You’ve Never Read the Best Book on Writing
- Nathan Belcher
- 3 days ago
- 14 min read
How much is writing worth to your personal and professional life? What if you could increase the clarity of your writing, leading your audience to a better understanding of your arguments and ideas? There is a way to improve the quality of your writing — that way is through George Gopen's Reader Expectation Approach.
Dr. George Gopen was a long-time professor at Duke University in the English and Law departments, teaching students with the Reader Expectation Approach. The Reader Expectation Approach looks at writing in the English language through the lens of the reader; readers of English have expectations for sentences, paragraphs, and documents. As Gopen says in The Sense of Structure,
“Good prose — on the sentence level, the paragraph level, and most often on the document level as well — tends to demonstrate three consistent characteristics:
Nothing arrives that the reader cannot handle at the moment of its arrival.
Everything leans forward.
Everything actually goes in one of the directions it had been leaning” (p.91).
When you as the writer perform these three actions consistently, the reader begins to trust you. As the trust between you and the reader deepens, the reader stops worrying about the writing and focuses more deeply on your arguments and ideas. By allowing the reader to focus on your arguments and ideas, the reader can more clearly understand your point of view and determine the merits of your arguments and ideas.
The Reader Expectation Approach
In The Sense of Structure, Gopen discusses and applies the Reader Expectation Approach to three parts of writing: Sentences, paragraphs, and documents. Each part of writing must be controlled for you to build trust with the reader and direct the energy of the reader towards your arguments and ideas. Another critical aspect of writing is punctuation; the way you direct the reader through sentences, paragraphs, and the document is with punctuation. Let's further examine Gopen's ideas about sentences, paragraphs, documents, and punctuation.
Sentences
The Reader Expectation Approach begins with sentences. Although other books on writing may tell you about sentence construction, the other books never tell you the reasoning for sentence construction. The Reader Expectation Approach is different — it provides both the how to when structuring sentences and the rationale for why you should carefully structure sentences. Sentences take the shape of your arguments and ideas; more complex arguments and ideas require more complex sentences. Even if a sentence is simple, every sentence contains a minimum of three structural locations:
Topic Position
Verb
Stress Position.
These structural locations guide the reader through your sentence, allowing the greatest number of people to interpret your sentence — and therefore your arguments and ideas — as you intend.
The Topic Position is the first structural location for every sentence. In the Topic Position readers expect to receive information about the way this sentence connects backwards to the previous sentences; the Topic Position also tells the reader that this sentence is about whoever or whatever shows up first. By being the backward link to previous sentences and answering the question of “whose story?” the Topic Position creates context for the rest of the sentence. This context controls the meaning of the sentence, allowing you to direct the reader’s attention through the rest of the sentence.
The Verb is the action of the sentence, providing an answer to the question “what is going on here?” The verb you use to establish the action in each sentence must be the focal action of the sentence. However, the verb can be active or passive — the way you structure the sentence will determine the tense of the verb.
In addition to being the action of the sentence, readers of English expect the verb to follow very closely with the grammatical subject of the sentence. The subject-verb relationship creates context for both the subject and verb; the meaning of both the subject and verb can change with the context. If the verb does not appear near the subject, readers begin to skip sections of the sentence to find a suitable verb. If no verb is found, readers look backwards through the sentence — creating confusion about the context and meaning of the sentence.
A Stress Position happens when the reader reaches a punctuation mark — period, colon, or semi-colon — that signals a full syntactic closure. English was created in cultures where there is a strong desire in all aspects of life for closure; readers of English direct that desire for closure as they read sentences. The expectation of closure within each sentence happens as the reader approaches a period, colon, or semi-colon, generating a subtle state of heightened emphasis. This heightened emphasis occurs over and over when reading in English, becoming ingrained in our reading habits and creating Stress Positions.
To bring together the concepts of the Topic Position, Verb, and Stress Position, let’s look at two example sentences:
Dave is a hard worker, but he also likes to party.
