Learner refers back to a whole preceding argument with an abstract noun that also classifies it, which is the highest-value cohesion move available.
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Two paragraph openings that point at the same thing. One of them also tells you what it is.
Rents in the city rose by 40% over five years while median wages rose by 6%. Lower-paid workers moved steadily further out. Employers then raised wages to attract staff back, which pushed rents higher still.
Now two ways to open the next paragraph.
This has been visible in several cities since 2015.
This dynamic has been visible in several cities since 2015.
One word different. What did the second one do that the first did not?
Eighteen passages. Decide what kind of thing each one is before you decide what to call it.
Sort each item into the correct category
What each noun claims about the thing it points at, and the two that decide whether you have conceded an argument.
Each of these makes a specific claim about the shape of what you just described, and the claim has to be true.
this dynamic — two or more forces feeding each other. It needs a loop. If your paragraph described one thing causing another and stopping there, it is not a dynamic.
this tendency — something that recurs, or a disposition that keeps producing the same outcome. It needs repetition; a single event has no tendency in it.
such a shift — a change from one state to another. It needs a visible before and after. Note the article: such a shift, not such shift.
the pattern — a regularity across separate cases. It needs more than one case. Three cities doing the same thing is a pattern; one city doing it three times is a tendency.
The same board of argument, twice. Only the card changes, and it changes what the next paragraph can say.
Same board, same argument, same person. The card decides what the next paragraph is allowed to say.
Six preceding paragraphs, six nouns. Only one noun is true of each.
Terms
Definitions
Three chains where the noun you choose is the argument you are making.
Chain 1
The previous paragraph: Supporters say the charge reduces traffic, that reduced traffic improves air quality, and therefore that the charge improves air quality. You accept it as an argument and intend to limit its scope.
Candidates: this reasoning / the underlying assumption
Step 1 — Were premises offered and a conclusion drawn?
Step 2 — Therefore the expert writes: holds only where the traffic displaced does not simply move to another road.
Chain 2
The previous paragraph: Every costing in the document treats the current interest rate as holding for a decade. Nowhere is that defended. You intend to challenge the foundation.
Candidates: this reasoning / the underlying assumption
Step 1 — Was this argued, or taken for granted?
Step 2 — Therefore the expert writes: is that rates will not move for ten years, which no section of the document defends.
Chain 3
The previous paragraph: Rents rose 40% in five years while median wages rose 6%. That is the whole paragraph — one sentence, one fact.
Candidates: this phenomenon / this
Step 1 — Is the reference long or ambiguous enough to need a classifying noun?
Step 2 — Therefore the expert writes: alone would explain much of the outflow.