Flow words for the movement of people, money and opinion, keeping the picture consistent.
Preview · progress not saved — Chapter 1 is free
Two sentences about the same movement of people. One of them has taken a side.
The number of people arriving in the region rose sharply between 2015 and 2019.
The region saw a sustained influx between 2015 and 2019.
Same period. Same people. Same direction of travel.
What has the second one added? Not a number, and not a fact. Say what it is before you read on.
Six items, three speeds, and the two that carry freight from somewhere outside the language.
| Speed | Item | What it names |
|---|---|---|
| slow, from below | groundswell | feeling rising gradually among many people |
| slow, downward | trickle down | passing from the top to the bottom in small amounts |
| steady, inward | influx | a large number arriving over a period |
| static, excessive | awash with | far more of something than can be used |
| fast, overwhelming | torrent | arriving fast and in unmanageable quantity |
| defensive | stem the tide | trying to stop something rising |
And note the verbs the family owns: things flow, surge, ebb, rise, recede, are channelled, are stemmed, are diverted. Those are the words that keep the picture consistent — and every one of them will clash with a building or an organic word in the same sentence.
Eight items, eight commitments. Match each to the claim a reader will take from it.
Terms
Definitions
Twelve flow expressions. Sort them by whether using one puts a position in your essay.
Sort each item into the correct category
Three chains. Ask what is moving before you decide whether it can be water.
Chain 1
The sentence to complete: Following the tax reforms, the country saw a substantial ______ of foreign capital.
Candidates: influx / increase
Step 1 — What is moving, and does making it a liquid commit you to anything?
Step 2 — Therefore the expert writes: the country saw a substantial of foreign capital.
Chain 2
You are writing a deliberately balanced paragraph about internal migration. The sentence to complete: Between 2015 and 2019 the region recorded a sharp ______ in people arriving from the north.
Candidates: influx / increase
Step 1 — What is moving this time, and what would the imagery assert?
Step 2 — Therefore the expert writes: the region recorded a sharp in people arriving from the north.
Chain 3
The situation: parents began writing to the council independently of one another, and no campaign group was involved. You want to name what happened.
Candidates: groundswell / campaign
Step 1 — What condition does the charged word attach, and is it met?
Step 2 — Therefore the expert writes: What followed was a genuine of parental opposition.