Emphasis puts the new, important words at the end of a sentence. Cohesion is the other half: begin each sentence with something the reader already knows, often what the last sentence ended on. Linguists call this the order of given (old) and new information.
Key idea
Begin a sentence with old information the reader already has, and end it with new information. Then the next sentence can begin with that new information, and the paragraph flows like a chain.
Why it works
A reader needs a handhold to grab before taking in something new. When a sentence starts with something unfamiliar, the reader has to hold it in mind without knowing why it matters, and the prose feels choppy even when every sentence is correct.
Worked example: Choose the next sentence
First sentence: “The library is adding Sunday hours this fall.” Which next sentence flows better? (A) “A four-weekend trial last spring drew 900 visitors, which led to the new hours.” (B) “The new hours grew out of a four-weekend trial last spring that drew 900 visitors.”
- The first sentence ends on new information: Sunday hours.
- B begins with “the new hours,” which the reader just learned about, and ends with the new fact, the trial.
- A begins with a trial the reader has never heard of, then has to circle back.
Answer: B: it starts with the old information and ends with the new.
Fixing a choppy paragraph
- Underline the first few words of each sentence: its starting point.
- Ask whether that starting point appeared in the sentence before. If not, look for a way to begin with something that did.
- Move the new, important information toward the end, where it can hand off to the next sentence.
Common mistake
Jumping to a new topic at the start of every sentence, so the paragraph feels like a list of separate facts. Check: underline the first few words of each sentence. Do they point back to something in the sentence before? If not, try flipping the sentence (sometimes with the passive voice, which exists partly for this).