Write first, format later?

[Arthur Comings <atc -at- CORTE-MADERA -dot- GEOQUEST -dot- SLB -dot- COM>]

I know that some people want to write first and format later, but for
myself it's pointless to separate form from content.

The only time information has no printed form is before it's written
down. As soon as it's written, it has some form, and I'm already
thinking about how it can be made accessable the user. If it appears
before me in a dense, stuffy form, it's already slowing me down. If I
couldn't think about certain things until later, that would affect the
whole mind-set that I'm in when I write: With all of the tools at my
disposal, how do I best present this?

If only selfishly, this form that I'm (for the moment) still allowed to
dabble in is of use to the first reader of the printed doc: me. I'm
testing it as I go -- did this subhead help me find the topic fast? Did
it provide a good hint about the body text below? Should lthis be in a
table or not? And then (perhaps) the second reader: some engineer. How
did the total picture affect her?

If some people don't write that way, it's fine with me, just so they
don't think that their theoretical justifications (which make as much
sense to me as arguments that I should be able to breathe underwater)
will make me write *their* way.

Arthur Comings
GeoQuest