1. Rank the ideas of the paragraph you have chosen in order of their importance to you. 2. Now write a paragraph, choosing whether to put the ideas in the order of increasing importance or decreasing importance. – BEING STRUCTURALLY SOUND: PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER– 86 ■ Look again at the passages you read in Lessons 1–5. What structures do you notice at work in those paragraphs? ■ As you read (and write) during the next few days, be aware of the structure of each paragraph you come across. Try to identify the author’s strategy; try to use different strategies in your own writing. Skill Building until Next Time 87 Language and Style I n most of the passages you have read so far, the author’s ideas and intentions have been very clear. But what happens when they’re not? What if the writer doesn’t pro- vide a topic sentence that clearly expresses the main idea? Or what if the writer gives you a poem instead of a clear-cut memorandum? How do you figure out what the author is trying to say? The good news is that no matter how cryptic a piece of writing may seem, the author always leaves clues to help you figure out what he or she means. These clues can be found in the writer’s language and style—the words used and the type of sentences in which he or she uses them. The next four lessons, therefore, focus on four different aspects of lan- guage and style: ■ Point of view ■ Diction ■ Style ■ To n e You’ll learn how authors use these elements to create meaning for their readers. Then you’ll put it all together in Lesson 15 to see how language, style, structure, and meaning work together. . importance or decreasing importance. – BEING STRUCTURALLY SOUND: PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER– 86 ■ Look again at the passages you read in Lessons 1 5. What structures do you notice at work in those paragraphs? ■ As. elements to create meaning for their readers. Then you’ll put it all together in Lesson 15 to see how language, style, structure, and meaning work together.