Sentence stages
There are two essential, functional stages in the Information Structure of a simple sentence (or clause). Information in a sentence needs to be organised into the two stages according to the function you wish it to have.
Stage 1 is referred to here as Theme, and Stage 2 as New. Each stage is identified by its position in the sentence with Theme at the beginning and New at the end.
| Beginning of sentence | End of sentence |
| Stage 1. THEME | Stage 2. NEW |
| e.g. The aim of this online course | is to improve your academic writing. |