How do phrases and sentences create a reader experience?

How do phrases and sentences create a reader experience?

In our study, we learned that words construct phrases and sentences, which, in turn, guides what the reader will feel and think.

What is the reader experience?

The reader experience consists of what the reader notices when engaging with a piece of writing, and so phrases and sentences direct the reader’s attention.

The reader experience a writer produces relates to the audience and genre they are writing for and within.

How do writers construct phrases and sentences to meet the needs of audiences and their expectations?

To learn more about what it means to write for an audience, check out our Audiences and Expectations page here.

Writers often construct phrases and sentences that help them communicate in specific ways for particular political, religious, or academic communities. Common ways of phrasing or constructing sentences reveal some of the rules that govern a community’s communication practices. For example, check out the phrases and sentences Kris constructs in her biology honors thesis.

While ccrM expression is itself tightly controlled by CtrA, the master cell cycle regulator, it regulates many cell cycle genes via methylation status of various promoters, including ctrA and genes encoding cell division proteins, polarity determining proteins, proteins involved in cell shape, division, and DNA replication [21].

The phrases that have been bolded are examples of Kris’ use of language specific to her community. A little later in the chapter, she explains how she came to an understanding of the way her community of scientists communicates.

At first when I was starting to read papers, I thought scientists used unnecessarily large words to describe things. Then what I found as I started writing was that we have a specific vocabulary, just like any field does, and it’s just way easier to communicate in that way. You can use one word to describe what would have to be used as a whole sentence (120).

 

Building words into particular phrases and sentences guides how a reader will consider a writer’s work.