The term Global Perspective is used by teachers, editors, writers, and critics to refer to the practice of talking about a document or revising a document at the holistic level.
Synonyms are
- the Rhetorical Perspective
- Macroscopic Level.
The antithesis to the Global Perspective is the Local Perspective (AKA Linguistic Level, Microscopic Level, or Sentence Level).
[ *Alternative Titles: Rhetorical Perspective. ]
When editors, writers, and critics employ a global perspective, they are not concerned with individual elements of discourse–e.g.,. diction, usage, mechanics, grammar, phrases, sentences. Rather, when reading globally, readers are concerned with the overall effectiveness of a document:
- Rhetoric
- Is the text responsive to its rhetorical situation?
- Has the student organized the text around the needs of the audience, the instructor giving the assignment, the client needing work done?
- Is the text unified around a consistent purpose, thesis, research question?
- Is the author’s rhetorical stance, voice, tone, persona clear and consistent throughout the text?
- Is the text responsive to its rhetorical situation?
- Substance
- Does the text have substance, a firm foundation in textual or empirical research?
- Organization
Related Concepts
In Writing Studies,
- the practice of editing is synonymous with engaging in a local perspective.
- the practice of revision is closely associated with engaging in a Global Perspective.
- faculty encourage students to engage in revision long before they even consider editing.