The idea here is to surface a different way of organizing things, a
different sequence of ideas. Once you have specified the section
heads and subheadings you can then indicate the kind of body-
text to go inside each section by simply inserting paragraph
numbers from your existing text-skeleton onto the new plan, in
the rough order needed – which may be very different from their
current sequence.
To really assess this alternative schema you now have to flesh
it out a bit, which means moving back from pen and paper to
working on your PC. Save your existing text twice as different
files, once under its customary name and again under a new
name (perhaps adding ‘revised’ or ‘Rv’ to the front of the old
name). Now at the top of the revised file insert the new section
headings and subheadings you have created. Then cut and paste
your numbered paragraphs from one location and sequence to
the alternative one. This stage of the operation is called ‘chop
and stick’, because you are only cutting out paragraphs and put-
ting them back together in a different sequence. You are not yet
rewriting the beginnings or ends of paragraphs to make them
fit together, merely regrouping them. The next stage is to print
out the reconfigured file with a couple of blank lines at each
point where the new sequence differs. Then read through the
text in the new sequence, marking it up as you go along. Think
about how you could rebuild the whole chain of links in the
new sequence, from one paragraph to another, and from one
subsection to another. Pencil in ideas for doing this on your
print-out.
Next comes a key evaluation decision. Which works best –
the new sequence (roughly hewn though it still is) or the old
one? The point of looking at a whole alternative approach is to
compare like with like. Left to ourselves most of us are quite
conservative and risk averse. Faced with a choice between some
finished-looking text and a still unspecified alternative version,
we will tend to cling tenaciously to what we have. But sketch in
a new structure, and show yourself how the text would look if
quickly remodelled, and you may be able to overcome this iner-
tial attachment. With a rough-hewn alternative physically in
front of you, you have a chance to make a much better
informed decision. In my experience, people who have got this
far with text remodelling techniques almost always proceed
146 ◆AUTHORING A PHD