2nd to 3rd Draft - Flow

Writing academically while maintaining a level of simplicity is challenging. The writer must balance the complexity of a big idea while maintaining understandable language, conciseness and cohesiveness. In the midst of this, there is the matter of flow, which a lot of students are worried about. In the style of academic writing, flow can be divided into two. One type of flow is connection between ideas, and concerns itself with structure, logic and cohesiveness. The other type of flow is concerned with connection within an idea; how a paragraph and sentence is written. The between-flow is established while outlining, while within-flow is established while drafting. So what is good flow in a text, and how do we get it? 

To understand the flow of a text, it helps to divide the text into three parts:

• Global level

Is concerned with the text as a whole. Includes title and main chapters (introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion). The Global structure of a text can be found in the table of contents, or via outlining and reversed outlining. Flow in this level is between ideas.

• Regional level

Is concerned with the paragraphs within a chapter, for instance within the discussion part of a thesis. Flow in this level is between ideas.

• Local level

Is concerned with the sentences within a paragraph and their connection to each other, as well as within a sentence. Flow in this level is within an idea.

Every academic paper has a narrative, which means that the paper is a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Unlike fictional stories, where the point is hidden from the reader until the end, academic writing reveals the point right away. After revealing, arguments or background-information that illuminate the main point follows, before concluding by repeating the main point once more. Global and regional flow is established through connection between ideas, whether it be by similarity in theme, time, size or relevance to the main point. Local flow, within a paragraph, is established through SEEC structure, while flow from sentence to sentence is achieved using a multitude of techniques - many of whom are already familiar to most students. All these techniques are used to connect ideas, and can be done while outlining and drafting.

Achieving cohesion between ideas.

To achieve cohesion between ideas, a writer must structure their text. Several options for structures exist, and can be used interchangeably both on global and regional levels. 

Examples of flow structures are 

• IMRaD
  • Introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion
  • Is usually only a form of global structure. 
• Chronological
  • Moving from the oldest to newest idea
• Groupings of similar ideas
  • Pros vs. cons, causes and effects
• Moving from large to small (as in this module page)
• Assertion, evidence, reasoning
  • As in an argumentative essay
• Sequential
  
  • Describe a process or a sequence of events step-by-step

And many more. Writers are encouraged to make lists or mind-maps of their assignments' ideas to reveal connections.

 

• Global flow

The global flow of an academic text can be recognized in the title and table of contents. A global flow concerns itself with the text's main idea and arguments that support it. If a table of context is not used, writers are encouraged to use outlining or reversed outlining to uncover their global flow. A global flow can look like this:

• Title
• Thesis statement
• Background
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
• Materials and Methods
• Results
• Discussion
  • Key point 1
  • Key point 2
  • Key point 3

In a text with for instance IMRaD structure, the introduction (theory), methods and materials, results and discussion would all belong to the Main text. In addition, ideas belonging to the global flow (for instance key point 2) can be further divided into sub-structures containing regional flows.

• Regional flow

Regional flow is concerned with coherence between ideas in the main text, for instance in the background or discussion part of an IMRaD text. That means cohesion between paragraphs. Examples of structures include chronological, idea-groupings, large-small and argumentative flow structures.

No matter the structure, ideas between paragraphs must cohere in a logical way. That means building the text in a way that starts with beginning/easy/old/known information and moves towards the end/difficult/new/unknown information. Flow structures mentioned above (chronological, sequential, theme-based) can also be used at this level. Further guidelines for paragraph cohesion are: 

• The paragraph has a clear topic sentence
• Has only one idea per paragraph
• Includes examples and explanations

Flow between paragraphs is then followed by flow within a paragraph; local flow.

 

Achieving flow within an idea.

Local flow

A paragraph with one clear idea is a cohesive paragraph, but how is a paragraph structured cohesively? Generally, a paragraph should be structured using the SEEC-arrangement. 

