Enumeration and Sequence
How to use this simple but powerful text pattern in your writing
Distinguishing between Enumeration and Sequence
These terms are similar but not the same. To enumerate means to list, usually giving a number or a letter to distinguish each item in the list. You might do this when you wish to list the issues you wish to address in your text. Or to give list of reasons or causes. The numbering is for ease of reference and doesn't necessarily imply order of importance.
Sequencing means placing items in an ordered list. Items higher in the list must occur before items which are lower down. You use sequencing when you describe a process. In a process the ordering is important; you can't make a cup of tea until the water has boiled, for example.
The example below contains two examples of enumeration. By mousing over the text you can see how the author handles this text pattern and you can see an explanation of both examples. Before you do that you should also mouse over the title to see a further explanation of enumeration.
Enumeration
The following text contains examples of enumeration. It is an excerpt from an article in "The Conversation” by Francis Teal from the University of Oxford, and you can access the full article here.
The first part of Francis Teal's text contains a discussion of the differences in productivity of two countries, Ghana and South Korea. You can read the whole of the original text here. You can also see a discussion of the first part of the text here. Later in the text there are two sections which give an illustration of enumeration. The first consists of the following two sentences:
"In our search for the source of that difference, we identified three factors. First, the amount of capital the firms employ; second, the importance of education and, third, the differences in the underlying efficiency with which the firms operate.” (Teal, n.d.)
The second is this section of text, which is the final part of the original text:
"This analysis implies that all the differences in productivity across the two countries can be explained by how much more effective education is at increasing output in South Korea than it is in Ghana.
It is very hard to show whether these changes in education actually cause the differences seen in the chart. But it is clear that something associated with education is having very different effects in the two countries.
Several possible explanations suggest themselves. The first and most obvious is that the quality of education differs across the countries. A second possibility is that human and physical capital are being combined in fundamentally different ways in the two countries.
Take a simple example: a machine operator in South Korea operating a robot to produce garments may have the same number of years education as a machine operator in Ghana operating an electrical sewing machine. Even allowing for the substantial differences in capital – between a high-tech robot and a sewing machine – it is still very possible that one can be five times as productive as the other.
A third possibility is that the quality of the management is the key difference. Recent research, provides some evidence that poor management may explain low productivity within firms, although further research is needed to explain how management is linked to the uses made of educated labour.” (Teal, n.d.)
In some texts enumeration is very explicit. You may see actual numbers: 1) .. 2) .. 3).. or letters: A) .. B) .. C) .. etc. Or you may see something like the two very explicit examples in this text.
In other texts you may see each item named, rather than numbered, like this:
"Why so many species, then? It comes down to three things. Dinosaurs were good at specialisation, localisation, and speciation”. (Longrich, n.d.)
As you might expect, the author goes on to explain each of these three charactestics. You can read the full article here.
Teal, F. (n.d.). What makes companies in one country so much more productive than in another? Retrieved August 30, 2019, from The Conversation website: http://theconversation.com/what-makes-companies-in-one-country-so-much-more-productive-than-in-another-48367(Teal, n.d.)
These two sentences do not give us an expected third possibility (there must be at least three, otherwise the author would not have written "several possibilities"). Instead this short paragraph gives an example of how first two explanations could result in differing levels of productivity.
So now we have the "third possibility". This time it is the "quality of management" which is suggested as an explanation.
There is one last paragraph in the original article, which sums up the whole text. You should click on the link to read the full article and also read the explanation of the first part of the article if you have not already done so.
These three sentences introduce the idea that the analysis refered to in the first sentence, and outlined previously in the original text, indicates that education is perhaps the key to the differences in productivity. So we can expect an explanation of this in the following paragraphs.
Enumeration
You can see an explanation of enumeration by mousing over "Enumeration" at the top of the article.
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