Dave likes to party, but he also is a hard worker.
Dave is in the Topic Position of each sentence, with the words “is” and “likes” as the verbs. The interesting difference in these sentences is the change in the Stress Position: In sentence 1, the Stress Position has “party;” in sentence 2, the Stress Position has “hard worker.” In sentence 1, the probable interpretation is that Dave is a “work hard / play hard” kind of guy — Dave does his job, but knows how to party. In sentence 2, the probable interpretation is that Dave comes across as a partier but he is actually a hard worker. The Reader Expectation Approach argues that the difference in the Stress Positions changes the meaning of the sentence, which you as the writer can use to guide the reader through your arguments and ideas.
Understanding the structural locations in sentences allows you as the write to direct the reader’s energy through the sentence. By placing the subject of the sentence in the Topic Position, the reader gets an answer to the question “whose story?” and a backward link to preceding sentences. The Verb provides the action of the sentence, with the subject-verb relationship providing context for both the subject and the verb. Stress Positions are located at punctuation marks that signal full syntactic closure, creating spaces for the sentence’s most important information. By consistently using these structural locations well, you as the writer can combine sentences effectively — leading to the reader understanding your arguments and ideas.
Paragraphs
In the same way that readers of English have expectations for sentences, readers of English have expectations for paragraphs. Reading a paragraph is a liquid experience; the Topic Position(s), Verb, and Stress Positions(s) of the previous sentence change the interpretation of the current sentence. You as the writer can use sentence-to-sentence connections to direct the reader’s perception of your arguments and ideas — but more importantly, the sentence-to-sentence connections push your own thinking, causing you to order, refine, and extend your thoughts.
To control the sentence-to-sentence connections in the paragraph, the Reader Expectation Approach gives two methods: Topic Changing and Topic Stringing. Topic Changing is the method of using different topics in the Topic Position for each sentence for a series of sentences. By consistently changing topics — while making backward connections with each previous topic — you can create a forward-moving progression through the series of sentences. Topic Changing works well whenever your writing has narrative or descriptive writing that focuses on “what happens next;” Topic Changing creates a flow that leads readers through your argument and ideas.
In contrast, Topic Stringing is the method of using the same topic in the Topic Position for each sentence in a series of sentences. Although the topics are the same, the Stress Positions are different; by adding more information in the Stress Positions, you add more to the story of the topic. Topic Stringing works well when you have several arguments or ideas and need to build coherence throughout a paragraph. Paragraphs can have both Topic Changing and Topic Stringing. These two methods are inherently neither good nor bad ways to structure the connections between sentences; the methods are used to full effect when you match Topic Changing or Topic Stringing to the shape of your arguments and ideas, guiding the reader through the paragraph.
Topic Changing and Topic Stringing are ways to lead the reader through your arguments and ideas in a paragraph, but the fundamental reason for writing the paragraph has two parts: One part is the issue; the other part is the point. “The issue refers to the intellectual geographic boundaries within which the discussion might wander; the point is the interesting place within those boundaries at which the reader is intended to arrive” (p. 113). Using the issue and the point, paragraphs can be structured in several ways:
Here is the issue, which culminates in this point, which I will now discuss.
Here is the issue, which I continue to discuss until I am ready to make this comprehensive point.
Deciding which main shape of the paragraph will depend on your arguments and ideas within the paragraph; some paragraphs work better as issue-point-discussion, whereas others will work better with issue-discussion-point. (Note: Some paragraphs — known as narrative paragraphs — begin with an issue but do not have a point. Narrative paragraphs simply present information, but readers understand the information will be used later in the document to make a larger point.)
