http://www.ck12.org Chapter 7. Tone and Style
easily.
Additional Examples
Example 3- Yesterday, Congress finally approved a bill that introduces new rules and regulations to financial
markets in the United States.TheincreaseoftheregulatorypowersoftheFederalReserveBank (new information)
was by farthemostcontroversialofthenewmeasures (new information).
Example 4- Yesterday, Congress finally approved a bill that introduces new rules and regulations to financial
markets in the Unites States. Themostcontroversialmeasurebyfar (old information) wastheincreaseofthe
regulatorypowersoftheFederalReserveBank (new information).
Review Questions
Rewrite the sentences below and apply the old-before-new principle to make them more cohesive:
- The class planner the teacher gave students yesterday did not include dates for turning in papers or for taking
exams. Although all assignments were described in detail, as well as the content for each test, the planner did
not include when they were due.
- When the principal spoke to our class, she emphasized that new attendance rules would be in place. She also
told us that teachers have found it difficult to maintain lines at the cafeteria during recess, after saying the
school would start notifying parents immediately every time a teacher declared a student absent.
Points to Consider
a. How does the old-before-new principle help readers?
b. How does this principle help connect ideas and sentences to one another?Short-to-Long
The short-to-long principle applies to how writers coordinate elements in a sentence (see Chapter 13, Lesson 1 for
coordinating conjunctions). It suggests you list coordinated elements from short to long, as the sentences below
illustrate:
Example 1- Participants in the study noticed no differences betweenthefirstslidescientistsprojectedonthewhite
wall (long element) andtherealpainting (short element).