1. SENTENCE RHYTHM

2. Rhythm in spoken language is easy
Rhythm in spoken language is easy. You can stress the new information to make the meaning clear.
In writing, we should give more attention to rhythm.
There are many ways to control rhythm!

3. End Focus
Rhythm should be used to help readers understand the message.
End focus means the new information in the second sentence should be at the end.
E.g. (reader expectation and known-new link)
According to the newspaper, Chicago Tribune, Dewey won the 1948 presidential election. But correspondent Henning made a huge error. The voters had elected Truman.

4. End Focus

5. End Focus

6. Another example Which one meets the expectations?
Dennis told me that Barbara had an accident this morning on her way to work. But I think he got his facts wrong. She wreched her motorcycle yesterday.
Dennis told me that Barbara had an accident this morning on her way to work. But I think he got his facts wrong. Yesterday, she wreched her motorcycle.

8. End focus: use of passive
Does the end of the second sentence in this pair focus on known or new information?
Each year since 1901, scientists, artists, and peacemakers from around the world have received the Nobel Prize for helping humanity. The creator of dynamite and other explosives, Alfred Nobel, founded this award.
Each year since 1901, scientists, artists, and peacemakers from around the world have received the Nobel Prize for helping humanity. This award was founded by Alfred Nobel, the creator of dynamite and other explosives.

11. Use of adverbials and rhytm:
If you are using adverbials (time, place, manner…), you can use them as the opening position in the second sentence, BUT NOT ALWAYS!
If the adverbial is new info, use it at the end.
Now go to p. 104, Exercise 18

12. Controlling the Rhythm: The It-Cleft
Dennis told me that Barbara had an accident this morning on her way to work. But I think he got his facts wrong. It was yesterday that she wrecked her motorcycle.
The focus will change if you say:
It was Barbara who wrecked her motorcycle.
It was her own motorcycle that Barbara wrecked.

13. Functions of it-cleft To mark contrastive focus:
E.g. Dennis told me that Barbara had an accident this morning on her way to work. But I think he got his facts wrong. It was yesterday (not this morning) that she wrecked her motorcycle.
To highlight expressions of time or place:
E.g. It was in 1886 that the German pharmacologist Louis Lewin published the first systematic study of the cactus, to which his own name was subsequently given.

14. The What-Cleft Using what clause in subject position: E.gs
Barbara wrecked her motorcycle.
What Barbara wrecked was her motorcycle.
The larger perspective is always needed in the appreciation of art or life.
What is always needed in the appreciation of art, or life, is the larger perspective.

15. Thick fog reduced the visibility to zero.
What reduced the visibility to zero was the thick fog.
She told me something astonishing.
What she told me was astonishing.

16. The There-Transformation
A stranger is standing on the porch.
There is a stranger standing on the porch.
No concert tickets were available this morning.
There were no concert tickets available this morning.
Now go to Exercise 19, p. 108

17. Rhythm and comma
Comma might have a great role in shifting the peak of the stress!
E.g.
Other ways are much more common.
Other ways, in fact, are much more common.

18. Some examples
Commas that shift the emphasis can be used in different places in the sentence:
One obvious difference, of course, is vocabulary.
Consider, for example, these alternative ways of saying…
You might choose this order if, for example, you want to put the main emphasis…
When you study grammar at school, then, you are studying what you already know.
To be effective, however, writing also requires attention to rhetoric…

19. POWER WORDS
Some words, especially adjectives and adverbs, can also change the shift of the stress.
E.g.
The senator spoke about the problems of the homeless. (emphasis is on homeless)
The senator spoke eloquently about the problems of the homeless. (more emphasis on the way the senator spoke!)

20. Some example of powerful words
Adj/adv. preceded by another modifier:
Secretly jealous
Cautiously hopeful
Quite gracefully
Adj./adv. in superlative degree
Loudest
Most aggressively
Noun phrases including a powerful modifier
Complete chaos
Dangerous undertaking
Overwhelming courage…

21. Correlative Conjunctions
E.g.
Individuals and nations must learn to think about the environment. (focus is on environment)
Both individuals and nations must learn to think about the environment. (emphasis is on the subject)

22. Adverbials of Emphasis
Some adverbials are used to emphasize a particular structure and thus to control the pace and rhythm of the sentence.
Negatives: seldom, barely, scarcely, rarely, never…
Frequency words: afterwards, finally, sometimes…
Expressions for duration: already, no longer, still…
E.gs.
I could hardly sleep last night.
My roommate also had trouble sleeping.
Joe tells me that he rarely stays awake past midnight.

23. Negative Adverbials give even more emphasis if used at the beginning:
Never before has the country encoutered the kind of crisis it now faces with terrorism.
Seldom do I get a good night’s sleep on weekends.

24. The Common ‘Only’
‘Only’ is a very common way of use to emphasize messages
I’m taking only twelve credits this semester.
The car only looks old; it’s really quite new.
Joe isn’t only handsome; he’s smart too.
Paul cleans house only on Saturdays.

25. However, ‘only’ is generally misplaced in sentences:
I’m only taking twelve credits this semester.
(you’re not doing anything else??)
My grandfather only writes poetry.
(He doesn’t read poetry??)
Paul only cleans house on Saturdays.
(He doesn’t do anything else??)

26. Now go to group discussion on p. 115