reading Hamlet”. A second rendition can state this in the following way:
“There was Connie, reading Hamlet, sitting in her favourite chair”. The first
rendition emphasises “reading Hamlet” while the second emphasises that
Connie was “sitting in her favourite chair”.
This device can be used more freely in poetry than prose because poetry
licences a writer to be more flexible with syntax and position. A classic
example is Alfred Lord Tennyson’s line from Tithonus (1859) “After many a
summer dies the swan”.
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Here our attention is forcibly directed to the word
“swan” partly because it is the last word and partly because it is located there
because of a variation of the natural order of the words.
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Level 3: Linking Sentences
Level 3 Linking Sentences
Link sentences properly. Ensure that each sentence flows from
the one before it.
Introduction
Level 3 requires that sentences be properly joined. To write clearly, you must
ensure that each sentence flows from the one before it. In this way the
individual sentences build the text. As a reader reads each sentence they need
to know precisely and quickly how it follows from the sentence before it.
There are two basic ways in which a writer can make sure that sentences flow
for a reader. One is to make an explicit statement of the relationship. Examples
are to repeat a term, use connected ideas, or state the link at the start. The
other is to rely on the reader's own knowledge and understanding to see the
relationship. These ways can also be used in combination.
By way of a
postscript, most of the
devices
for linking sentences are also
used to link
paragraphs.
Explicit Statement
An explicit statement in the text can be used to indicate the relationship
between two successive sentences. This statement may be in any of four
places - before the first sentence, in the first sentence, in the second sentence
and after the second sentence.
___________________
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This was also the title of a novel by Aldous Huxley published in 1939. It
was originally titled After Many a Summer
but was retitled After Many a Summer
Dies the Swan when published in the USA. The book was awarded the 1939 James
Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.
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An interesting exercise in word usage is to change the word “swan” to
“duck” so that this line reads: “After many a summer dies the duck”. This
highlights the different connotations that surround each word. A swan is graceful
and glides into the text, whereas the duck intrudes with an ungainly but
endearing waddle.
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