“the likeness of form enables the reader to recognise more readily the likeness
of content and function”.
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Testing the Structure
This process of structuring writing provides both a guide and a test. It is a
guide to what to write and how to write it. It also provides a test of coherence
for what has been written. It can be used when writing the text or editing it.
Testing the structure of a text has been discussed earlier.
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Lateral Thinking
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The approach that we have described above is a linear and very necessary
appraisal of an argument. There is also the possibility that the author can
engage in lateral thinking. This has been discussed earlier.
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Getting it Down: Writing
[T]he thing possesses me, but I cannot write it down yet.
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Introduction
In the previous step we discussed how to design a text that you are writing.
This section considers the next step, which is to use the structure so created
to write the text. There are two aspects, getting down the text and getting
down the information.
Text
To a large extent getting down the text is a simple task because, if the structure
has been properly worked out, the hard work is done. The main thing to do is
to use the structure, which typically consists of headings and key points, as a
guide to fleshing out the details.
Start with the overall structure. Since this has been worked out in a logical
manner it can be represented by a set of propositions which flow in logical
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Strunk and White (1979) p 26. The classic illustration, which these authors
use, is the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5: 3-5 (KJV). For example "Blessed are
the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that
mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the
earth”.
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Chapter 3 General Structure of a Text
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Dr Samuel Johnson
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Chapter 3 General Structure of a Text
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Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934). This was said in a letter of 11 November 1898
to Augustus Johannes Jaeger.
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