As an imitation twice removed from true reality, it is inferior, deceptive, and dangerous, largely because audiences imitate what they see and read. Literature is an imitation of a sequence of events. Literature can be categorized and, thereby, understood according to the method of operation and execution of each category. Literature is an imitation of events or objects. It ought to delight and instruct readers.
Literature ought to delight, instruct, and inspirit the reader.
Literature is the execution in language of a number of rules that govern how to render an imitation of events gracefully and according to form and verisimilitude. Literature is an imitation which has been judged to have value over a period of centuries as a true but general reflection of human nature in a variety of real or imaginary circumstances. Literature is a creative expression of Platonic ideas that is cast in a form that affects readers by operating upon their sympathies and antipathies, thereby affording an emotional experience of ideas that Plato had believed could be apprehended logically. Literature is language that draws attention to the mode of expression itself and thereby goes beyond merely describing or communicating ideas. The prospectus should be written only after much of the research has already been conducted.