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COMMON KINDS OF
RELATIONSHIPS WRITERS
ESTABLISH BETWEEN IDEAS
Writers are always working to establish clear
relationships between and within all of their ideas.
Consider how Derek Thompson moves naturally
between one concept to another in this short
passage from his The Atlantic feature about the
future of jobs entitled “A World Without Work”:
FAMILIARITY–CONNECTING WHAT
READERS KNOW TO WHAT THEY
DON’T KNOWN.
Learning often involves drawing from existing
knowledge in order develop new knowledge. As
a result, this is one of the most important
relationships you can establish in your writing.
Start with what your readers know (either
because you can assume a common knowledge
or because you’ve already told them about this
earlier in your paper or even in the preceding
sentence) in order to then take them to
something they don’t know.
CAUSATION–CONNECTING THE
INSTIGATOR(S) TO THE
CONSEQUENCE(S)
We are very familiar with thinking about ideas
and processes in relationship to cause and effect.
You can use the prevalence of this relationship
to your advantage by relating your ideas to
causation.
CHRONOLOGY–CONNECTING WHAT
ISSUES IN REGARD TO WHEN THEY
OCCUR.
This is particularly useful if you are describing a
sequence of events or the steps of a process.
COMBINATIONS
PART/WHOLE—CONNECTING NUMEROUS
ELEMENTS THAT MAKE UP SOMETHING
BIGGER.
This is a “this + this + this = that” model.
You are showing how discrete elements form
something else through their connections.
CONTRAST–CONNECTING TWO
THINGS BY FOCUSING ON THEIR
DIFFERENCES.
This establishes a relationship of dis-similarity.
It helps readers understand what something is
by comparing it with something that it is not.
EXAMPLE–CONNECTING A GENERAL
IDEA TO A PARTICULAR INSTANCE OF
THIS IDEA.
Arguments are made more understandable and
persuasive when you develop your overall claims
in relationship to specific evidence that verifies
or exemplifies those claims. Which examples
will be the most persuasive (e.g., statistical data,
historical precedent, anecdotes, etc.) will depend
on the knowledge, interests, disposition, and
expectations of your reader.
LOCATION–CONNECTING ELEMENTS
ACCORDING TO WHERE THEY ARE
PLACED IN RELATIONSHIP TO EACH
OTHER.
Even if you aren’t writing about geographical
entities, you can still clarify how various ideas
are positioned in relationship to each other.
COHESION
Joseph Williams and Joseph Bizup, in their
handbook Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace,
identify the process of moving from what is known
to what is unknown as “cohesion.” “Sentences are
cohesive,” they write, “when the last few words of
one sentence set up the information that appears in
the first few words of the next” (67). They relate this
careful sequencing to the issue of “flow”—readers
find that ideas follow each other naturally when one
sentence begins where the previous sentence left off.
Causation–Connecting instigator(s) to
consequence(s).
Combinations
Lists–Connecting numerous events.
Part/Whole–Connecting numerous elements that
make up something bigger.
as an for example to
illustration for instance demonstrate
e.g., (from a specifically to illustrate
Latin that is
abbreviation
for “for
example”)
Concession
Conclusion
Intensification
Purpose
for this so that to this end
purpose to that end
in order that
Summary
WORKS CITED
Ackerman, Diane. “I Sing the Body’s Pattern
Recognition Machine.” The New York Times,
15 June 2004.
https://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/15/science/essay-
i-sing-the-body-s-pattern-recognition-
machine.html
(https://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/15/scie
nce/essay-i-sing-the-body-s-pattern-
recognition-machine.html). Accessed 6 June
2018.
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