In addition to the issue, point, and discussion, the structure of a paragraph also depends on the expectations readers have for paragraphs. Readers typically expect to receive the context of the paragraph in the first several sentences of a paragraph, creating the issue for the paragraph. The expectation of the issue in the first several sentences of a paragraph is a structural position; you as the writer can leverage the issue’s structural location at the beginning of the paragraph to ensure the reader has enough context for the issue. The expectation for the location of the point of the paragraph is trickier: depending on the needs of your arguments and ideas the location of the point can change. Readers initially expect the point of a paragraph to be the last sentence of the paragraph’s issue, but if this expectation is not met then the reader shifts the expectation to the end of the paragraph. When the point is at the end of the paragraph, readers expect the point to either be the last sentence of the paragraph or the last sentence of the discussion. If your arguments and ideas are complex, readers need the point at both the beginning and end of the paragraph — this helps readers maintain focus on the point of the paragraph and understand your arguments and ideas.
By using the methods of Topic Changing and Topic Stringing with the structural locations in a paragraph, you as the writer can create complex — yet clear! — paragraphs that advance your arguments and ideas. Well-crafted paragraphs allow the reader to focus their energy — not on the structure of the paragraph, but on the arguments and ideas within the paragraph.
Documents
The Reader Expectation Approach places minimal emphasis on the organization of documents because the structure of the document is tightly tied to the structure of the document and your arguments and ideas. Imagine a legal brief, business memo, and article in a scientific journal — these will have different formats and structures according to the accepted standards of the discipline. However, the Reader Expectation Approach does identify what may the strongest of all reader expectations: Unless directed otherwise by the discipline, the last sentence of the paragraph before the beginning of the main discussion will be the contract statement. This contract statement is a sentence that articulates the nature of the article as a whole; the point of the document is to discuss, extend, or refine the arguments and ideas in the contract statement.
To use a meta-example, the contract statement for this document is the sentence “There is a way to improve the quality of your writing — that way is through George Gopen's Reader Expectation Approach.” The rest of this document discusses parts of the Reader Expectation Approach, highlighting the ways that you as the writer can guide readers through your arguments and ideas. The goal of the document is to have you understand the parts of the Reader Expectation Approach and motivate you to study this approach further. As I have been consistently aligning the arguments and ideas in each paragraph with the contract statement, we build trust together — and the document becomes a coherent whole.
In the same way readers have an expectation of a contract statement at the beginning of the document, readers have an expectation for the end of a document. “The document must not simply end; it must be brought to a state of resolution” (p. 126). Resolution of the document is achieved by matching the closure of the document to the feeling of the rest of the document — some documents are light-hearted, so the closure will be light-hearted; other documents are more intense, so the closure will be more intense. Longer or more complex documents require more paragraphs at the end of the document to achieve a sense of resolution; however, irrespective of the length of closure, the document must have resolution.
Punctuation
Through no fault of its own, punctuation typically has a negative connotation. It is rare to find someone who lights up when discussing punctuation — the people who do light up are typically the editors and teachers of English — but we should all aspire to love and appreciate punctuation. “It seems quite simple: Punctuation marks tell you when to stop and when to start again. They tell you when to breathe, when to interrupt your main train of thought, and how severely to do so. They inform you when to raise a question and when to read with the power of an exclamation. They let you know when to lean forward and when to bring it all to a halt. They suggest differing relationships between different units of discourse” (p. 159). Punctuation is the driver of the Reader Expectation Approach: By using the correct punctuation in the correct way, you as the writer can create sentences, paragraphs, and documents that clearly communicate your arguments and ideas.
There are several punctuation marks that create a Stress Position: A period, colon, or semi-colon. These create a Stress Position for the reader because they signal that the reader has just completed an independent clause; the completion of an independent clause is known as a moment of full syntactic closure. Of the period, colon, and semi-colon, the period is the most straightforward punctuation mark — the only role of a period is to signal the end of a sentence. However, the colon and semi-colon are more interesting punctuation marks because they join independent clauses to increase the complexity of the sentence.
