Chapter 13: "Of all strange things and unaccountable this journalizing is the strangest It will allow nothing to be predicted of it; its good is not good, nor its bad bad...or pearls from coromandel. [January 29,1841] (p.151).
I really liked this last passage of chapter 13, I feel that I can relate to it, because journals can be weird but also interesting. We can learn a lot from them after going back and reading them. I feel that when I write journals many ideas and different topics come to my head, that not are not related to the first topic I was writing about.
Chapter 14: "Look over two of your past three writing's and attempt to eliminate from them weak passive verbs, empty verbs like make and have, the overuse of adjectives, and the unnecessary use of intensifying words like tremendously and great big" (p.232).
I think that this is a good point for me to learn from but also all writing's in general. Its important to sharpen down writing to make it good but simple. I feel that in my writing, I tend to use all the stuff they say above that a writer should not use.
Chapter 16: In general, does creating form mean creating a sort of form that works well with one's writing?
Chapter 15: "As you're reading a page or finishing a chapter of a story, record what your mind has been thinking. Try for truth rather than bluff. You'll get down on paper valuable human responses, the best of which will be worth sharing with others" (p.169).
I really like the advice the author gives in this chapter. I feel that I can relate to this because I think a lot when I am reading.
Chapter 13: "What a square idea," you may have said to yourself when you read the title of this chapter."
I like this quote because it is very relatable. In Reading and Rhetoric last year, we were told we'd have to write daily journals each morning and I was very unhappy. As the semester progressed, it got much easier and I actually started to enjoy writing down my thoughts. Like they say in the chapter, looking back at past journals can be very rewarding. I loved reading my old journals and remembering what I was doing at that point in time.
Chapter 14: "To write fully, you must use all your senses."
This is very true. Whenever describing something like a person or an object, it really helps to add in sensory descriptions. Writing about how something smells or tastes gives the paper a new dimension and helps it connect to the reader more. I try to employ these sensory descriptions but always find it difficult as I'm not used to describing smells or taste.
Chapter 15: "Another fundamental of critiquing is to be fair, to mention the good as well as the bad aspects of the productions."
I like this quote because reading critiques where it's all negative is not enjoyable. Like we do in writing circles, the warm and fluffies followed by the negative criticism is much more helpful and interesting. Critiques that are all one way or all another way are dry and really don't make for a good review.
Chapter 13: “A few years later even the writers of these diaries will be unable to get any valuable meaning from them” (140). I have gone back an reread old journals that I’d kept in elementary school. Of course, I wasn’t a very good writer then, but I think that at a younger age it is easier for people to write telling facts. At the same time, I do agree that years later, most of what I’d written doesn’t make sense or seems completely useless due to a lack of any other details. It is fun to go back and remember the different people I knew and experiences I’d had though.
Chapter 15: “Another fundamental of critiquing is to be fair, to mention the good as well as the bad aspects of a production” (184). In writing circles, I think we do a good job balancing both positive aspects and things to work on. We usually start by highlighting our favorite sentences, then move on to how the writer could improve organization or where he or she needs to add more details. I think this is the best way to improve a piece. The author knows what to keep, what to eliminate, and what to add in order to make their piece more effective.
Chapter 18: “When you notice a lot of adjectives and nouns and pronouns popping up in your sentences, you’ll probably find that they were created by the excessive use of is or other forms of to be” (227). When I revise my writing, I notice that this is true. It makes the sentences wordy. Stephen King, in his book “On Writing,” said that adverbs also make sentences unnecessarily wordy. The context should replace the adverb.
Chapter 14: Could some alliterations work as a disadvantage in showing the emotion of a piece?
