Response to sample essay

In response to Sample R.

In this analysis of Kress, you claim that a “proper” sequence of writing entails ideas that are “sequenced,” implying that verbal arguments progress in a linear fashion. In describing proper form, you claim that “everything must occur subsequently” and that “one word comes after another, followed by a punctuation mark and the start of a new sentence.” What, then, do you make of poetry and non-linear writing? I’d assert that they are makers of meaning just as versatile as visual arguments. Verbal arguments need not take such rigid forms. Similarly, your assertion that visual arguments, “no matter how they are presented, still drive the same point across.” Visual arguments are not as clear, nor are as direct as you maintain. Your characterizations of verbal and visual arguments are too extreme; visual arguments are flexible, but are prone to misinterpretation. Further, visual arguments need structure in the same way verbal arguments may not need them. You claim that “one cannot take a paragraph and mix and match sentences,” yet this mixing and matching is seen frequently in poetry and can serve argumentative purpose—and perhaps provide that meaning more efficiently than prose.