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The Emphasis Check
One gate, then three dials that turn both ways.
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One gate you pass or do not. Three dials that turn both ways.
Learner repairs a paragraph that over-uses emphatic devices, and one that under-uses them, without being told which is which.
Preview · progress not saved — Chapter 1 is free
The chapter assembled, and the repair nobody is warned about.
1. Is a contrast actually being made?
2. Is the device on the paragraph's claim?
3. Is the emphasised element the new information?
4. Is there more than one device here?
Question one is the gate. If nothing is being contrasted, the others do not arise — remove the device.
One gate, then three dials that turn both ways.
One gate you pass or do not. Three dials that turn both ways.
Four chains. Two remove a device and two add one.
1. Opening a body paragraph: It is congestion charging that changes how people travel.
Is a contrast being made?
The repair:
2. The claim is in sentence 2. The cleft sits on sentence 4, an example.
Is the device on the claim?
The repair:
3. You have just quoted a reader's belief that fuel prices cut traffic. Your next sentence reads: The charge cut traffic.
Is a contrast being made?
The repair:
4. A paragraph with four sentences and three devices.
How many devices should remain?
On which sentence?
Eight sentences across two paragraphs, unmarked.
Paragraph A
(1) It is congestion charging that changes how people travel. (2) What a driver compares is the charge against a train fare. (3) For marginal journeys, the comparison tips. (4) Rarely does a policy work this directly.
1: · 2: · 3: · 4:
Paragraph B
(5) Many people assume that free museum entry simply raises visitor numbers. (6) The change is in who visits, not how many. (7) Visits from the poorest districts rose fastest after 2001. (8) Numbers alone would have hidden that.
5: · 6: · 7: · 8:
Five sentences, reported back as choices.
Prompt: Should city centres charge drivers to enter?
Write five sentences arguing one side.
No instruction this time about devices — decide for yourself whether any sentence needs one.
Five sentences.
Say which direction your own writing errs in.