The research essay, it seems, requires linearity. Research essays require the writer to develop and articulate a project, position, or argument, to locate that position within the terrain of a particularly academic conversation (or conversations), and to support his or her claims with evidence.

Faigley and Romano are even more explicit about the importance of linearity in writing: "In a 'good' piece of writing, logical relations are signaled, references to sources carefully documented, and statements of bias either absent or well-controlled" (qtd. in Hesse 35). The research essay, with its requirements that an author identify and contribute to particular scholarly conversations, signal "logical relations," develop an argument and support it with evidence, seems to demand linearity of thought and articulation.

Moreover, print text is almost inextricably linear. The reader begins at the introduction, or the beginning, and reads through to the end. A table of contents in a book or longer essay, or sub-section headings in a shorter piece, can help a reader read selectively. An index can help a reader quickly locate moments in a text that are particularly interesting. But the author does not generally write a print text with the assumption that no reader will read from start to finish.

The linear conception of the relationship between writer and reader, while neither wholly accurate nor desirable, often informs the writing instructor's approach to writing instruction. Writers should write clearly, begin with an introduction that contains a clear statement of position, and establish logical relations between the various points of in the essay. Perhaps the clearest example of the importance of linearity in written argument comes from philosophy. David Kolb's "Socrates in the Labyrinth" explores apparent incompatibilities between "the shapeless depths" of hypertext and the "argumentative linearity" of much of what we take philosophy to involve (325).

An important question around linearity and the research essay centers on whether it is possible to write an essay that develops and articulates a position while also giving the reader control over organization.

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