Reader response to good writing

I couldn’t put it down

It flowed really well

It was as clear as a bell

Writing from the Reader's Perspective

Nothing arrives that cannot be handled the moment it arrives

Everything leans forward

Then everything actually goes in one of the directions in which it was leaning

Reader response to writing

Readers need to know where they are coming from in order to recognise where they are and to have some idea of where they are going.

Writing from the Reader's Perspective

Reading left to right through time – linear: Cohesion

Understanding parts of a text simultaneously – nonlinear: Coherence

Reader responses to writing

All units of discourse are infinitely interpretable. They cannot be pinned down to one single signification. This does not mean there are an impossibly large number of known or unknowable meanings to a unit of discourse.

Writing from the Reader's Perspective

If the number of interpretations perceivable at any given moment for a unit of discourse is N, then N + 1 is always possible.

We started at nine so we’ll break at eleven.

… so everything means everything?

… not to our interpretive community. We agree that we all will understand certain combinations of signifying words to produce certain significations. We must rely on a certain amount of communal certainty in our communications in order to function.

Writing from the Reader's Perspective

Learning to write well depends on learning to recognize and manipulate the assumptions, agreements and expectations of our discourse community.

Reader energy

Readers summon energy to interpret discourse. We are drawing on clause energy as our eye moves forward; simultaneously we draw on sentence energy of which the clause is a part; simultaneously we draw on paragraph energy and so on

Writing from the Reader's Perspective

Reader energy is divided into two parts:

Structure and Substance

They have a zero sum relationship in terms of reader energy: whatever energy is devoted to one depletes the energy store that could be devoted to the other.

The problems so far

A text belongs to the reader not the writer

All units of discourse are infinitely interpretable

Readers simultaneously summon a number of different mental breaths of reader energy to read and interpret a number of different units of discourse

For each of those mental breaths, reader energy must be divided to perform two tasks simultaneously – the perception of structure and the perception of substance

Writing from the Reader's Perspective

So what to do….?

Writing from the Reader's Perspective

Expectations

What comes next?

Writing from the Reader's Perspective

Piece 1a

Piece 1b

The Reader Expectation Approach

Readers of English have relatively fixed expectations of where in the structure of any unit of discourse to expect the arrival of certain kinds of substance.

Writing from the Reader's Perspective

The Reader Expectation Approach

Writers can predict where in the discourse unit (sentence, paragraph, essay …) a reader will be most likely to look for the arrival of certain kinds of information. By placing that information in that expected location most of the time, the writer accomplishes two objectives:

1) the reader will identify each piece of information as performing a particular function – the function that the occupant of that syntactical location is expected to perform

2) the reader will minimize energy devoted to understanding structure and devote more energy to substance

Writing from the Reader's Perspective

Is this not rhetorical cloning?

Style is choice. Writers have too many rhetorical structural choices to make when reviewing or editing work.

Any reader expectation can be violated to good effect. To violate effectively you must fulfil expectations most of the time. The violation will be a rhetorical occasion, not simply part of a general chaos.

Writing from the Reader's Perspective

Why is understanding reader expectation useful?

The following sentence may need revision. First underline the part of the sentence which you think is the most important – the information which you think should receive the sentence stress.

Then circle the verb which articulates what is happening to the stressed information.

Then put a box round the agent of the verb.

Finally rewrite the sentence in the way you think best conveys its message.

Writing from the Reader's Perspective

1) Identify sentence stress2) Identify verb expressing action

3) Identify agent4) Rewrite sentence

The difference between the integration approach and the assimilation approach lies in the perception of the immigrant’s identity, which is created by the language, values and traditions and cannot be changed in the lifespan of one generation.

Writing from the Reader's Perspective

The difficulties of editing

I see the words

I know the meanings of each of these words

When you put these words with those meanings into this syntactical structure, the meaning of the whole is X

Since X is what you intended to convey you judge the sentence to be fine

You move on

Writing from the Reader's Perspective

What actually happens is the following:

You see these words

You remember these words

Those are the words you summoned when you were trying to articulate X

Writing from the Reader's Perspective

Mere association

The words you chose will remind you of X when you encounter them. The question remains whether those words will communicate X to most of your readers.

Writing from the Reader's Perspective

Writing from the Reader's Perspective

The coffee stain problem

If we can never disengage ourselves from the associations involved in texts we create, how can we get enough distance to judge the likelihood of its communicative power and accuracy?

Writing from the Reader's Perspective

By knowing consciously where readers intuitively expect to find certain structural locations. When we check our writing for location of substance and we see material is not where readers expect it, the odds of the readers perceiving our intended meaning are low.

What do we expect?

MAIN CLAUSE SUBJECT + VERB + COMPLEMENT

Writing from the Reader's Perspective

Unless we are otherwise informed – we might meet something like an although. In a split second the reader knows the immediate information will qualify what comes next. OK. I can manage that.

If the promise of the although clause is fulfilled our experience might be:Although xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx , (pause) SUBJECT VERB COMPLEMENT.

If reader expectations are violated the reader might experience: Although xxxx xxxxx xxx xxxxxx, (pause) and although xxxxxx xxx xxxx xxxxx xxxxxx, (pause) despite which xxxxx xxxxxx xxx xxxx xxxx and xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxx (pause) subject verb complement.

Writing from the Reader's Perspective

Even worse – the delay leads you to information that is not central to the point: Although xxxx xxxxx xxx xxxxxx, (pause) and although xxxxxx xxx xxxx xxxxx xxxxxx, (pause) despite which xxxxx xxxxxx xxx xxxx xxxx and xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxx (pause) BEEP.

What do we expect?

Conveying meaning

All prose is persuasive. Readers assume we have meaning to convey. Where we place information makes a difference. It persuades readers that they know what we meant to say. You know this already. Which of the following would get the employee a raise and which would get her a reprimand?

Writing from the Reader's Perspective

Although she is often late for work, she is always dedicated.

Although she is dedicated, she is always late for work.

A writer’s structural location of information controls a reader’s perception of meaning. We will be finding out how.

Writing from the Reader's Perspective