Creating flow between paragraphs
One way of creating flow between paragraphs is by telling your readers something ‘old’ before you tell them something ‘new’. By telling your readers what they already know (as long as you’re not too long and boring about it), you engage their interest. They agree with what you’ve written and so are receptive to what you have to say next.Great speech makers use this technique of ‘old before new’ to great effect. Martin Luther King began his ‘I have a dream’ speech by talking about the indisputable past before moving to talk about the present.
‘Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.
‘But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of the American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.’
I got this idea from a new Australian book on business writing — Writing at Work by Neil James. It's an excellent book.
Applying the ‘old before new’ technique to a work situation, a writer was seeking approval to trial a new waste management technology. Before talking about the proposed trials, which would cost a considerable amount of money, the writer described preliminary trials that indicated the technology had great potential.
Labels: paragraphs, writing
posted by Unknown @ 11:13 PM
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