Instruments and Moves A to Z

Who, what, when, where, why and how: the six questions a full account answers.

The smallest unit of narrative tension: a setup, a problem and a consequence.

The number of abbreviations the audience must decode to follow the text.

Running records of who will do what, and of what was decided.

A passive verb with the actor removed.

Attention, Interest, Desire, Action, and Problem, Agitate, Solve: two persuasion sequences from marketing.

Repeating the opening sounds of nearby words.

A brief reference to a shared text, event or figure, left unexplained.

Ambiguity caused by grammar rather than by a single word.

Asking the audience for its view.

The last word of one clause begins the next.

Reasoning or explaining through a parallel case.

Repeating the opening words of successive clauses or sentences.

Ending on the weakest point, or burying the main one where it will be missed.

A repetition in reversed order: A then B, then B then A.

Contrasting ideas set side by side in balanced form.

Any other business: the last agenda item, for matters not listed.

Raising something by saying you won’t.

An open admission of doubt about what is known.

Breaking off mid-sentence for effect.

Repeated vowel sounds, or repeated end-consonant sounds, in words close together.

Dropping the conjunctions between the parts of a sentence.

The people a message must move, whether real or imagined.

Long Latinate words used to sound elevated.

Factual context given to journalists or decision-makers.

An unintended drop from the serious to the trivial.

Needless repetition of the same point.

Bottom line up front: the conclusion or request comes first, and the support follows.

Bombast: inflated, self-promoting speech.

Intensifying the certainty of a claim.

Concise expression: the point in the fewest words that will carry it.

Answering a question briefly, then moving to your own message.

A fashionable word used to impress rather than to inform.

A harsh, clotted run of sounds.

Affected diction: borrowed learned words used to sound clever.

The rise and fall of phrases, made chiefly by varying sentence length.

A pause within a line.

An opening that earns the audience’s goodwill.

A strained or mixed figure.

Talking around the point instead of making it.

Writing as showing the reader something both can see, as one equal to another.

Building in ascending order, from the lesser point to the greatest.

Cohesion is the visible linking between sentences, and coherence is whether the whole makes sense.

A read by someone with no prior context.

Informal expression: the language of conversation used in speech or writing.

Proof of the case, then rebuttal of the objections to it.

Conversation runs on an assumption of cooperation, spelled out in four maxims: Quantity, Quality, Relation and Manner.

A check for correctness and consistency: grammar, terms, numbers, references and house style.

Once you know something, you cannot easily imagine not knowing it.

Driver, Approver, Contributors, Informed: a decision-making variant of RACI.

The fit of style to subject, audience and occasion.

Information that can be used, but not attributed at all.

Coded language meant for only part of the audience.

Language built to mislead while seeming to inform.

A rehearsal of a meeting, talk or process.

A harsher term than the facts warrant.

The case made in the time of a short lift ride.

Leaving out words the reader can supply.

Vivid, concrete description that lets the reader see the thing itself.

A note that something is enclosed with the letter, or is being sent separately.

Long, heavy elements, like new information, read best at the end of a clause.

A line that ends where its sentence ends.

A sentence that runs past the line break.

An argument with an unstated premise.

End of day, close of business, end of week.

Correcting yourself mid-sentence for emphasis.

Repeating the closing words of successive clauses or sentences.

Repeating a word in immediate succession.

Arguing to win rather than to find what is true.

Appeals through credibility, reasoning and what the audience cares about.

A softer word put in place of a harsher or more delicate one.

A run of sounds that is easy on the ear.

The opening summary of a long paper, written for readers who will read nothing else.

An illustrative example that makes a general claim concrete.

An opening that orients the audience to what follows and why.

A plain account of how something works.

One page of key facts.

Verifying names, figures, dates and quotations against their sources.

Um, uh, like and you know. On the page: basically, actually, really.

The five stages of making a speech: invention, arrangement, style, memory and delivery.

A label telling the reader that they must decide or approve.

A label inviting views before any decision is taken.

A label seeking a body’s support before the paper goes higher.

A label telling the reader that no action is needed.

A frame defines a problem, names a cause, makes a moral judgement and proposes a remedy.

Tags for “for your information”, “for your action” and “for your reference”.

Readers link each sentence to what they already hold before taking in anything new.

A consultation document that invites views before policy is set.

Qualifying a claim to show how far the writer commits to it.

A brief, prepared response used while the facts are still emerging.

An opening line or moment that earns attention.

An organisation’s standing rules for spelling, usage and format.

A boast disguised as modesty.

Deliberate exaggeration.

Posing a question, then answering it at once.

Clauses nested inside each other.

Implying something without stating it, so it can be denied.

News puts the most important facts first and the least important last.

Saying the opposite of what you mean, and doing it to wound.

Specialist vocabulary shared by a group.

The right moment to speak, and the measure that moment will bear.

Sentence-by-sentence work on clarity, rhythm and tone.

Affirming something by denying its opposite.

A statement true by its form alone, and so empty.

