COMMON PROBLEMS PROBLEM 1: If you fail to provide a consistent topic, readers will have difficulty in seeing what your text is about and impose their own (incorrect?) interpretation.   Since the sentence topic generally contains familiar ideas, readers of English texts therefore expect that NEW ideas or ideas worthy of special attention will be found in the comment component of the sentence. If the 'topic-comment' structuring is not followed, readers' expectations may be upset and it can become difficult for the reader to find the main idea. To better understand why this is a problem, take a look at the following text. 1A high potassium / manganese ratio is generally responsible for a rise in total cholesterol levels following the switch to a vegetarian lifestyle. 2Similarly, a rise in zinc and a decrease in iron are common when switching to vegetarianism, which can also result in raised total triglyceride levels. 3At the same time, lower protein and/or phosphates are known to cause higher levels of VLDL triglycerides, as can occur in a vegetarian diet due to increased intake of calcium and simple carbohydrates (sugar, honey, sweet fruits).   We have a problem here. This text seems to be about three different things. At a first glance, the writer seems to be focusing on changes in mineral levels. However, there really seems to be no one unifying topic for this text. It is confusing and ordering of the information makes it difficult to process. Why? You not only have to keep all three of these different topics simultaneously stored in your memory but also need to find some kind of logical connection between them. This places a heavy burden on the reader's short-term memory. 1A high potassium / manganese ratio is generally responsible for a rise in total cholesterol levels following the switch to a vegetarian lifestyle. 2Similarly, a rise in zinc and a decrease in iron are common when switching to vegetarianism, which can also result in raised total triglyceride levels. 3At the same time, lower protein and/or phosphates are known to cause higher levels of VLDL triglycerides, as can occur in a vegetarian diet due to increased intake of calcium and simple carbohydrates (sugar, honey, sweet fruits).   Will the real topic please stand up! Think of how much easier it would be to process this information if you only had one single topic to store in your memory! Luckily, when we read the text more carefully, there does seem to be another even more important theme in this text.   Can you find the real topic of this text? Click on the word(s) in the text below that you feel would make a better topic and unify these three sentences. 1A high potassium / manganese ratio is generally responsible for a rise in total cholesterol levels following the switch to a vegetarian lifestyle. 2Similarly, a rise in zinc and a decrease in iron are common when switching to vegetarianism, which can also result in raised total triglyceride levels. 3At the same time, lower protein and/or phosphates are known to cause higher levels of VLDL triglycerides, as can occur in a vegetarian diet due to increased intake of calcium and simple carbohydrates (sugar, honey, sweet fruits).

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