The Science Of Scientific Writing Set H Location in Sentences Multi-part Sentences Exercise 1 Maps for Sentences Exercise 2 Simple Sentences Final Page .
OVERVIEW: The way to well-written science
PART I: Paragraphs and Sentences
SET A: Paragraphs: The Maps Behind Them
SET B: Paragraphs: Using Maps to Meet Readers' Expectations
SET C: Paragraphs with Something Extra: Points and Tails
SET D: The Generic Section: Expectations and Maps as Blueprints
SET E: Scientific Sections: The Methods and Results
SET F: Scientific Sections: The Discussion
SET G : Scientific Sections: The Introduction
SET H : Sentences
SET I : The Paper as a Whole
PART II: The Paper and its Sections
SET 1: Argument Parts
SET 2: Indicator Words
SET 4: Locating Arguments in Prose
SET 5: Rationale's Essay Planner
SET 6: Evidence in Arguments: Basis Boxes
Synthesis 1: Position-Early Paragraphs
Synthesis 2: Position-Final Paragraphs
Synthesis 3: Writing a Discussion I
Synthesis 4: Writing a Discussion II
The importance of Location in multi-part sentences
Preamble: What are 'simple' and 'multi-part' sentences?
A simple English sentence is composed of a single, independent clause.
Example of a simple sentence
The hair samples were collected each day.
A multi-part sentence, as defined in this course, includes those sentences typically defined in English grammar as being "compound" or "complex", that is, in addition to one independent clause they contain:
* One or more additional independent clauses (that have a stand-alone sentence like feel and structure)
Example of a two-part compound sentence:
The hair samples were collected each day and they were then examined microscopically.
* One or more dependent clauses
Examples of a two-part complex sentence:
The hair samples were collected each day, which allowed us to correlate animal movements with weather conditions.
The hair samples, which could be found attached to low-lying branches, were collected each day.
I will also use "multi-part" to refer to those sentences that contain one or more phrases that have enough "weight" within the sentence to be separated from other parts by a comma ("phrase" is as defined in common English usage, rather than in linguistic theory, and is typically a short sentence part lacking a proper verb.)
Examples of a two-part sentence with one "weighty" phrase:
For species identification, the hair samples were collected each day.
The hair samples, gathered from low-lying branches, were collected each day.
A multi-part sentence may contain a mix of all three types of sentence part:
Example of a four-part sentence
For species identification, the hair samples, which could be found attached to low-lying branches, were collected each day and they were then examined microscopically.
Comparing the impact of the early and final parts of a two-part sentence
Compare your reactions to these two sentences, which provide exactly the same content:
(a) Although Kumar beats his dog, he's a nice guy.
(b) Kumar's a nice guy, but he beats his dog.
With respect to Kumar's "niceness", most people decide that version (a) supports it but version (b) casts it into doubt. This can be explained by the fact that people interpret the early part of a two-part sentence as providing older, "framework" content, with the final part focusing on newer, more important informaton. The information in the final part of the sentence thus acts like its "take-home message".
Comparing the impact of the early, middle and final parts of a three-part sentence
Let us start with a two-part sentence:
A most important factor in animal speciation is geographical isolation, and it can explain many divergences during evolution.
Most readers will consider that the new, important information concerns the role of geographical isolation in bird evolution (rather than in animals generally).
Now let's expand this sentence to three parts:
A most important factor in animal speciation is geographical isolation, and it can explain many divergences during evolution, but it fails to account for diversity within the birds.
The majority of readers will now consider that the take-home message concerns the failure of geographical isolation to explain bird evolution. If one wanted to include all the same basic information, but focus on the overall explanatory power of geographical isolation, one could shuflle the order:
A most important factor in animal speciation is geographical isolation, and while it falls down in explaining bird evolution, it has been very generally successful in understanding divergences in other animal types.
In this version, locating the content about bird evolution in the middle of the sentence will, for most readers, decrease its relative importance.
The Table below summarises what we have seen so far about multi-part sentences. Note that readers will interpret a sentence that has two or more middle sentences in the same way as that explained for the singular middle part of a three-part sentence.
Location |
Interpretation |
| Early | Framework, older, familiar, not the "take-home message" |
| Middle | Elaboration, newer, unfamiliar, not the "take-home message" |
| Final | Elaboration, newest, unfamiliar, is the "take-home message" |
Using the first part of a multi-part sentence to provide navigational context
In the examples above, the context provided by the first part of the sentence is conceptual, but in other cases it can be navigational:
As explained above, a most important factor in animal speciation is geographical isolation, and while it falls down in explaining bird evolution, it has been very generally successful in understanding divergences in other animal types.
A second reason to believe that this interpretation is correct is that the hair samples were collected each day.
As will be described in detail below, the hair samples were collected each day.
......