2022-07-28再论连贯性：原则1——围绕统一的主题

Chapter V: Coherence I

Chapter VI: Coherence II

in Style Toward Clarity and grace

作者在第三章介绍过写作的连贯性之后，居然在第五第六章继续讨论该问题 ，足见其视连贯性之于写作的重要意义。记得第三章介绍连贯性的两条重要原则是：

1. 将旧信息放在句首，新信息放在句尾，后一句的句首承接前一句的句尾，如此实现句与句之间彼此的自然衔接。

2. 要设计好段落的主题，句与句之间围绕相同的主题展开。（2022-06-26如何写出流畅的文章？ - (jianshu.com)）

这两章主要围绕以下5个原则展开论述：

Principle 1: A cohesive paragraph has consistent topic strings.

Principle 2: A cohesive paragraph has another set of strings running through it that we will call thematic strings.

Principle 3: A cohesive paragraph introduces new topic and thematic strings in a predictable location: at the end of the sentence(s) that introduce the paragraph.

Principle 4: A coherent paragraph will usually have a single sentence that clearly articulates its point.

Principle 5: A coherent paragraph will typically locate that point sentence in one of two places.

为了实现第一个原则，作者认为可以从读者的视角对该原则做出诠释：

1. Readers need familiar information at the beginnings of sentences. （读者希望在句首看到熟悉的内容）

2. Readers will take the main characters of the story as the most consistently familiar pieces of information.（读者会将句中的主要角色作为最主要的信息）

These two principles should encourage us to use the sequence of topics usually subjects to focus the reader's attention on a limited set of referents, usually characters, but also central repeated concepts. By consistent topics, we do not mean identical. The topics should constitute a sequence that makes consistent sense to the reader. （基于上述两个原则，写作时应当紧密围绕相同的概念和主题展开论述，但并不一定要使用相同的主要角色。）

e.g. 

Clark's practice of carefully mapping every fossil made it possible to follow the evolutionary development of various types through time. Beautiful sequences of antelopes, giraffes and elephants were obtained; new species evolving out ofold and appearing in younger strata. In short, evolution was taking place before the eyes of the Omo surveyors, and they could time it. The finest examples of this process were in several lines of pigs which had been common at Omo and had developed rapidly. Unsnarling the pig story was turned over to paleontologist Basil Cooke. He produced family trees for pigs whose various types were so accurately dated that pigs themselves became measuring sticks that could be applied to fossils of questionable age in other places that had similar pigs.

上述这段话围绕的统一主题是evolution。 可以看出，虽然每句话使用不同的角色做主语，但是都是围绕着evolution这一主题展开论述的，所以读起来自然流畅，没有突兀感，实现了连贯性的目的。