Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: Flow-the natural forward movement that carries the reader through the text.Readers have a strong intuitive sense of paragraph flow, and perhaps an even stronger intuitive reaction to flow interrupted.Unfortunately, our current teaching strategies around flow fall short of our intuitions because they are too static, vague, or incomplete.With the intent of complementing-not replacing-current strategies to improve paragraph flow, I offer an instructional method that is grounded in a central principle of cooperative conversation, the principle of relevance (Grice; Sperber and Wilson).The principle of relevance, most simply put, states that an utterance should be and is expected to be relevant to the surrounding conversation and to the conversants.On the surface, this principle seems obvious and unremarkable, but when operationalized and applied by students to their own and their peers' writing, it becomes an effective revision tool that draws on students' implicit knowledge of language.Grounded in how communication works in everyday conversation, the principle of relevance, once operationalized in writing, makes the dynamic process between the text and the reader visible to the writer.With their choices and the effects of their choices made visible, students can begin to shape their paragraphs in ways that are responsive both to their communicative intentions and the readers' expectations.In addition to enhancing flow, applying the principle of relevance demonstrates for students how peers who may not be
Source: The Journal of Teaching Writing
Author: Deborah F. Rossen-Knill
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2213017002