• Statement sentence
  • States what the paragraph is going to contain, without being self-referencing (i.e. "this paragraph is going to be about...")
  • "Students who visit their university's Writing Centre get better grades", or "Writing Centres around the world unites to educate students about academic writing", or "Fruits are the mature ovary of a populating plant, often containing seeds."
• Examples and Explanation
  • Further explains and illuminates what the statement sentence means, and how we got to this information.
  • "One study correlates students' usage of Writing Centres with higher grades. The higher grades are mediated by the students' improvement in communicating their knowledge.", or "With the use of open-access web-pages, Writing Centres are able to share information about academic writing with other Writing Centres, as well as students. The list in table 3 includes websites from several American Universities' Writing Centres, and their impact on each other as well as students.", or "Fruits are diverse in appearance, and nutritional composition, ranging from sweet and fleshy, like apples and oranges, to more savory varieties like tomatoes and cucumbers."
• Conclusion or transition
  • A sentence that concludes the paragraph or transitions into another.
  • "Thus Writing Centres are key insitutions that must be maintained.", or "Writing Centres are also able to increase students' grades.", or "As a result, fruits are found in a variety of cuisines."

 

Signposting

One way of improving the flow of a text is through signposting Links to an external site.. Signposting is using words and sentences that lead the reader through the information in the text. We signpost to clarify the order of information, and to establish relation between information.

• Major signposting

Is a roadmap for the reader, so they have the correct expectations when reading the actual text. Phrases like "To begin with...", "In the following section...", "As indicated earlier..." and "Having considered... we will now consider..."

• Minor signposting

Identifies relations between information in the text. Phrases include, but is not limited to: "However...", "Furthermore...", "Moreover...", "On the other hand...", "Additionally...", "Therefore...", and many more. Links to an external site.

 

Old to new

Another important aspect of flow is the order of information. Reading a sentence beginning with the most difficult piece of information is hard. Begin therefore with the old/known/easy information, and end with the new/unknown/difficult. More on this here.

 

Repetition

In academic writing as in commercials: a good thing can never be repeated too often. This includes not using unspecific pronouns.

 

Unspecific pronouns

To vary our language, we often substitute a noun for a pronoun. The substituted noun is called an antecedent.

"Using lab coats protects your clothes. Then they don't get dirty."

And while it is obvious that they in this sentence means clothes, because clothes is the only noun that comes before the pronoun, the choice of antecedent becomes increasingly difficult, the more nouns we have. In the sentence

"The scientists use lab coats to protect their clothes. Then they don't get dirty."

The choice is less clear. A rule of thumb should also be that every sentence in academic writing should be able to stand on its own, in case of citation. That rules out most pronouns.

To clarify unspecific pronouns, repeat the noun one extra time. Otherwise, a summary noun can be used, and the sentence above would look like this:

"The scientists use lab coats to protect their clothes. Then their clothes don't get dirty."

In which clothes becomes a summary noun.

 

Parallel structure

To further increase sentence-flow, parallel structure can be used. That means using the same grammatical tense for each object in a series.

Not parallel: eat, sitting, talked

Parallel: eating, sitting, talking

Not parallel: one, 2, III, four

Parallel: one, two, three, four

Not parallel: Driving this car in the middle of nowhere makes the wheels turn around.

Parallel: Driving this car in the middle of nowhere is making the wheels turn around. 

 

Nominalization

Last, but not least is the changing of a verb into a noun, called nominalization. Academics nominalize, meaning they change the verb of the sentence into a noun, requiring a helping verb and a nominalization-suffix instead. Examples include:

"A decision was made", "The car is driven", "Scientists use pipettes"

in which decide, drive and pipette are the real verbs, and was, is and use are helping verbs. 

To identify nominalizations in a text:

Look for common nominalization suffixes: Many nominalizations end in specific suffixes. Common ones include:

• • -tion/-sion (e.g., "implementation" from "implement")
  • -ment (e.g., "development" from "develop")
  • -ance/-ence (e.g., "resistance" from "resist")
  • -ity (e.g., "ability" from "able")
  • -ing (gerunds, e.g., "running" from "run")

Nominalizations also occur when using passive over active verbs.

For further information

https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/flow/ Links to an external site.

https://writingcenter.uagc.edu/making-your-writing-flow Links to an external site.

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/graduate_writing/documents/Flow-Handout.pdf Links to an external site.