The Writing Problems of Visual Thinkers -- Part 4

Visual thinking is not only non-linear, it is holistic: Everything is interconnected. Everything appears all at once, like a picture. (Clearly, this is a simplification, but it is a helpful starting point for a discussion.)

Good writing, however, requires that we unfold one thing after another in a sequence that gives meaning to the relationships among the parts.

As put in the article, "The writing of a visual thinker is like a map of all the possibilities; a verbal thinker writes like a guided tour."

Here are some writing problems visual thinkers can have as a result of thinking holistically.

13. Contextless -- No introduction. It is what it is; it is not defined by comparison with anything. Attempts to move visual into verbal through description or proclamation. May include vivid statement of opinion in isolation from other views and supporting evidence, a thought floating in space.

14. Aesthetic indiscrimination -- All details are equally important. Everything is everything else. Author does not take a position. Everything hangs in a mesh of undefined relationships. Bland, even, one-level quality to prose. No main point. Reads like a list.

The Writing Problems of Visual Thinkers -- Part 3

Visual thinking is non-linear; writing is linear. The major challenge for visual thinkers is to learn how to analyze, label, and organize experience so it can be presented in a linear fashion.

Here are some writing problems visual thinkers can have as a result of non-linear thinking.

7. Non-linear language -- Effort to express thought as clustered, stacked, layered,enfolded, rather than linear.

8. Descriptions static--Not arranged in dynamic sequence. Reader does not have enough
information to piece together the visualization required and must guess what the author means by a few labels.

9. Weak transitions and connectives -- Parts juxtaposed without being related. Reads like haiku or film script. "Dissolve," "jump cut," and "fade to black" would be appropriate transitions.

10. Undefined references -- "He did it to them." Dangling modifiers. Vague use of "this," "it," "thing," and other vague terms.

11. Poor organization -- Digressive. Gets lost in detail. Thought jumps around. Topic has not
been analyzed, broken into chunks, and sequenced in a purposive manner.

12. Weak narrative -- Little sense of plot, conflict, drama, structure, buildup, climax. Referred to, but not told. Stated, but not argued.

The Writing Problems of Visual Thinkers -- Part 2

Many writers struggle to use active verbs and avoid the passive voice. For visual thinkers, however, the passive voice and "be" verbs seems to be a direct expression of a mode of non-verbal thinking.

5. Few active verbs -- Passive voice. Unexplained appearances ("there is").

6. Overuse of "To Be"--Leading to imprecise verbs, passive voice. Nothing moves, changes, or
acts; everything "is."

The Writing Problems of Visual Thinkers -- Part 1

From Gerald Grow: Here is the summary table from my article, "The Writing Problems of Visual Thinkers."

Look this over and see if you recognize your writing in it.

Realize that many of these are the problems of all writers who have problems, but each problem here has been derived from a theory of how visual thinkers think.

That means: While you may have the same writing problem as someone else, yours may derive from a different cause, and may need a different method for improving it.

I argue in the article that many people arrive at these writing problems by being visual thinkers of a certain kind.

The table is divided here into several entries.

Because they think in pictures, visual thinkers may have trouble finding names for things. And when they do find names, they sometimes use names that are not shared by others.

Here are some writing problems visual thinkers can have as a result of thinking of things as pictures that do not have names.

Table 1. The Writing Problems of Visual Thinkers

1. Naming imprecise or lacking -- "The doohickey bollusked up my thingamajig."
Broad, vague nouns and adjectives.

2. Words as labels for unseen pictures, labels for complex but unexplained thoughts. Effort to label large visual wholes at once, without analyzing them into their parts. Each verbal element seems to refer to more than it says; words have multiple or cryptic, rather than specific, meanings.

3. General fuzziness of language -- Words imprecise. Connections unclear. Syntax slippery. Words don't seem real to the writer. Has a "You know what I
mean" quality.

4. Words used in a private and eccentric manner, like decor. When asked, writer might reply, "That's just what I use the word to mean."



From "The Writing Problems of Visual Thinkers," © 1994, 1996 by Gerald Grow, Florida A&M University -- www.longleaf.net/ggrow

This table is an expansion of one that appeared in Visible Language, 28.2, Spring 1994.