Challenge yourself

When you compose a weblog post intended to challenge the reader, who is the idealised adversary you have in mind? Who are your arguments and counter-arguments being addressed to? I suggest that since it is an internal dialogue the reader/adversary is yourself.

Whilst you compose your argument the reader is absent. The reader must therefore be a hypothetical one conceived of by you, the writer. And in the writing of your arguments you will need to pre-empt the responses of that hypothetical reader. The hypothetical ripostes you anticipate from this hypothetical reader are in fact created in your own imagination... they evolve from your own ideas. You pose an argument, anticipate a counter-argument, and compose a response to this. Therefore it is you who is the Hypothetical Reader. You challenge yourself.

[tag: writing]

Speaking becomes writing

"Plato initiated our negative view of the written word by arguing that writing was merely an imitation of speech... while speech was an imitation of thought. Thus writing would be an imitation of an imitation."

Andrew Feenberg: The written world. (The Written World)

Writing is speaking to the eyes rather than the ears.

Common TESL adage.

What I'm talking about is writing as a way of communication. What you must understand is that reading and writing are the same thing. When you write, you're actually communicating your thoughts. Reading is merely the reverse of the process. Why do you think it's called the written word? Writing is speaking your thoughts, while reading is listening to them or others. You can't learn one without the other. Always remember that you write what you read and read what you write"

Unknown author. Tears, Chapter Six.

[tag: writing]