The colon is an interesting punctuation mark because there are several ways to effectively use a colon. The initial part of a sentence with a colon is an independent clause, capable of standing as its own sentence. However, the reader pauses when seeing a colon, creating a Stress position. After the Stress position, the reader has two related — but different — expectations:
The reader expects to find another independent clause that restates or refines ideas from the first independent clause; or
The reader expects to find a list of examples that give a fuller understanding of the ideas from the first independent clause.
The point of using a colon is to have “the essence of the first clause repeated, but stated differently, in some helpful way” (p. 172). Although the semi-colon and colon share the reader expectation of an independent clause preceding the punctuation mark, the effect of a semi-colon is slightly different than the colon. “The semi-colon suggests a further expansion of thought, or a deeper development, or at least a significant and related addition” (p. 172). Both the colon and semi-colon create two Stress positions in the sentence, linking the independent clauses — and therefore linking the information in the Stress positions. By properly using a colon or semi-colon to increase the complexity of the sentence, you as the writer can build more complex arguments and ideas.
Along with a period, colon, and semi-colon, there are other interesting punctuation marks that allow you as the writer to control the interpretation of a sentence; these punctuation marks are the em-dash (—), parenthesis, commas. The em-dash, parenthesis, and commas denote an interruption in a sentence, but each provides a distinct emphasis in the interruption. The em-dash causes “the reader to raise both the (silent) decibel level of reading and the pitch” (p. 180), elevating the emphasis of the material within the em-dash to the level of the material outside the em-dash. In contrast to the em-dash, parenthesis cause the reader to subdue their decibel level of reading and lower the pitch. “Parenthesis convey to us exactly the (lower) status and value of the information they shelter” (p. 182). Commas exist between the em-dash and parenthesis: A pair of commas is used to show an interruption within the sentence, but the interruption is for the sense of the sentence but not necessarily the tone of the sentence. By properly using the em-dash, parenthesis, and commas with the expectations of the reader, you as the writer can enhance the sense and tone your sentences to the intended levels.
Although commas show an interruption in sentences, there are many more uses of commas — enough to deserve another paragraph discussing only commas. Commas serve a large number of functions in sentences, which is both good and bad: Good because of the flexibility of use; bad because commas are easily misused. “Readers need to know not only then can take a ‘breath’ at a comma but also precisely which kind of ‘breath’ to take. That instruction … is never complete until after the arrival of the comma, when the continuing text informs us retroactively what kind of a comma it had been” (p.223). A common misuse of a comma is in the form of a comma splice, whereby two independent clauses are joined without a connecting conjunction. The reason a reader is bothered by a comma splice comes from the reader expectation that a comma can NEVER produce a Stress position. A comma “is the only mark of punctuation that never reveals its function at the moment of its arrival, [so] a comma is never capable of producing a Stress position” (p. 225). A comma always produces forward motion in a sentence; by properly harnessing this forward motion you as the writer can greatly reduce the ambiguity in your sentences, allowing your readers to focus on your arguments and ideas.
Punctuation drives the Reader Expectation Approach, allowing you as the writer to create sentences that mirror the intensity and complexity of your arguments and ideas. The colon and semi-colon link independent clauses, whereas the em-dash, parenthesis, and commas interrupt clauses for further effect. Commas also provide a way to increase the forward motion of a sentence or perform other functions, but the misuse of a comma can cause confusion for the reader. By properly using punctuation, you as the writer give the reader the best chance to understand your arguments and ideas as you intend — which is the point of writing.
Summary
Gopen's Reader Expectation Approach in The Sense of Structure provides a framework for writing from the perspective of the reader. As harsh as it may sound, the reader does not care how hard you worked or how many times you revised your writing; the reader only cares about whether or not your writing provides answers to these four questions:
What is going on here?
Whose story is this?
How does this sentence connect backwards and forwards to its neighbors?
What word or words in this sentence should be read with special emphasis because they are the stars of this show?
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