FLC Writing Program / Writing Conventions
Williams’ Emphasis
In Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace, Joseph Williams identifies several strategies for putting
“the right emphasis on the right words.”
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Move technical terms to end of sentences (It is especially important to locate new terms
well in your sentences and not overwhelm readers with too many new ideas.)
Avoid too much metadiscourse (“I think that,” “perhaps,” “certainly”) and blueprinting
(“In the next few sections, I am going to say”)
Use psychological not grammatical subjects (not just topic or “doer” of action but logical
character) and terms that will help readers understand your point
Stress the most emphatic part of the sentence (usually occurring at the end)
3 simple strategies
1. Trim the end of your sentence (especially condensing sprawled out prepositional phrases)
2. Shift peripheral ideas to the left
3. Shift new information to the right
6 ways to emphasize concepts
1. Passive (flip subject and object) (“Our children will breathe better air” to Better air will
be available to our children”)
2. “There are” at the beginning of a paragraph (“There are several actions citizens can take”;
“There are several actions that can be taken by citizens”)
3. “what” shift (“Change is what we really need” to “What we really need is change”)
4. “It” shift (Clean air is important for our children” to “It is so important to have clean air
for our children”)
5. Not only….but also
6. Avoid repetition; pronouns emphasize previous word (“Clean air is important for our
children” to “It is something we owe them.’)
Emphasizing ideas in paragraphs
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Topic sentences should include the most important idea in your paragraph (toward the
end of the sentence)
Following sentences should repeat the main idea in different subjects
Subsequent verbs, nouns and adjectives should repeat them.
For example, take the following sentence: A new political philosophy that could affect our
society well into the twenty-first century may emerge from these studies. “[T]hese studies” seems
like old information that should be at the beginning and “well into the twenty-first century”
seems like the most important information—the new that should be at the end. So, I rewrite this
sentence like this: These studies may produce a new political philosophy that could affect
our society well into the 21st century.