Writing with Focus:Important Things Go at the End

End focus

Review A

Review B

End focus

When you write with focus, you help your readers find your most important ideas.

One way to do this is to put the important idea at the end of the sentence. This is called end focus.

How does my reader know which ideas are

important?

End focus

People tend to pay more attention to words that appear at the end of a sentence.

If you are aware of this pattern, you can arrange your sentences to give words the focus that you want.

I wear my fancy jewelry on special occasions.

On special occasions I wear my fancy jewelry.

End focus

What words you put at the end of your sentence might depend on what you want to say next.

I wear my fancy jewelry on special occasions. Dress-up parties and holidays call for elegance.

On special occasions I wear my fancy jewelry. Pearls and diamonds are perfect for parties.

or

focus on kinds of special occasions

focus on kinds of fancy jewelry

Compare these two sentences, and notice the different focus in each:

End focus

If your sentence contains a strong visual element, focus on that image by placing it at the end.

The crystal chandelier is the first thing you notice when you enter the dining room.

When you enter the dining room, the first thing you notice is the crystal chandelier.

End focus

Let’s see how two famous writers use end focus to emphasize an idea or an image.

In this example from his Meditation XVII, John Donne saves the most important point for last:

Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

End focus

Sometimes writers end with a surprise, as in this sentence from Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde:

Mr. Utterson, the lawyer, was a man of rugged countenance that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty, and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary, and yet somehow lovable.

End focus

[End of Section]

Emphasize the boldfaced words by moving them to the end of the sentence. Revise the rest of the sentence as necessary.

1. Ask a librarian if you need help finding information.

2. To see the colorful wild parrots, we used binoculars.3. The city will have a new light-rail line by next May.4. By that battered old shed is a better location for the garden.5. Mr. Garcia presented the teacher with the award. She had taught at the school for twenty years.

On Your Own

Review A

1. O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave,O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave? (Francis Scott Key, “The Star-Spangled Banner”)

2. This ground we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow. (Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address)

The following famous quotations have been changed so that the underlined words do not receive emphasis. Revise them to restore the right focus. Be prepared to discuss why the revised version is better.

3. Ask what you can do for your country, ask not what your country can do for you. (John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address)

Review B

Write three sentences that show end focus. Be prepared to explain why you have focused on the idea at the end of each sentence.

The End