Rules of Writing

1. Writing is fractal: It is made up of similarly structured elements on a variety of scales. On the largest scale there is the paper itself. The next smaller scale is the section, followed by sub-sections, sub-sub-sections and on down in scale to paragraphs and sentences. Each of these types of elements has the same structure despite their differences in size.
2. Each text element has one and only one point: Do not load down a text element with more than one point. A paper is written to make one general point. Each section in that paper makes a sub-point. Each subsection makes some sub-sub-point. This congruence between points and text elements continues down through the smallest of the similarly structured text elements, the sentence. If you have more than one point, you need more than one text element.
3. The point of each text element should support the point of the next larger scale text element of which it is a part: The points of all of the sections should combine to prove the point of the paper. Likewise, the points of all of the sub-sections of a section should combine to prove the point of the section. This principal holds on down to the paragraph where each should sentence should support the overall point. A text element whose point does not support the point of it's parent text element is misplaced.
4. Structure of a text element: Each text element, regardless of scale includes the three component, always in the same order. First comes the topic component which defines the point of the element and its link to its parent element and to the preceding sibling elements. A papers parent is the literature of the field. Second comes the body component which develops the point of the point of the text element in a sequentially linked set of child text elements. Last comes the concluding component which states the point of the text element and its relation to subsequent sibling text elements.

This page was last updated by George Young on November 22, 2000