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Grammar and US Presidential
Elections: Part Two |
When politicians give speeches, they talk about any
number of things, such as their beliefs, personal
history, or opinions on major issues.
Politicians have to be careful about how they present
their ideas. They want to direct the attention of
individual listeners or larger audiences toward
important ideas and words. But they also try to limit or
avoid unnecessary information.
How do they do this?
One way is to put together sentences in a reasonable
way.
In an earlier Everyday Grammar program, we explored how
politicians sometimes use deliberate sentence fragments
for a rhetorical effect.
Today, we explore another strategy politicians often use
to present ideas: sentence cohesion.
What is cohesion?
The word cohesion suggests the action of making
something whole. In writing, this means presenting
sentences that are related to each other in a
reasonable, or logical, way. When sentences are
cohesive, they slowly build on an idea until it reaches
a clear point.
Consider this example. Imagine you are reading the
following sentences.
"I go to work early every day. Classic films are my
favorite. English is a fun, if difficult, language to
learn."
This short paragraph is not cohesive. How do you know?
The ideas are not connected to each other.
The first sentence talks about a custom – something the
writer or speaker is doing every day. The second is
about a personal preference. The third expressed an
opinion about the English language.
The example is difficult to read because there is no
logical continuation between ideas; instead, a different
idea is raised in each sentence.
Lack of cohesion can cause the reader or listener to
stop paying attention.
Politicians have to avoid this mistake at all costs.
They may have to deal with different issues, but they
cannot spend too much time on any subject because they
might lose their audience.
So, what does cohesion look like?
We can look to the American election campaign for
examples of sentence cohesion.
The main candidates for president – Donald Trump and
Hillary Clinton – have used cohesion to develop and
present ideas.
Consider these examples
Here is Trump accepting the presidential nomination of
the Republican Party.
"Then there’s my mother, Mary. She was strong, but also
warm and fair-minded. She was a truly great mother. She
was also one of the most honest and charitable people
that I have ever known, and a great, great judge of
character. "
And here is Hillary Clinton accepting the Democratic
Party's nomination:
"My mother, Dorothy, was abandoned by her parents as a
young girl. She ended up on her own at 14, working as a
house maid. She was saved by the kindness of others."
Both candidates use cohesion to make their points.
Consider Trump's statement. He speaks about his mother,
Mary, and then uses the pronoun "she" when talking about
her in later sentences.
This is one example of cohesion: writing a topic
sentence and then repeating the subject in every
sentence of the paragraph. This makes it clear that you
are receiving more information about the same subject.
Clinton uses a similar idea in her statement. She said:
“My mother, Dorothy, was abandoned by her parents as a
young girl.
She ended up on her own at 14, working as a house maid.
She was saved by the kindness of others.”
Here, Clinton uses a similar idea to begin her
sentences. She introduces her mother, Dorothy, in the
first sentence and then provides more information about
her in the following sentences.
The final sentence, "She was saved by the kindness of
others." is especially important.
Hillary Clinton could have said "The kindness of others
saved my mother."
Why did she say it the way she did?
Using the passive voice enabled Clinton to use the
pronoun "she" at the beginning of the sentence. This
means that the sentences look and sound the same; they
begin with "she."
Both Clinton and Trump used a similar grammatical
structure. The beginning of each sentence presents
"known" information – the pronoun "she" - and the end of
each sentence presents new information.
Grammar expert Martha Kolln had a name for this
structure. She called it the "known-new" contract. In
other words, English speakers generally present known
information in the beginning of a sentence and new
information at the end of a sentence.
What is the rhetorical effect of this grammatical
structure?
Here is one possible answer: Both presidential
candidates are able to show voters that they are more
than just politicians. They are normal people, too.
By giving personal information about their families,
they hope to show that they can relate to voters. In
other words, the candidates want to show that they share
values – a great respect for family – that many voters
like to see in political candidates.
What can you do?
So, how can you develop sentence cohesion?
You can start by examining the structures from the
speeches of Clinton and Trump. Try to describe your
mother in your own words. But be sure to use the same
structure that they did!
My mother, ________, was ____________.
She ___________ .
She ___________.
I'm John Russell.
And I'm Ashley Thompson.
John Russell wrote this story for VOA Learning English.
George Grow was the editor. |
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