Explicación teleológica y funcional

Remember the one about the turtle and the rabbit? The rabbit, who is really fast, has

a race with the turtle, who is really slow. The rabbit breaks out to an early lead. He gets so far ahead that he feels like he can take a break. The turtle just keeps pluggin’ away, step by tedious step, and eventually he catches up. So, the rabbit sprints ahead again, this time getting so far out in front that he has time to catch the new Star Wars movie at the multiplex. Meanwhile, the turtle, who is not a Star Wars fan, just keeps to his consistent though glacial pace, lumbering along put- ting one big turtle paw in front of the other. And so it goes.

The story ends, of course, when the rabbit, who shot out of the movie theatre like a lightning bolt when he saw that the turtle had caught up once again, and quickly found himself miles ahead of his competitor, decided he was hungry and stopped in at Frank’s Finish Line Diner for a huge plate of chicken fried steak with biscuits and gravy. Now, the rabbit and Frank have been buddies since high school and Frank knows that after a big meal like that his furry little friend likes to stretch out for a cat nap (or is a rabbit nap?) on the couch in the back room. Well, you can imagine what happened: there’s the rabbit, his big bunny belly full to burstin’ with Frank’s savory vittles, sawin’ logs on the couch while that pokey old turtle ambles over the finish line and wins.

So what’s the one most important thing the writer of this story wants you to know? Don’t get in a race with a turtle? Don’t see the new Star Wars movie? Don’t order the

chicken friend steak at Frank’s diner? Most people say it’s something like, “Slow and steady wins the race.” In this case, the main idea isn’t actually written in the story. But you can figure it out from the key details, the significant things that are in the story that help you understand the writ- ers’ message or, as it is sometimes called, the lesson or the moral. You don’t have to hide your main idea so cleverly in your own pieces. If you want, you can just tell your readers what it is. But you have to have a main idea so your readers will know exactly what your piece is all about.

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Purpose

THINK

Why did you write this piece? What specific thought or thoughts do you want your readers thinking

about after they have finished reading?

DO

Purpose = Think + Do. Generically, we might say that the purpose of a piece of writing is “to

entertain” or “to inform” or “to explain” or “to describe” or “to persuade.” This is often how we talk about purpose in school. It’s true that these are the typical purposes for writing, but under- standing this may not help you very much with the piece you’re working on right now. Specifi- cally, writers write because they want their readers to be thinking about something when they finish reading. And often they want their readers to do something, too.

Why did you write this piece? What specific action or actions do you want your readers to take after they have finished reading?

Please note: You don’t have to have both a “Think” and a “Do.” Many pieces have just one or

the other. However, I have found that writers who include both often end up with stronger pieces.

Please also note: You may feel that you would like your “Think” or your “Do” to be identical

to your main idea. This is fine. But your piece will be stronger if you take the opportunity here to go a step beyond your main idea. For example, why is your main idea important to your reader?

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Example

THINK

Why did you write this piece? What specific thought or thoughts do you want your readers thinking

about after they have finished reading?

DO

Fishing for my purpose. I’ll be the first to admit that coming up with a specific statement of

purpose is not easy. Sometimes I don’t figure it out until I’m almost done with my piece. Then I often have to go back and do some serious rewriting. At this point, with my fishing story, I have only a vague idea of why I’m writing this. I think it has something to do with reminding parents about what is most meaningful to their children.

Why did you write this piece? What specific action or actions do you want your readers to take after they have finished reading?

Is this any good? I have to admit that it’s not always possible to know how well you’re doing

at this point. Sometimes, when I try to come up with my purpose this way, I feel like what I’m writing sounds kind of corny. That’s how this feels now. Naturally, I want to scratch it out and try to come up with something else (or just forget about it altogether). But I’m not going to do that. What I’ve learned about things like this is not to worry about them so much while I’m drafting. I can always change it later. And if I wait until my piece is farther along, I’ll probably have a better

More than anything else you do for your children, it’s the

In document Filosofía de la Ciencia. Pablo Lorenzano (página 98-101)