Center of Gravity--Describing a Paper's Focal Point
Activity
After your read your paper out loud, or have it read, ask reviewers to
describe to you the piece's "Center of Gravity." If you think of how this
term is used to describe how we balance ourselves when we walk or perform
some athletic task, you'll get a sense of how this term works metaphorically:
center of gravity is that element that not only holds a piece together,
but offers it some stability. It could be the piece's tone, a central metaphor
around which an argument evoloves, an unspoken assumption, or a particular
line or phrase that makes the piece clear, in some way, to the reader.
In people we often describe personal qualities--one's integrity, or one's
religious belief, or one's personality--as a center of gravity, the thing
that keeps them grounded. Sometimes we refer to a person's habits, friends,
marriage, and so on as providing a focal point in their lives. So too with
a written piece--the center of gravity can be some single element in the
piece, some effect from combined elements, or some link to the context
for which and in which the piece is written.
The Benefits
Hearing what readers think most grounds your piece, most contributes to
its essence and how it works gives you a sense of the piece's core, lets
you know what you might most want to keep, or--if the center is not where
or what you'd hoped it would be--what you might most want to set aside
and use some other time.
Using this Activity to Revise
Very often this feedback simply offers comfort, confirms what you've hoped
or have been working on, and you don't need, really, to do much revising
per se, except perhaps to take advantage of what you've learned, to enhance
other things in the piece. Sometimes, though, you may find that different
readers find or see different centers, have different interpretations of
what makes a piece's focal point. That's o.k.; it means you can compare
views and think about the piece in more dramatic ways, maybe play off the
two centers in some way, or enhance one and make the other subordinate.