Chapter 13: I kind of disagree with how the author says one should keep a journal. In chapter 13 he says "all good journals observe one fundamental- they don't speak privately" I believe that a journal should not be written for the benefit of others but for the benefit of the author. A journal is a method to communicate with oneself without looking like a crazy person and talking to yourself. It's a way to assess one's thoughts and release all sorts of emotions about personal matters. I agree that journals are important and can sometimes be embarrassing, but in my mind there will always be a difference between a journal, or a diary, and a piece of writing. In my mind, if you are writing to impress others, or make it so that others can understand your work, then you should write in a completely different style than that of a personal journal.
Chapter 14: It is very true that "A writers tones hold be natural to him or her in the circumstances and above all it should be justified. Nothing is more ridiculous than a person who takes on the wrong tone-unless as a joke." I like the examples that the author uses to explain this fact-- a corporal yelling at his soldiers using really pretentious words, or someone trying to be condescending while using very simple language. It's something like when you read in class and you don't see that a sentence is a question, so you read it normally in completely the wrong tone, and then see the question mark and sound like a fool and have to say it all over again. The same goes when a sentence has an exclamation point at the end. Tone is very important and one can look very silly if they mess it up.
Chapter 15: "Most of the time your mind is running like a motor, reacting, responding to stimuli before you. It hums both consciously and unconsciously, making connections, marking differences, coming to conclusions rapidly and sometimes brilliantly, unless you slow it down and distract it by attempting to show off." I like this quote because it is explaining how a reader should react to a certain passage that they might find boring or confusing. Sometimes when I am reading textbooks-- or books about writing-- I find my mind drifting, and cannot possibly begin to know how I'm supposed to write about a certain passage. This quote reminds me that the mind always has an opinion on something, I'm just sometimes too lazy to realize what it is.
Chapter 18: "The last revision above saves three words from the original sentences, but if the author's purpose was to slow down the reader and delay the divulging of the decision, he might better use the original version, which carries a different rhythm" I like that the author mentioned this in chapter 18, because he was starting to make it seem like there is only one way for people to write, and that is by using strong verbs, cutting out unnecessary words, etc. In reality, I have found that there are so many specific styles of writing that are set to accomplish so many different tasks and tones, and tell so many different kinds of stories, that it's impossible to dictate how exactly one should write. Every single story is meant to have a different voice, or a different 'rhythm.'
question: Don't you sometimes need "weaselries" to express a certain type of confusion, or to describe a certain kind of scene?"
Chapter 13: "A few years later even the writers of these diaries will be unable to get any valuable meaning from them." page 140.
I disagree with this statement because I believe that you can in fact find value in reading old journal entries. Writing down your thoughts is a great way of recording how you feel or what you see during that specific time. When you read an entry at a later time, you remember things that you would not have otherwise.
Chapter 14: “Another way to create faithful and exciting sound in your writing is to try to put down what your hear.” page 153.
I think this is a great tip that unfortunately I don’t use enough. I like seeing how author’s interpret a sound into words that aren’t even real. At times you might read a passage that contains an example of this and think to yourself you know what? It totally does sound like that! My favorite example is actually from a Calvin and Hobbes strip that I can remember. Watterson uses the word “Piffffff!” to express the sound of a snowball hitting Susie’s face.
Chapter 15:
“As you’re reading a page or finishing a chapter of a story, record what your mind has been thinking.” page 169.
I think that this is an excellent tip for writing a response. Often times I will be reading a piece of material and have a certain train of thought. Later I can’t remember what exactly I was thinking, and it might’ve been useful for writing about it. I think this is something that I’ll definitely try in the future.
13: The author talks about the importance of writing truths in a journal, but a journal is someone retelling their events to themselves. Is the author trying to make a journal too professional?
14: "..one of the marks of a strong writer is that through his sentences appears from time to time an occasional repetition of sound that gives words a strength like the "bone" in spaghetti cooked not too soft by an expert Italian cook" (p. 153). Repetition is the most effective "sound" technique at least for me. I'm more likely to remember something for a while if it has repeating sounds. That's why "The Raven" is a successful poem.
