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«As a result» is old information,
reffering to the points made previously
in the paragraph.
Old ... New . . .
As a result, it is more economical to buy half of a lage, 20
pounder than to buy a small, 10-pound turkey.
At times this pattern of moving from old information to new information is broken. For example:
Old ... New . . .
And the bigger that whole bird is, the more meat
New . . .
you will have in proportion to bone. One-half
Old . . .
waste is what you'll get with a turkey weighing
less that 12 pounds.
Sometimes the sentence with new information at the beginning is confusing and needs rereading. However,
by violating expectations, you can also create surprise and emphasis, as the sentence above did by surprising us
with the phrase, «One-half waste . . .» To sum up, then, you can use various kinds of repetition, including the
old information / new information pattern, to make clear connections between sentences.
Exercise:
A. In the following paragraph, underline the part of each sentence that presents New Information.
Behavior of People in Groups
Often people who hold the higher positions in a given group overestimate their performance. Although this
may not always be true, it does indicate that the actual position in the group has much to do with the degree of
confidence a person may have. Thus a group member is more likely to feel highly confident about his own
performance if he holds a high position in the group or feels he has an important part to play.
B. Which sentence «violates» expectations by putting the New Information first?
UNIT 3. THE ORDERING OF SENTENCES IN A PARAGRAPH *
* Based on «Interactive Text Processing» in Interactive Approaches to Second Language Reading, ed. Patricia Cavell and David
Eskey.
Some of the Common Ordering Systems Are:
1. TIME ORDER
Time Order — (information organized in a chronology, time sequence).
Words that are clues or signal words often used when writing in chronological or time order:
first, next, last, in the end, days, dates, soon, later, finally, eventually, times, later on, in the meantime,
afterwards, not long after, at the end, at last, right away, in the beginning.
2. COMPARISON/CONTRAST
Comparison/contrast — (information organizes to show similarities, differences, advantages, disadvantages.
Speaker's perspective may be neutral or may take a position).
Words that are clues or signal words of a comparison or contrast:
but, different, however, like, contrary to, comparative forms (e.g., faster, slower), rather, on the contrary, as,
in the same way, instead, yet, similarly, on the other hand.