Stress position at the end?
Dr. George Gopen asserts that--
It is a linguistic commonplace that readers naturally emphasize the material that arrives at the end of a sentence. We refer to that location as a stress position.Source (scroll to page 5).
I have read the same thing in other sources. It seems right. But I have also read this:
There are two emphatic positions in a sentence . . . . These are the beginning and the end.David Lambuth, The Golden Book on Writing 26 (Penguin Books, Ltd. 1983).
While accepting the opinions of Dr. Gopen and Mr. Lambuth, I have still always viewed the beginning of a sentence as more emphatic than the end. Just one example:
- President Bush made mistakes.
- Mistakes were made by President Bush.


7 Comments:
I think it was Clearlines (a former home of Prof. Gopen) that also emphasized starting with old information to introduce new information.
And I think this is the context in which we should apply the admonition about stress positions.
So if a reader is a known supporter of Bush, use sentence 1. If the reader is wondering who in the administration should be held at fault, use sentence 2.
Cheryl
I'm not sure the examples clearly show what you're trying to say. The passive voice in the first sentence also makes the sentence weak.
Are there any other examples where both sentences are active?
The first word, particularly, if it is the subject of an active sentence, does the most to tell the reader what the sentence is about. The notion of "stress position," on the other hand, relates to where the reader expects information important in itself.
Gopen calls the beginning of the sentence the Topic position. It contextualizes the reader. Context = "Whose story" is being told and a backward link to the previous sentence. Readers expect the most important information to arrive at the end of the sentence. If you put it elsewhere your reader -- who may be judging your case -- may decide some other piece of information that is located in the stress position to be the most information. Take a look at George Gopen's book "Expectations". Best 50 bucks I ever spent!
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