Cleft Sentences for Focus and Structure

Lesson 3: Cleft Sentences for Focus and Structure.

1. Overview
Cleft sentences allow writers to highlight specific parts of a sentence (the subject, object, or reason) to create clarity, contrast, or rhetorical emphasis.

2. It-Clefts
Structure: *It + be + emphasized element + that/who*
- Standard: Alex fixed the critical memory leak yesterday.
- It-Cleft: **It was Alex who** fixed the critical memory leak yesterday.
- It-Cleft: **It was yesterday that** Alex fixed the critical memory leak.

3. Wh-Clefts (Pseudo-Clefts)
Structure: *What + clause + be + emphasized element*
- Standard: I need a clean architecture pattern.
- Wh-Cleft: **What I need is** a clean architecture pattern.
- All-Cleft: **All I did was** restart the daemon service.

4. Practice Exercise
Transform the standard sentences into cleft sentences:
1. Standard: The database query caused the server crash.
Wh-Cleft: What caused the server crash _____ .
2. Standard: She mastering technical analysis impressed the team.
It-Cleft: It was her mastery of technical analysis _____ .