5 exercises — given-new structure, fronting, end-weight, and sentence rhythm in technical docs and error messages.
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
Which sentence places the most important information in the most emphatic position?
Option C uses fronting ("During the outage") to provide given context first, then places "47 minutes of transaction data was lost" in the main clause — the most emphatic position. End-weight principle: new, important, or quantified information should appear at or near the end of the clause. Option B is also good but omits the temporal context. The given-new principle: readers process sentences by anchoring to known information (the outage) before receiving new information (47 minutes lost).
2 / 5
A developer is writing an error message. Which version most clearly signals what went wrong and what to do?
Option C follows the optimal word order for error messages: [error type]: [what happened] + [action]. The key information (what failed: connection timeout; how long: 30 seconds; what to do: retry or check) is structured in given-new order. Technical writing style guides (Google, Microsoft) consistently recommend: label first, description second, action last.
3 / 5
Reorder this poorly structured sentence: "The fact that the queue was not drained before the deployment was the root cause of the data loss." Choose the clearer version:
Option A applies end-weight by moving the cause ("not draining the queue before deployment") to the end as a prepositional phrase, keeping the sentence tight. It eliminates the "the fact that" nominalisation — a major source of unnecessary wordiness in technical writing. Option D is also clear and uses chronological order effectively, but option A is more concise. Prefer active constructions and direct cause-effect ordering.
4 / 5
Which sentence uses fronting most effectively for emphasis in a change log?
Option B fronts the temporal frame ("In the next major release") — the most important information for developers reading change logs (when will this happen?). The passive "will be removed" places the endpoints (what developers care about) in subject position. Fronting time adverbials in change logs and release notes is a standard convention: "In version 4.0...", "From January 2025...", "After migration...".
5 / 5
An engineer is writing the first sentence of an architecture decision record. Which opening best follows given-new and end-weight principles?
Option C applies given-new (sets context with "After evaluating..."), uses active voice ("the team selected"), and places the new information — the key decision details (PostgreSQL + its specific strengths: ACID compliance, JSON support) — at the end of the sentence. This structure maximises comprehension because readers know the decision context before receiving the verdict, and the rationale is attached to the decision it justifies.