4. Emphasis
Contents |
Chapter Summary
One of the best ways to enhance the meaning of a sentence is to correctly place its emphasis. Joseph M. Williams, author of the book Style: Toward Clarity and Grace, says to have sentences focused around only a few central characters or concepts. This way, it is easier to move quickly to the end of the sentence where the important information that has been introduced will go. The resulting phrase will then read more like spoken English with a more natural, climactic feel. This makes the material easier and more enjoyable for the reader to comprehend.
Managing Endings:
The end of the sentence is the home for the newer, most important information, called the stress. The information in the stressed part of the sentence can be correctly emphasized by using several tricks.
Trim the end by chopping off words that are unnecessary so that the information left is what should be stressed.
Shift less important information to the left and shift important information to the right is another trick that allows unimportant phrases to move away from the end of the sentence so that what is left is what should be emphasized. This helps the flow of ideas to expand.
Extract and isolate is also helpful. When important ideas are placed in the middle of a sentence, the sentence can swallow them up and the information can be lost. A sentence is more than a verb, object, or subject. It is a system whose parts fit together in fragile ways to achieve fragile ends, if we only know how to do so.
The way the first few words of every sentence are managed can make the style clear, direct, and coherent. The beginning of the sentence should hold any background information that will be drawn on in the proceeding lines. This is called the topic. This format holds true particularly with technical writing. The best way to get someone to understand what you are trying to say is to structure the sentences in the easiest way:
-topic, stress
-less important facts, most important facts
-old information, new information
Syntactic Devices:
The last thing that the audience reads should be the facts that they are meant to take away from it. Shorter sentences work well because the more a line is bogged down with facts, the more overloaded the reader will be, and the less they will understand.
He suggests breaking up the sentence and rearranging it to help its flow. Syntactic devices such as there and what as connectors can link ideas, though sometimes one works better than the other does. He recommends not using them in excess for fear of flat-footed, drab writing.
Williams demonstrates the skills of a good writer in the way he shows how to write highly technical prose without eliminating the technical terms. Beginning sentences with openers such as There-, It-, and What- can dramatically introduce the sentence and make the facts stand out even more so. This is not the case every time, however. For the following example Williams suggests not starting the first sentence with There-, but does recommend starting the second sentence with What-. Take a look at the differences:
Thereare a few grammatical patterns that add weight to the end of a sentence.
- A few grammatical patterns add weight to the end of a sentence.
- This county needs a president that can get us through this slump.
- What this country needs is a president that can get us through this slump.
- What this country needs is a president that can get us through this slump.
Nuances of Emphasis:
Williams accomplishes better clarity and dramatic effect merely by placing the emphasis towards the end of the sentence so that the reader can see what is coming. When writing, if the audience is very familiar with the subject, excess explanation is unnecessary. The problem with writing to an audience that is not an expert on a subject lies with defining every term unfamiliar to the reader.These words should also be located at the end of sentences which put the words in context. Williams also feels that the reader should hear something out of good writing, a voice. The voice the reader hears contributes substantially to the character that is projected, or more accurately, to the character our readers may construct.
System of Clarity
A sentence is more than a verb, object, subject, and sum of words and parts. It is a system of systems whose pieces we fit together in very fragile ways to accomplish fragile ends, only if we know how to. We can mismatch, match, or metaphorically manipulate grammatical units and their meanings:
Subject- characters
Verb- action
Complement- anything
We can mismatch or match rhetorical units to create less or more important meanings:
Topic- old/less important
Stress- new/more important
The voice of our readers hear provides to the character we project, or to the character our readers compose.
Conclusion
One of the best ways to enhance the meaning of a sentence is to correctly place its Emphasis. When writing a sentence, it is important to construct it so that the subjects or topics are gathered around only a few central characters. For example:
The dog and the cat wanted to go outside but the owner was busy so he asked his friend John to take them out instead.
This sentence has too many subjects and gets away from the real topic.
John took the animals out.
The emphasis is focused on the action.
When a sentence is focused around these central characters, the resulting phrase reads more like spoken English and has a more natural, climactic feel. This makes the material easier and more enjoyable for the reader to comprehend. Williams gives tips and examples of how to control and use emphasis the best way by Managing Endings, using Syntactic Devices, Nuances of Emphasis and the System of Clarity.
