4.5 Emphasising

In your writing you will be making statements that vary in importance. You will therefore need to make sure that the most important ones are given more emphasis than the less important ones. Details in your argument have to be presented in such a way that readers understand their relative significance.

How can I emphasise points visually?
􀂃 make use of tables, graphs, charts and other visual forms of illustration in support of your written text. It is easier for many readers to extract information from a diagram than to follow the detail of your written argument. However, you should realise that the more tables you include, the less will be the impact of each.

􀂃 visually, text that has white space around it stands out more than something that is surrounded by a lot of other text. Therefore
* make use of headings, separated from the body of writing
* occasionally break up your paragraph into bullet points. (Though this should not be overused, except perhaps in a report where it is more acceptable)

Gallium arsenide is a remarkable material with a battery of useful qualities:
􀂃 It moves electrons around three to six times faster than silicon.
􀂃 It emits light - something silicon cannot do.
􀂃 It absorbs sunlight more efficiently than silicon, making possible better solar cells
􀂃 It uses less power than silicon.
* make sure you put the main idea at the start or at the end of your paragraph so that its importance is not concealed by other sentences around it
* vary the length of your sentences, and of your paragraphs. In particular, sentences or paragraphs that are shorter than the norm do stand out.

How can I use language to emphasise points?
In spoken English, you can emphasise parts of a sentence simply by using stress on important words. In writing, of course, we cannot do this. Instead, we can emphasise particular words or phrases by putting everything into a kind of relative clause except the words we want to emphasise. These structures are called cleft sentences.

􀂃 It was …who / that …
Röntgen discovered X-Rays in 1895. (no emphasis)
It was Röntgen who discovered X-Rays in 1895. (emphasis on the person)
It was in 1895 that Röntgen discovered X-Rays. (emphasis on the date)
It was not until 1895 that Röntgen discovered X-Rays. (emphasis on the fact that it wasn't earlier than this)
It was X-Rays that Röntgen discovered in 1895. (emphasis on what Röntgen discovered)

Other cleft sentence structures:

􀂃 What … was …
􀂃 The reason why … is that …

no emphasis
Einstein showed that space-time and gravitational forces are profoundly related.
The southern hemisphere shows little response to eruptions in the north because it is dominated by oceans that damp down any change.

emphasis
What Einstein showed was that space-time and gravitational forces are profoundly related.
The reason why the southern hemisphere shows little response to eruptions in the north is that it is dominated by oceans that damp down any change.

You can draw attention to the new information that you want to present by changing the sequence of the parts of a sentence, using such structural forms as:
􀂃 One / The only … is / was …
One erasable system that is being considered by developers like IBM and 3M is a technology called magneto-optic recording.
The only time this effect has been reported was in 1995.

You can add emphasis by starting your sentence with a negative expression or one including only. Note that with these structures the subject and the main verb in the sentence have to be inverted, or changed round.
􀂃 negative expressions such as Never…, Seldom…, Rarely…; Under no circumstances…, At no time…, In no way…

no emphasis

He did not allow his assistants to be absent under any circumstances.
He had never managed to use his deductive skills so well as in this experiment.
We will know the next steps to take when the report has been carefully analysed.
Scientists have recently discovered a cure for certain types of leukemia.

emphasis
Under no circumstances did he allow his assistants to be absent.
Never had he managed to use his deductive skills so well as in this experimen
Only when the report has been carefully analysed will we know the next steps to take.
Only recently have scientists discovered a cure for certain types of leukemia.

You can also add emphasis by using balancing or parallel structures in a sentence, e.g. not only … but (also) …; just as … so …

Not only was Röntgen's discovery of X-Rays important in itself, but it led directly to the discovery of radioactivity.

Just as Avogadro saved his idea that equal volumes of gases contain equal numbers of molecules by introducing a new idea, so Kekulé rescued his idea that carbon is tetravalent by inventing the carbon-carbon bond.

