divides the task into three logically organised steps –
identifying options,
formulating reasons and making or predicting the final decision.
Third, an opinion or a judgment that involves a dispute of facts should be
squarely based on the model for litigation. This provides a comprehensive
framework for the task. It builds on the model for organising law by dividing
the relevant legal rule into elements and consequences. Then it extends this
framework by considering the facts that can satisfy each element and the
evidence that can prove those facts.
Operational Tasks
Introduction
There are three important operational tasks with overall structure. These
involve portraying the structure, testing the structure and lateral thinking to see
if there is a better structure than the one you have already conceived.
Portraying the Structure
Introduction
In many cases a well written text will flow along so that the structure is plain.
There are, however, some dedicated devices that can and should be used by a
writer to portray their structure. These consist of pre-announcement, headings
and transitional paragraphs.
Pre-announcement
“Forewarned is forearmed” goes the saying. Pre-announcement is a gentler
version of this. The writer explains in advance the structure of their text. They
may do this once and for all in the preface or the first chapter. Or they may do
it in outline at the beginning then flesh this out at staging points throughout the
text such as the commencement of a new part or a new chapter.
Headings
As explained in the dedicated discussion, headings perform both a content
function and a relationship function.
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Viewed on its own a heading
summarises the text beneath it (the content function). Viewed over the whole
text, headings are intimately and inherently structural. They portray how the
text is organised (the relationship function). This is why one of the key tasks
when designing a heading is to ensure that the heading portrays the structure. It
is necessary but not sufficient for a heading to summarise the text beneath it. It
should be framed in a way so that as far as possible the heading portrays its
relationship to the headings before and after it. In other words, do not design
each heading in total isolation but devise all of the heading together as a set.
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Chapter 5 Characteristics of a Text
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