Book excerpt: Preface -- Introduction -- Abbreviations. Part I: Constituent Order. Coherence and Discontinuities -- Points of Departure -- Constituent Order in the Comment -- More on Constituent Order -- Part II: Sentence Conjunctions. Kai and Ae in Narrative -- Tote, Non-Conjunctive Kai, and Te Solitarium -- Thematic Development in Non-Narrative Text. Part III: Patterns of Reference. Participant Reference -- The Article with Substantives. Part IV: Backgrounding and Highlighting Devices. Backgrounding of Sentences -- Backgrounding Within Sentences -- Highlighting and the Historical Present. Part V: The Reporting of Conversation. The Default Strategy for Reporting Conversations -- More on Reported Conversations in the Synoptic Gospels and Acts -- Reported Conversations in John s Gospel -- Three Ways of Reporting Speech.