Points to check in your writing
􀂃 Have I given the right degree of emphasis to my important points?
􀂃 If not, how can I highlight them better?
􀂃 Can I make more, or better, use of visual techniques to make important points stand out?
e.g.
* tables, charts, graphs
* page layout
* using bullet points
* positioning ideas in paragraphs
􀂃 Do I need to change the grammatical structure of sentences to give more emphasis to important points?

4.6 Generalising

Your writing will probably consist of a mixture of both general statements and specific statements and it is important to distinguish between the two. Generalising means making an overall statement, for example in the form of a conclusion, on the basis of supporting statements that provide the details or the evidence.

Are there any generalisations I should avoid?

Yes. For example:
􀂃 the 'sweeping' over-generalisation, in which you say something is true in every situation. Your statement may have some element of truth but cannot be treated as valid because there are so many exceptions and it is unsupported by evidence.
Boys are better at science at school than girls.

􀂃 expressing your own viewpoint as if it were a generally accepted truth
X is obviously the most highly regarded physicist of his generation.

􀂃 making non-statements that are either so obvious that they need not be stated or so vague that they have no real meaning.
After recognising problems with the solar mirrors, we carried out some corrective procedures.

If this sentence stands alone without supporting information, it is far too general. It raises more questions than it answers: What were the problems with the mirrors? How many mirrors were involved? What precisely were the corrective procedures taken?

How should I make use of general statements in my writing?

􀂃 Your main, or 'topic', sentence in a paragraph is often a general statement which is then explained, amplified, supported, exemplified or modified in the rest of the paragraph. The first sentence in the paragraph below is a general statement round which the rest of the paragraph is structured. See also Section 2.3 Paragraph Writing.

Industry produces a large number of poisonous metal wastes, most of which are very dangerous to humans. There are five extremely dangerous ones: lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium and arsenic. Breathing in even tiny quantities of these metals damages the heart and lungs; and eating these wastes destroys the kidneys and liver. Scientists also claim that cancer is caused by some of these toxic metals.

􀂃 When describing information in a figure, e.g. how something operates, the principal, or generalised, point you want to make can appear in your main text, with subsidiary information given under the figure.
Blackett made the cloud chamber more effective for cosmic rays by combining it with counters (Fig. 3.21). Only when the counters fired was an expansion made and stereoscopic photographs taken, thus enormously reducing the waste of plates and time in scanning them.
(This text is accompanied by a labelled diagram. The text under the diagram explains how each part of the cloud chamber operates)

􀂃 Similarly, when describing data in a graph or chart, the primary facts you want to highlight can be presented in the form of general statements in your text, with the detail merely left visible on the graph itself.
Fig. 7.1 illustrates how the growth in population in the US has been accompanied by a trend to urbanisation.
(This text accompanies a graph with 2 axes, one showing a time scale, the other the % of US population living in cities)

What language can I use when making general statements?
The main principle is to tone down your statements, make them less absolute. For more ideas about this, see hedging.

􀂃 verbs and verb phrases
* tend (not) to …, have a tendency to …
* be inclined to …
* seem to …, appear to …
* It appears / seems to / that …
* It would seem / appear to / that …

􀂃 adverbs of frequency: avoid absolutes like always / never
* usually, normally, generally
* regularly, often, frequently
* sometimes, occasionally, at times, now and again
* rarely, seldom, hardly ever

􀂃 modifying adverbs
* mainly, primarily, principally, chiefly, above all, overall
* in general, on the whole, as a rule, largely
* for the most part, mostly
* especially, particularly, notably
* clearly, obviously, evidently, distinctly, plainly, noticeably
* significantly
* relatively, comparatively
* somewhat, rather, fairly, quite
* slightly

Points to check in your own writing
􀂃 Have I made any sweeping or over-generalisations that I need to cut out?
􀂃 Are all my general statements, e.g. 'topic' sentences in paragraphs or conclusion, backed up the right evidence and examples?
􀂃 Have I used the right hedging language to give the tone I want to my general statements?