topic: [[Writing]] people: #people/loraleilingard created: 2024-07-07 *English readers develop expectations around what they will find where in a sentence, and when we don't meet those expectations, we risk decreased clarity and power in our writing.* ##### what is it? “Readers expect the main topic to provide context for the rest of the sentence, so provide it early, preferably in the main subject position. Readers lean forward to the verb, so avoid interrupting the subject-verb connection with other material. Readers expect important new information to appear at stress positions, so place such information carefully and don’t waste stress positions on incidental material. And, finally, readers leave and enter sentences trying to form connections between them, so make this easy for them with backward and forward linkages that observe the Given-New principle.” (Lingard, 2022, p. 4) - Start with the subject - Tighten the subject-verb connection - Harness stress positions - Connect sentences in a logic chain using the given-new principle ##### why does it matter? If we don't meet the readers needs, we are unintentionally shooting ourselves in the foot. ##### This reminds me of Weak writing is a form of [[Power Leaks]]. ##### What would the opposite argument be? Finally, we _can_ violate these rules, but it should be intentionally! tags: #note/idea | #on/writing | #on/power | #on/intention | #on/craft ##### Sources: Lingard, L. (2022). Writing for the reader: Using reader expectation principles to maximize clarity. _Perspectives on Medical Education_, s40037-022-00708-w. [https://doi.org/10.1007/s40037-022-00708-w](https://doi.org/10.1007/s40037-022-00708-w)