ABSTRACT
This unit deals with the sequence in which we mention things in a text as a whole, or in a paragraph, and in the wording of individual sentences, and how this may create emphasis, or surprise.
Just as a writer must make choices as to the exact words and phrases to use, choosing between similar alternatives, such as sofa and settee, or between different focuses on the same content, such as car or wheels or MG, so too he or she must make choices about the sequence in which words, phrases, sentences and ideas are to occur. Perhaps the most striking example of this comes from stories where there is a flashback. This is a stylistic option in the sense that the ‘same’ narrative may be told in a different sequence. Take Jack and the Beanstalk. We could start:
Opening 1 Once upon a time there was a poor widow and her son Jack…
and then follow through the story in the same sequence as the imaginary events occur. Or we could start
Opening 2 One morning Jack woke up and saw a huge beanstalk outside his bedroom window.
