top of page

THE OLD-TO-NEW WRITING STRATEGY

Move from OLD to NEW information.​

​

​

  • Do not begin a sentence with NEW information.

 

  • Instead, begin your sentence with words that refer to OLD information mentioned in the previous sentence(s).

 

  • Keep your NEW information for the second half of your sentence.

 

​

For example:

​

The cast of Firefly, a space western TV series, returned in the film Serenity. In this film, (old) a fanatical assassin hunts one of the crew of the ship Serenity: River Tam, a seventeen year old psychic (new). River has intuited (old) one of the government’s oldest secrets: an experiment that cost the lives of an entire planet (new).

​

Below is a sentence that is not clear because it moves from new information to old:

​

Lately, most movies I’ve seen have been merely second-rate entertainment, but occasionally, some have worthwhile themes. The rapid disappearance of the Indian culture (new) is the topic of a recent movie (old) I saw.

​

In this example, the writer has skipped abruptly from movies to vanishing Indian culture. To make the transition more clear, reverse the information in the last sentence:

 

A recent movie I saw (old) talked about the rapid disappearance of the Indian culture (new).

​

bottom of page