Functional Sentence Perspective, Composition, and Reading

Abstract

In Linguistic Influences upon the Teaching of Composition: Evidence from our Textbooks,2 James Duckworth and Joyce MacAllister note that authors of many recent composition texts disagree about which portion of a sentence in discourse is the critical portion. That is, which portion do readers focus on most intently and recall most accurately? If we knew, we could advise students that if context and syntax allow, and if no clarity or desired stylistic effects are lost, they should express in that portion the information that they wish their readers to concentrate on most and remember best. That information would almost certainly be that which the students consider newest or most important. But, as Duckworth and MacAllister point out, many authors disagree about whether such information should appear early or late in sentences. This disagreement threatens to harm many students. Many might often be expressing newest or most important information in the portion of sentences that readers actually concentrate on and remember least. Consequently, their texts will probably be difficult to read and recall. Thus identifying the critical portion of a sentence would be valuable for both composition and reading teachers.