Application to Twitter
Managing Endings
In twitter the most important information should come at the beginning of the tweet verses the end. In a tweet you are only allowed 140 characters so it is the first couple of words people read that should be the eye catcher. You should shift the less important information to the left. one Tweeter showed emphasis in their tweet but capitalizing the Yes and adding extra s's to the word. The following examples show this:
Tweet Ex: YESSS! altho i typically spend more bc of bargains RT @welovedc: Nordstrom Rack opening in Pentagon City in the fall. http://bit.ly/GBCW4
In the example below we can clearly see that the emphasis is on the paper, and that the last thing the writer wants the reader to know is that they are finishing this paper on a Friday night, which is why it comes at the end of the Tweet instead of the beginning.
Tweet Ex: Ethics paper on abortion. Anybody's opinions either way would be very helpful! TGIF Follow Friday Paranormal Activity
The example of tweets below it shows emphasis on the tweet by adding the losemynumber application to the beginning of their last six tweets. LoseMyNumber, a new Trending Topic for people tweeting, reason that someone should not contact them via phone. The writer is putting emphasis on the topic (lose my number) for they had to tweet is over and over again to stress their point. The writer also used the word 'if' in every tweet showing that whatever came after the word 'if' is the main point to their message. In this case they shifted the important information to the right.
Tweet Ex #1- losemynumber if you text and text and call and i dont answer ever. i mean clearly i dont want to talk to you. ohh you dumb.
Tweet Ex #2- losemynumber - if i respond with one to two words. clearly i'm being short for a reason. i mean da**.
Tweet Ex #3- losemynumber if you have cheated on your mate in the past.
Tweet Ex #4- losemynumber if you feel that i'm the one the has to do all the texting and calling.
Tweet Ex #5- losemynumber if you text me and dont have sh** to talk about.
Tweet Ex #6- losemynumber if you dont have a phone and keep callin me from random numbers.
Some Syntactic Devices
One Syntactic device is the use of there. The author tells us that this adds weight to what is being written, but to use it sparingly. In Twitter you don't have to worry about this because as an individual tweet you have a limited amount of characters. Take a look at the example below, both convey the same message but the last one has more emphasis on what the writing is trying to get across to their reader.
Tweet Ex: Right now the best song is dizzy by jimmy eat world.
- vs.
Tweet Ex: There's no better song to explain right now than dizzy by jimmy eat world.
A second Syntactic device that the author looks at is what. Using what at the beginning of the sentence give emphasis to what directly follows. This is import when tweeting because you want to catch the audiences attention as soon as possible. The example below shows us that what the writer wants us to focus on is what America needs and later in the statement we find out what that need is.
Tweet Ex: What America needs is change and Obama is all about change.
When All Else Fails
Repeating a particular word or concept adds an element of stress, conveying the point with stronger direction. Observe:
Tweet Ex: Whew, procrastinating is fuuun!
- with repetition:
Tweet Ex: Whew, procrastinating is fuuun! Had I not waited 'till the last minute, I wouldn't be in this predicament. Oh, procrastination...
Nuances of Emphasis
Most people's tweets are simple and to the point. By added a link the writer is assuming that their tweet needs more explaining because of the character limit. When they want to be more complex, a link can be add at the end (as seen below).
Reportswineflu_tweets: Obama Declares Swine Flu a National Emergency President Obama’s declaration allows hospitals and local governments.. http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2923717&cid=c_16_26_f&fid=36...
Below one writer added a link to a Facebook page because he wanted to reroute people to this page for a longer discussion because on twitter you have a cap on your character limit of 140. The writer put emphasis on his topic "Catty Women" so the reader would know what their Facebook page was about and engage in the topic.
Tweet Ex: Hey Family! Join us on Facebook as we talk about "Catty Women"! http://www.facebook.com/mic...
The System of Clarity
Considering Twitter's free-form blog format, emphasis can be applied in several different ways such as using multiple tweets in a row. Consider the following scenario in Twitterfall:
Tweet Ex #1: I need some gushers. Know where I can find some?
Tweet Ex #2: No seriously, I NEED some gushers.
By restating, further attention is brought to a post. A similar effect can be achieved through character manipulation (i.e. italics, bold-facing, capitalization). For example:
Tweet Ex: Why won't my dryer work?!
- vs.
Tweet Ex: WHY WON'T MY DRYER WORK?!
Another tweeter shows emphasis in their tweet by capitalizing certain words. They wants the reader to know that they means business about the way women should wear her weave.
Tweet Ex: Bad weave is 'NOT' cute. 'I SHOULD NOT' be able to see your track, or your real hair sticking out period. Ladies, get it together.
These character manipulations give the audience as way to read the tweet, letting them know that there should be emphasis on those certain words. This allows the reader to note, more appropriately, what message the writer is trying to convey.
