PDF《Reader Interpretations》

21 The Topic Position www.letpub.com

22 The Topic Position In the stress position the reader needs and expects closure and fulfillment;

in the topic position the reader needs and expects perspective and context The information that begins a sentence establishes for the reader a perspective for viewing the sentence as a unit. The TP refers to the beginning of the sentence Bees disperse pollen vs Pollen is dispersed by bees The topic position provides linkages www.letpub.com

23 The Topic Position Large earthquakes along a given fault segment do not occur at random intervals because it takes time to accumulate the strain energy for the rupture. The rates at which tectonic plates move and accumulate strain at their boundaries are approximately uniform. Therefore, in first approximation, one may expect that large ruptures of the same fault segment will occur at approximately constant time intervals. If subsequent main shocks have different amounts of slip across the fault, then the recurrence time may vary, and the basic idea of periodic mainshocks must be modified. For great plate boundary ruptures the length and slip often vary by a factor of 2. Along the southern segment of the San Andreas fault the recurrence interval is

145 years with variations of several decades. The smaller the standard deviation of the average recurrence interval, the more specific could be the long-term prediction of a future mainshock. www.letpub.com

24 The Topic Position So what'

s wrong with this text? Let'

s look closely at the information in each sentence'

s topic position: Large earthquakes The rates Therefore...one subsequent mainshocks great plate boundary ruptures the southern segment of the San Andreas fault the smaller the standard deviation... Writing that continually begins sentences w/ new information and ends w/ old information the end = bad www.letpub.com

25 The Topic Position Here is a revised version: Large earthquakes along a given fault segment do not occur at random intervals because it takes time to accumulate the strain energy for the rupture. The rates at which tectonic plates move and accumulate strain at their boundaries are roughly uniform. Therefore, nearly constant time intervals (at first approximation) would be expected between large ruptures of the same fault segment. [However], the recurrence time may vary;

the basic idea of periodic mainshocks may need to be modified if subsequent mainshocks have different amounts of slip across the fault. [Indeed], the length and slip of great plate boundary ruptures often vary by a factor of 2. [For example], the recurrence intervals along the southern segment of the San Andreas fault is

145 years with variations of several decades. The smaller the standard deviation of the average recurrence interval, the more specific could be the long term prediction of a future mainshock. www.letpub.com

26 The Topic Position Our revised version is much easier to read! We can see that most of our difficulty was owing not to any deficiency in our reading skills but rather to the author'

s lack of comprehension of our structural needs as readers Many authors rush to write down new ideas They don'

t revise their work;

the structure becomes sloppy and they forget to consider how the reader processes info www.letpub.com

27 Important Reminder The No.

1 problem in professional writing today is the ........