  We present an analytic model specifically designed to address the long
standing issue of small scale structure on cosmic string networks. The model is
derived from the microscopic string equations, together with a few motivated
assumptions. The resulting form of the correlation between two points on a
string is exploited to study smoothing by gravitational radiation, loop
formation and lensing by cosmic strings. In addition, the properties of the
small loop population and the possibility of detecting gravitational waves
generated by their lowest harmonics are investigated. Whenever possible, we
compare the predictions of the model to the most recent numerical simulations
of cosmic string networks.
