*…the polders in the north of the country
the polders in the northern Netherlands

*…the four-year limit on student grants
the four-year limit on student grants in the Netherlands

*…Prof.dr.ir. P.J.M. Janssen of the TNO…
Professor Peter Janssen of the Dutch Organization for Applied Scientific Research

More subtle, but no less confusing for an English-language audience, are implicit references which someone unfamiliar with the Netherlands may not be able to reconstruct:

*Rooms in a town like Amsterdam are extremely expensive, with rents of Euro 200 or Euro 250 for a room of 8 square meters no exception.

How is the reader to understand the implications of a town like Amsterdam, or of Euro 200 or Euro 250 – even if he succeeds in converting these amounts into local currency? Are these rents high, moderate or low in the Dutch context? And how is he to interpret a room of 8 square meters – is that a lot or little by Dutch standards?

The second function, that of perspectivization, is concerned with the writer’s desire to indicate the angle that he is going to adopt. In an essay on euthanasia, for example, you will want not only to provide a context (possibly the debate in recent decades in the Netherlands) but also to indicate your perspective on the issues. Do you regard the matter as an ethical question resolvable by cool philosophical reflection, or do you approach the question from a particular moral or religious stance? Is the argument partly based on personal experience? The elaboration thus differs from the topic sentence in allowing scope for personal input from you as the writer. Whereas contextualization has above all a cognitive role to play, perspectivization is very much linked to the rhetorical potential of the introduction. By displaying personal involvement in the issues and commitment to a particular approach, you will succeed in appealing to your readers, even to those who are initially sceptical about the perspective you are taking. This display of involvement and commitment should never descend into the I and you of conversational interaction. The norms of the written language require the use of various adverbial expressions modifying the propositions being expressed. Some sentences thus need editing to bring them into line; the italicized adverbials in the examples below express the writer’s commitment:

*In this essay, I am going to persuade you that vivisection should be eradicated.

That vivisection should be eradicated is certainly beyond any doubt.

*As a Buddhist, I believe that the cause of all suffering is to be found in selfishness and grasping.

From the Buddhist standpoint to be adopted in this essay, the cause of all suffering is assuredly to be found in selfishness and grasping.

Particularly in texts of moderate length, you will often do well to use the elaboration to indicate which areas of the subject you will be unable to deal with. The exclusion of those areas may follow from the particular perspective being adopted, or may simply be a matter of a lack of space. Rhetorically, explicit admissions of inadequacy tend to undermine the reader’s confidence: it is in general better to narrow down the context in such a way that the reader’s attention is focused on what you will be dealing with. Stretches such as the example below have a depressing effect on readers:

*The question whether to have her baby at home is one that most Belgian mothers will immediately answer in the affirmative. Of course, circumstances are different in other countries, but there is no space here to deal with those matters. The following treatment will confine itself to the situation in Belgium.

Of particular interest is the situation in Belgium, where most mothers will immediately give an affirmative answer to the question whether to have her babies at home.

An expression such as of particular interest both implies that there are other countries which are, for current purposes, of less interest and had the rhetorical effect of recommending a more detailed treatment of the Belgian situation to the reader. On the placement of this expression in sentence-initial-position.

Implicit in many of our recommendations is the idea that the elaboration section of the introductory paragraph is where the reader’s goodwill should be captured. Ancient Roman rhetorician called this the captatio benevolentiae, and a modern-day rhetorician (Walter Nash) has, a little whimsically, used words like ‘ingratiating’ and ‘cunning’ to describe its function. Part of the art lies in ordering ideas and sentences in such a way that the reader becomes caught up in the forward dynamics of the argument. As much as possible, each sentence in the elaboration should build on the preceding sentence, thereby giving the reader a sense of coherence and a gradual build-up towards the end of the paragraph. For techniques used by writers to bring out the coherence of their arguments. Paragraphs that give the impression of chopping and changing disorient and frustrate readers. Consider the following example:

*The Dutch authorities are very lenient towards squatters. Danish newspapers frequently express their surprise at the lack of action taken by local officials against squatters. The Danish people have the impression that the Dutch squatters are a law unto themselves. During the French President Mitterand’s recent visit to Holland, the Dutch squatters demonstrated on behalf of their French counterparts, who, they allege, are systematically expelled. Other countries characterize Holland as a ‘squatters’ paradise’

In addition to having far too much lexical repetition, this is an example of a paragraph that lacks forward dynamics and is crying out for editing. The elaboration, beginning at Danish newspapers…, seems to embark on a very different topic, such that it is hard for the reader to interpret local: local in Denmark, or local in Holland? Halfway through the elaboration, the reader is yanked back to Holland, but now with relation to squatters in France. The paragraph lacks direction, and confuses the reader rather than stimulating him to read on. A good elaboration, then, satisfies a number of criteria:

• it provides a context for the argument that is to follow;
• it expresses the writer’s perspective on the issue to be dealt with;
• it explicitly or implicitly makes clear which aspects of the issue will not be treated;
• it has forward dynamics, presenting the reader with a coherent development of the topic sentence an involving him in the writer’s argument.
• (optional) it briefly highlights the structure of the essay.