REPAIRING PROBLEMS

What can writers do to fix the problems?

In this unit, we have examined three principles for ordering information at the sentence and paragraph level: 'given-new', creating focus and 'light-heavy'.

It helps if you can keep the three principles in mind from the beginning of creating your text. However, since unity involves a process of constant reviewing about what you write, the principles can also be useful for revision once you have already produced some kind of first draft. With the aid of the principles, you are able to take a critical look at the structure and ordering of your text, and do a lot to improve the cohesion and readability of your text.

Ideally, we should aim to apply all three principles to all the texts we write. In practice, we may, however, need to compromise! Sometimes, our efforts to satisfy one principle make it impossible to use another. All writers are faced with choices, and some choices exclude others.

The following pages provide you with seven strategies that can be used to patch up problems once you begin to revise your text. Take a look at each one in turn.

  1. Use direct repetition, synonyms, or superordinate terms
  2. Use a pronoun (it, they / this, these)
  3. Use a 'topicalising phrase'
  4. Use an 'active-passive shift'
  5. Use an 'Equative shift'
  6. Use an 'Animate-Inanimate shift'
  7. Use an 'Personal-Impersonal shift'

 

 
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