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RMIT University Library - Learning Lab

Main idea at the beginning

 

Where possible, put the main idea or key information at the start of the sentence to make it easier to comprehend.

Compare:

Sentence 1a

A number of proposals have been considered by the committee.

Sentence 1b

The committee considered a number of proposals.

In sentence 1b, the key information has been placed at the beginning of the sentence for easier comprehension.

Sentence 2a

You sent the wrong documents and we could not complete the hand-over in time.

Sentence 2b

The wrong documents were sent and we could not complete the hand-over in time.

In the example above, the tone in sentence 2a is accusatory. Sentence 2b would be more appropriate as it does not attribute blame.