Writers can help readers to grasp their message more quickly and easily by paying attention to how they order information in their sentences.

It seems that readers can process sentences which begin with a short, simple subject fairly quickly. On the other hand, readers may have trouble with sentences that begin with a long, complex, multi-word subject. In general, writers can make their readers' job easier by making sure that the main verb occurs relatively close to the beginning of English sentences.

In order to explore these ideas, this unit takes a closer look at the "light-before-heavy" principle: the convention of starting sentences with a short, simple subject and placing long, complicated concepts after the verb.

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