Conceptual structure @ Exeter Monday 4th Jan 2016.

Conceptual structure is one of those topics that intrigues me as a writer.
For a kick off, defining what it is was a problem for me… I think for me, it refers to the way an idea is developed over a paragraph, episode, chapter of your writing.
The writers at Exeter on Monday thought that it was best summed up as the process by which we design a structure through our language use and grammatical decisions to best enhance the impact of our ideas.What does this mean at Word, Sentence and Whole Text level?

• At word level an example I can give is the use of verbs (in my view the most important word class) I recommend that you stick your main verb in a sentence as close to its associate verb as possible. There is a tendency for writers to put other less important, parenthetical phrases in the way. i.e. "The sailor, thinking he was feeling strong, scrambled up the rigging.' The parenthetical clause "thinking he was fit" is okay as it goes, but if you tie in the main noun and verb more closely and shift the indirect thought I think the conceptual structure is stronger. The reader can infer a lot from the single verb "scrambled". "The sailor scrambled up the rigging…" It also bonds the internal eye of the reader to a stronger single image of a sailor climbing the rigging.
• At sentence level - conceptual structure requires a strong ending to a sentence so always end your sentences on a noun or a verb. i.e. "The sailor scrambled up the rigging." Avoid pushing a sentence too far. We tend as writers to overwrite sentences thinking that our readers need more, when actually they need less.
• At whole text level the conceptual structure is I guess the blending and co-operative bonding of all the separate concepts that will then suffice the whole. A teamwork effort, everyone wears the same colour shirt but their positions on the field are different.