Lesson 4 of 4 · 5 min
Scripts and documents
You can produce long-form written work that keeps one argument throughout.
Long documents drift. Each section is fine, and by the end you are arguing something slightly different from the start.
Steps
- Write the argument as one sentence and keep it visible while you work.
- Outline sections and give each one a job in that argument.
- Generate section by section rather than all at once.
- Read only the section openings in sequence to check the thread.
Why section by section
Generating a long document in one pass gives you no place to correct course. If section two drifted, everything after it inherits the drift, and you cannot tell where it started.
What to watch for
Sections that could be reordered without anyone noticing mean the document is a list, not an argument. That is fine if a list is what you wanted, and a problem if it is not.