Flow
We can understand a piece’s flow by examining its overall organization or how individual sentences are structured and connected to one another. If a piece flows smoothly, its material and design cohere seamlessly, and your voice comes across as clear and natural.
You might need to develop your piece's flow if...
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You read the piece, and it feels choppy or disjointed.
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You are unsure how the components of your piece fit together.
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Aspects of the piece are a bit confusing.
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How does each paragraph or section speak to your intention for the piece?
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How are the paragraphs or sentences in this piece connected to one another? Do they flow together in a way that the reader will understand?
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How are you transitioning across ideas in this piece?
Some questions
to guide you through the process
Strategies
Read-aloud
Reading your piece out loud can reveal areas to improve flow. For instance, if the content within each paragraph makes sense but the ideas between each paragraph feels disjointed, you might consider focusing on the pieces broader flow. If the contrary is true, you might consider focusing on sentence-to-sentence flow in specific areas of the piece.
TECHNIQUES:
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Focus on transitions between paragraphs and sentences. Are you using words or phrases that clearly demonstrate how your ideas relate to one another?
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If your piece sounds choppy when you read it aloud, consider varying your sentence structure (e.g., simple, compound, complex, compound-complex, short) and length.
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If your sentences sound confusing when you read them aloud, ensure they have a parallel structure. Parallelism within sentences makes them easier and cleaner to read and understand.
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Consider using a large language model (LLM) AI tool like ChatGPT to give you different ways to word the same sentence or ideas for how to transition from one idea to the next. You might feed the AI model a few example sentences and prompt it with: What are some ideas to make these sentences flow more smoothly? What types of transition words or phrases might I use to introduce a new idea, contrasting idea, or consequence/implication of an idea? You may also choose not to feed it anything and prompt it with: I am writing a [your genre here] piece. Can you provide me with some example structures of this genre that flow smoothly?
Says/Does outline
A says/does outline allows you to examine what a sentence or paragraph says (its content) and does (its purpose or intention) within the entire piece, which shows you how seamlessly your ideas fit together.
TECHNIQUES:
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Read through each paragraph of your piece. On the left side of it, write down what you believe to be its main point. On the right side of it, write down what you believe it does for your entire piece (e.g., introduces your main argument, urges your reader to consider a new viewpoint, persuades your reader to feel a certain way about your character). Once you have finished the exercise, think about ways you may re-arrange your paragraphs to make points flow more naturally.
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If you would like to focus more on sentence-to-sentence flow, complete this same exercise but for one paragraph in your piece. What is the main point of each sentence? What does each sentence serve in the grander scheme of your paragraph? What adjustments (e.g., rearrangements, transitions, additional sentences) might you need to make so your sentences flow more naturally?
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Make this exercise more fun and visual using annotation tools! You may consider printing out your piece and writing out what each paragraph or sentences says/does using brightly colored markers or sticky notes.
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You can also use a digital tool like Zotero or Canva and annotate using virtual sticky notes.
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If you would like to collaborate with a coach or instructor on this exercise, consider using a shared tool like Google Drive. You may also use simple note-taking tools like OneNote or Evernote and forego annotating the piece itself.
Digital Tools
Idea or example
generation
ChatGPT
ChatGPT
What we like about this platform:
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Free access to standard writing help (e.g., suggestions for ideas, revisions, examples, etc.)
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Immediate feedback
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Ability to ask platform follow-up questions about why it chose the outputs it did for you (e.g., "I like this sentence, but why did you decide to word it this way?")
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*Please note* that it is important to critically consider what LLM models provide you. Do its suggestions truly align with your purpose for writing, the tone you are trying to convey, or your intention for the paragraph/sentence? What other revisions can you make to it?
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Canva
Canva
What we like about this platform:
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Free access to simple design
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Ability to copy/paste excerpts into a document and complete a says/does outline using virtual sticky notes or other fun graphics
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Functionality for other visual exercises such as mind maps
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Ability to share document and collaborate with others
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