Text as a Linguistic Level: Implications for Teaching Writing.

This paper proposes that a metaphor of linguistic levels, similar to that used in general linguistic theory, be applied to the study of levels within an essay. The linguistic conception of levels in a piece of writing is not sentence-paragraph-essay (which might be characterized as a rhetorical division) but rather (or in addition to) sentence-text-discourse; the skill levels to be taught in writing classes corresponding to revision, then, will be syntactic, textual, and discoursal. The paper draws a distinction between text and discourse, stating that the relationship between the two terms consists of a set of "contextual coordinates" that define a communicative or rhetorical situation: place, time, purpose, audience, reader, etc. The concept of context here must be broad enough to include both written and oral texts. The fit between the text and the coordinates defining its context specifies the degree of coherence a discourse has; that is, whereas connexity and cohesion are conditions for forming good texts, coherence reflects the appropriateness of the text, i.e., the degree to which a text matches its associated rhetorical situation, or discourses. In summary, the method of defining linguistic levels, as in the case of syntax, can be extended in a straightforward way, without ad hoc modifications, to describing text as another level. An analysis of a sample paragraph is provided. (Contains 21 references.) (TB)