ABSTRACT
My intention with this book was to explore the interaction between the writer and text by making use of it. I wanted to write about writing in order to understand better the act of writing and how it is learned. This is an enormous power of writing, as I see it. Not only can a piece of writing communicate thought from writer to reader (an assertion I shall examine rather critically in due course), but also the act of writing can tell the author things that were not known (or not known to be known) before the writing began. Thus we might build a boat to learn more about how boats are built, or climb a hill without knowing in advance the view that will be attained or even the route that we will be able to take. Writing can extend both our imagination and our understanding. 1 (Superscript numbers refer to the Notes, which begin on page 241.)
