Reader expectations

In 1990, George Gopen and Judith Swan published "The Science of Scientific Writing". Their insight: readers don't just read words; they expect certain information in certain places. Put it there, and even complex ideas read easily.

Three expectations

1. Subject and verb close together, and early. Readers wait for the verb; a long gap between subject and verb makes them hold too much in mind.
2. Old information first (the "topic position"): start the sentence with something the reader already knows, linking back to the previous sentence.
3. New, important information last (the "stress position"): readers naturally give the end of a sentence the most weight.

See the difference

ExampleHard: "The finding that, in low-light images taken during the monsoon season by farmers using older phones, accuracy fell by 15 points, was unexpected." (Subject "The finding" waits 25 words for its verb "was".) Easier: "Accuracy fell by 15 points in low-light images. These images came mostly from older phones during the monsoon, which we had not expected."

Old to new, sentence to sentence

Each sentence's start should connect to the previous sentence's end. This creates a chain readers can follow without effort:

"We trained the model on leaf photos. These photos came from three regions. Each region had different lighting..."

How to use it

When a sentence feels hard, ask: where's the verb? What's old? What's the new point, and is it at the end?

RememberSubject and verb early and close. Old information at the start, the new point at the end.