Writing in General
To explain the nature of writing, imagine that a traveller asks you for directions
as to how to reach a town some distance away. Your essential task is to give
them step-by-step instructions as to how to get there. In addition, although it is
not required, you may also do two other things -
point out some places of
interest on the way and urge them to visit the town because it is picturesque.
Giving this advice to a traveller has some parallels for the tasks involved in
writing. These tasks are interwoven and possibly not easily captured with
simple labels, but can be portrayed in a broad introductory way as three
functions. One is the objective or rational function that involves conveying
information. This is represented with the step-by-step directions. A second is
the sensational or emotional function. This is represented by pointing out to
the traveller places of interest on the way to their destination. The third is the
persuasive function. This is represented by urging the traveller to visit the town
because it is picturesque.
Two of these three functions, the objective or rational function on the one
hand, and the sensational or emotional function on the other, can be viewed as
the basic functions of writing. Persuasion, by contrast, is achieved by some
combination of these other two functions.
These two different and basic functions of writing
might best be represented
and highlighted by a number of distinctions, opposites or contrasts. Reason as
the objective function and rhetoric as the subjective function³ are probably the
most suitable of these contrasts. Other distinctions which cover much
the
same field are cognitive and affective functions, intellect and emotion,
sense/sensitivity
and sensibility, head and heart, rhyme and reason, left brain
and right brain, and the thinking human, homo sapiens
as distinct from the
feeling human, homo sentiens.
Information
It is a great nuisance that knowledge can only be acquired by hard work. It
would be fine if we could swallow the powder of profitable information
made palatable by the jam of fiction.
4
Giving directions to the traveller on how to reach a distant town represents the
objective or rational function of writing. This function of writing is addressed
___________________
3
The classic text on rhetoric from Greek times is Aristotle, The Art of
Rhetoric, Penguin Classics, Edited H © Lawson-Tancred, Penguin Books,
1991. See also Nussbaum (1995), Sadurski (1987), Saunders (1994), Wald
(1995).
4
Somerset Maugham 10 Novels and their Authors Chapter 1 section i.
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