7.1. Tone and Style http://www.ck12.org
Example 2- Participants in the study noticed no differences betweentherealpainting (short element) andthefirst
slidescientistsprojectedonthewhitewall (long element).
The short-to-long principle helps you write sentences that are fluid and easy to read.
Review Questions
Check the sentences below that illustrate a good use of the short-to-long principle:
- ( ) A group of five students resolved the test without any assistance, quickly, and accurately.
- ( ) A group of five students resolved the test quickly, accurately, and without any assistance.
- ( ) The upset teacher decided to punish all the students who were late. She did not distinguish between the
students who had completed the assignment and the ones who had not turned the assignment on the due date. - ( ) The upset teacher decided to punish all the students who were late. He did not distinguish between the
students who had not turned in the assignment on the due date and the ones who had completed the assignment. - ( ) Parents have not been attending the evening meetings because some work late and others cannot come to
school three nights in a row. - ( ) Parents have not been attending the evening meetings because some cannot come to school three nights in
a row and others work late.
Coherence
In English composition, coherence or cohesion describes how harmoniously different parts of a text connect to one
another. Writers show coherence when they make sense of their ideas as a whole. They need to be cohesive on two
different levels: paragraph-level and text-level.
Paragraph-Level Coherence
To achieve paragraph-level coherence, define yourtopicclearly. The topic is what you write about in a paragraph.
You may have learned that the introduction of every paragraph should contain atopic sentence.If you are able to
make the sentence topic thesubject,it will be easier for readers to grasp it. Whenever topic and subject align in
a sentence, readers will understand what it is about more easily; as a result, your sentence will be more coherent.
Compare examples 1 and 2 below:
Example 1-Theabilitytolearnfrommistakes is not exclusively human, and it has been found by scientists inmany
otheranimalspecies. This ability has been detected, for example, indogs,cats,andotherdomesticatedspecies.
Topic:the ability to learn from mistakes is not only human
Characters:dogs, cats, and other domesticated animals
Although the sentence in Example 1 is understandable, its topic(s) and character(s) are not aligned. When they
are aligned, notice how more readable the sentence becomes: