Emphasis techniques¶
Position in sentence¶
Start or end of a sentence. English tends to emphasize the first and last items in a list.
Adding adjectives¶
Adding an adjective draws attention and gives “ideas” more weight semantically.
Separate part to it’s own phrase¶
Structurally isolating an item and giving it conceptual priority.
Repetition¶
See The writes options p. 177
Focusing adverb¶
Also called “adverbs of emphasis”. Highlight the most relevant parts of the sentence. Technically it modifies a noun phrase, so it’s a sentence modifier (not an adjective)
So long as they have mastery over themselves, say the Stoics, even slaves may in the deep sense be ‘free’
Even
Emphasizes something unexpected or extreme.
Even children can solve this puzzle (Highlights that children, surprisingly, are included)
Also / Too
Emphasizes addition or inclusion.
She sings beautifully, and her sister also sings well.
Only
Limits or restricts the focus to a particular element.
Only John knows the answer (excludes everyone else)
Mainly / Mostly / Particularly
Focus on degree or importance.
This book is particularly useful for beginners.
Just / Simply
Emphasizes minimalism or precision.
It’s just what I needed.
Merely / Purely
Downplays other possibilities; emphasizes one aspect.
He is merely a student, not a teacher.
Especially
Highlights something as more significant than others.
I enjoyed the desserts, especially the chocolate cake.
Other
Largely, notably, primarily, chiefly,
Passive, for the agent: by whom?¶
Passive voice can help to emphasize the agent:
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspects meat for contamination.
Meat is inspected for contamination by the FDA.
Passive, for the object¶
The blast was caused by a canister of benzene.
Patient, experiencer, beneficiary,¶
With long passive, the by phrase should introduce and emphasize new information (in the context)
With short passive: good reason not to provide the identity of the doer, emphasise on what happened, the object and the action
Prepositional passive¶
English allows you to turn the object of a preposition into the subject of a passive sentence:
They looked at the map (active)
The map was looked at (passive, stranding preposition)
Start with a concept word or phrase:¶
Break the grammatical rules of SVO and put a word or phrase at the beginning
Barcelona—the very word evokes images of a vibrant, tumultuous, exotic city.
Topic prominence¶
English is a Fixed Word Order language (Subject-Verb-Object). However, it is also a language that requires the Topic (the thing we are talking about) to move to the front of a relative clause or question.
When the object of a preposition is the topic, we have a conflict:
The SVO Rule says: “Keep the object after the preposition.”
The Topic Rule says: “Move the object to the front.”
The Conflict (The “Why”):
The Topic Rule: You want the most important word (the topic) at the very front.
The Pied-Piping Alternative: To keep the grammar “proper” (Latin-style), you move the preposition too: “To liberty we are committed.”
The Problem: The very first word the reader sees is “To”—a small, weak preposition. The “Topic” (Liberty) is pushed to the second position.
By stranding the preposition, you “clear the way” for the topic to take the absolute first position in the clause.
Liberty we are committed to
Result: The topic is now in the most prominent position possible (the absolute start), and the sentence ends with a clear relationship.
Start with verb¶
Sometimes you can begin with a verb, along with an adverb like only or first, or a negative like nowhere, not until, or never:
First came the governor, then her economic advisers.
Cleft Sentence¶
…
Coordination¶
Make less important items subordinates
Verbal noun, a bit more formal¶
The careful selection of adjectives is essential.
Selecting adjectives carefully is essential.