Meaning . . . involves an analysis of the developing responses
of the reader in relation to the words as they succeed one
another in time. . . . A reader's response to the fifth word in
a line or sentence is to a large extent the product of his
responses to words one, two, three, and four. -- Stanley Fish,
Self-Consuming Artifacts Writers who have edited for conciseness
and word choice will have determined which words to leave out
and roughly what to do with the words that remain. They can now
turn their attention to casting these concise and well-chosen
words into the best possible order. This is important because
the order or syntax of words can help the writer compete for the
reader's attention just as much as the choice, punctuation, or
grammar of words. 1Syntax will also communicate information
about the writer's ethos by creating the impression of someone
who is in control of the material and whose meaning may be
grasped without unreasonable effort. Writers who produce
sentences in which the words are p