On the Point of Writing

Dale Larson
Grays Harbor College
Writing is a convenient means of carrying information through space and time. A writer with a pen, pencil, typewriter or word processor can convey, perhaps partly create, what points or data he wishes to share with the understanding that down the line, in a different place and time, someone can figure out, as we say, "what he had in mind." But the reader thus becomes party to the process of writing, since writer and reader, though split by lands or oceans, ages or epochs, are in a way united in a common community of mind. Although their unity is short-lived in the moment of reading, the community — true to the word’s deeper meaning — is not, and we call that community "communication."

Its Principles Simplified

         Elements (Points)        Relations (Lines)

I Youwpe3.jpg (773 bytes)

It

 Rhetorical Link 

wpe3.jpg (773 bytes) Logical Link

 wpe3.jpg (773 bytes)  Grammatical Link
Grammatical Modes or Moods
Indicative ++ (.) pointing "That’s the point 
Interrogative +— (?) asking "What’s the point?" 
Imperative —+ (!) commanding "That should be the point!" 
Subjunctive —— (:) hypothesizing "If that were the point . . . :"
The Point:  "Everything in writing is a matter of indication, pointing." (One can also say stretching a point to find a line of thought.)

How?      Three ways, telling, showing, and reflecting:

     I  Mood  Point out something, telling what "I" feel or know
You  Depiction  Point to something, showing what "You" need to see it.
    It Opinion  Point back to what’s told and shown, reflecting on what 
"It" means. (This is a matter of choice — opinion.)
An Additional Point: "In writing we don’t make points; we come to them, or rather they come to us, successively as Ideas, Illustrations, and Implications."

How? In the process of discourse — here adapted from a chart by William F. Irmscher:

T    — Thought-provoking sentences:  sentences that "point out" a some whole idea or claim
R    — Restating/restricting sentences:  sentences that "point out again" some part of that. 
I     — Illustrating sentences:  sentences that "point to" what it specifically brings to mind. 
A    —  Analyzing sentences:  sentences that "point back to" all the sentences to answer the general question, "well, so what?" 
C    — Concluding sentences:  sentences that "point back to again," finally to prepare for the next idea waiting, as a rule, "in line."