Long-windedness: more words, and more parts, than the point needs.

The wrong word in place of a similar one, or a breach of grammar.

Follow-ups from the previous meeting’s minutes.

Groupings should be mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive: no overlaps, no gaps.

Understating how big something is.

A brief bridge that says what has been covered and what comes next.

Writers guide readers through signposts, hedges, boosters, attitude markers and direct address.

Describing one thing in terms of another.

Naming something by what is associated with it.

To record a decision or point in a meeting’s minutes.

Tested principles for combining words and pictures, among them coherence, signalling, redundancy, contiguity and segmenting.

Setting out the facts of the case.

A verb or adjective turned into a noun, which hides who does what.

Information that can be used, but attributed only by description, such as “an official said”.

Information that is not to be used.

Information that can be used and attributed to the speaker by name.

A whole case on a single page.

Out of office, and expected time of arrival or completion.

An opinion piece by a writer from outside the newspaper.

Speech is additive, redundant and concrete, while writing is subordinated, economical and abstract.

Contradictory terms joined.

The speed, height and silences of a speaking voice.

Redescribing a weakness as a strength.

An apparent contradiction that resolves on reflection.

Matching grammatical structure across items that do the same job, and in isocolon, matching length.

Short clauses set side by side, with few connectives.

An aside inserted mid-sentence.

A list for off-topic items raised in a meeting, to be picked up later.

Frank speech, especially to people with power.

Announcing the structure before going through it.

Overelaboration: ornament and effort spent for their own sake.

A description used in place of one plain word, often to avoid that word.

A close that sums up the case and asks for action.

Giving agency to things.

Clarity as a virtue: the reader cannot misunderstand.

Please find attached, common in Singapore and South Asian English, and no need to reply.

Readers must be able to find what they need, understand it and use it.

The three classical registers: plain to teach, middle to please, grand to move.

A truism no one would dispute.

A word the phrase already contains.

A short, decision-focused summary for policymakers.

People protect each other’s standing, and indirectness is how they do it.

The same root word repeated in different forms.

One word carrying several related meanings.

Piling up conjunctions, more than the sentence needs.

A paper that argues an organisation’s stance on an issue.

A mark showing that one person signed a letter on behalf of another.

Criticism wrapped in praise.

Briefing key people before a meeting so that it holds no surprises.

Point, Reason, Example, Point: the standard shape for a short persuasive answer.

An announcement written for the media.

Answering an objection before anyone raises it.

A final check of the laid-out version for errors that slipped through.

Play on two meanings of a word, or on two words that sound alike.

Lead with the answer, group the support beneath it, and open with situation, complication, question and answer.

Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed: who does what on a task or decision.

Red, amber or green project status. Not the RAG of Stacks and Sprints B11.

A line that returns throughout.

Tone breaks into three parts: the subject, the relationship and the channel.

In Singapore and Indian English, “reply”. Elsewhere, “go back to a previous state”.

Genres are sequences of moves, and a research case establishes a territory, shows a gap, then fills it.

A question asked for effect, with the answer implied rather than given.

Purpose, audience, constraints and occasion, read together as one situation.

Situation, Behaviour, Impact: a structure for feedback.

A quick read for whether the piece makes sense as a whole.

A short, pointed statement of a general truth.

Spoken guidance on where the talk is going.

Deliberate obscurity.

Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound objectives.

Circulating a paper informally to build support before it goes up.

Clumsy mixing of vocabularies or languages.

Utterances do things: they assert, direct, commit, express and declare.

Framing chosen to steer interpretation.

Single point of contact.

Situation, Task, Action, Result: a past case told in four parts, ending on what changed.

Disputes sit at one of a sequence of questions: fact, definition, cause, value or action.

A review of the argument, its order and what is missing.

A project’s record of editorial decisions: spellings, capitals and preferred terms.

Sub-editing: cutting copy to fit, checking it and writing headlines.

An object or image that stands for an idea.

A part standing for the whole, or the whole for a part.

Discuss separately, return to a topic later, add someone to a thread.

Agreed phrasings for speaking on an issue.

Undignified language that belittles something serious.

The same idea said twice in different words.

To be confirmed (decided, awaiting confirmation), vs to be decided (not yet decided).

Technical terms used to overwhelm rather than to explain.

An exploratory essay that develops an idea rather than recommending a decision.

Deliberative speech looks to the future, forensic to the past and epideictic to the present.

Opening words that delay the point.

The single idea a whole piece keeps returning to.

Readers expect the start of a sentence to say whose story it is and the end to carry the emphasis.

An argument has six parts: claim, data, warrant, backing, qualifier and rebuttal.

Three parallel elements in a row.

A claim no outcome could prove wrong.

Voice is a writer’s or organisation’s constant character, and tone shifts with the situation.

Qualifiers that drain a claim of content.

Describe, interpret, then decide what follows.

An authoritative report setting out a position or proposal.

Fluent words that add up to no meaning.

One word, usually a verb, serving two or more parts of a sentence.