15. "...but you're a thinking being. That's the difference between you and animals. Most of the time your mind is running like a motor, reacting, responding to stimuli before you" (p. 169). When I was reading "The Radioactive Boyscout" I was thinking critically the whole time. Thinking critically allows me to care about the material I'm reading more because I am taking the time to understand it my way by relating it to things I'm familiar with.
18. "The weakness of "sort of" and "kind of" is that they don't tell the reader whether the writer really thought "it" was a flop or "he" was a 'hero" (p. 234). I used to be guilty of this crime. It is so easy to mix talking with writing. People use bad grammar in speech all the time. It messes me up when I write.
Quote from Chapter 13: “If you keep a journal, you can make your letters and school writing better, for it not only provides practice ground, but also gives you entries you can combine into longer work” (p. 141). I think that it this statement is true. Keeping a journal helps you remember things and therefor can help you when retelling a story, through writing or discussion. The only time I kept a journal was on my trip in Africa. Looking back I am really glad that I took the time each day to write in it because it is a lot of fun to look back on and it helps me remember where we were and what we saw each day. Also by writing every day your words flow smoother and your ideas form quicker.
Quote from Chapter 15: “The critique is still your personal response. If you try to use it as an opportunity to show off, it will fail” (p. 186). When I write a response to a book or article I usually write as quickly as possible. I don’t spend the time trying to show off but usually write about what I like and don’t like. It is annoying to read a chapter and than write a response on it because I will do nothing with it and neither will the teacher. I think critiques are good ways of looking at writing broadly and sometimes they do help you make connections and realizations that you had not initially thought of.
Quote from Chapter 18: “The moral of this chapter is not to do away with all uses of the cited words, but to learn where to look for possible week spots in your sentences” (p 232). My writing is usually pretty concise, so I many times I have problems adding because it seems to wordy and taking words away because I feel that they are necessary. There are always little word choices that my people catch that sound better than what I have written, but it is hard for me to pick up on those. I get stuck with the words that I have written down and am lost when trying to find a better way of saying things (college supplements are a great example).
Question from Chapter 14: What does it mean by “In free writing a person frequently finds that his pen or typewriter seems to have taken over the job of writing and he’s sitting there watching the words go down on paper” because this does not frequently happen to me. Is it that people write without thinking?
13.) “All good journals observe one fundamental: they don’t speak privately” (p.141). I disagree with this statement. I think journals can speak privately. Journals are probably most interesting when someone says interesting, unheard things about themselves. It allows the reader to discover parts of them that maybe isn’t obvious. I don’t think it would be hard for someone to understand a journal that’s personal.
14.) “Another way to create faithful and exciting sound in your writing is to try to put down what you hear” (p.153). I actually agree with the author on this one. In our everyday life we hear noises constantly and I bet taking down just some of those could create interesting things for your writing. It’s like what some artists do. They get inspiration from their surroundings. They take down notes on what they see, which allows them to create pieces that allow people to connect to the song. I feel like that could be the same with sounds. 15.) I am little confused by the lines “…they must be careful to give enough of what they’re judging so that readers will be able to judge their judgments of it” (p.178). Is the author saying that you should critique and judge but not too much because the writer needs to critique on your critiquing?
18.) “Too many uses of the word is drive a writer to stuffing his sentences with the words it and there” (p.224). I think this is spot on. I’ve always had trouble with this. Sometimes I don’t know what to use, like what word to use to describe the person’s activity or such and use is. It has made my writing boring at times. I think things like this should get taught more often. Grammar is important but this is too.
“All good journal observe one fundamental: they don’t speak privately. They can be read with profit by other persons than the writer.” - Chapter 13 When I first read this I thought that it was absolutely wrong because writing a personal journal is surely productive at least some of the time. Then I realized that their meaning of personal is different than the one that I was using. It is hard for me to imagine any writing that couldn’t be read by anyone else for their benefit.
“There’s nothing so good as feeling to control actions. Lots of talk flying around these days about developing intellectual control, but to learn to tap feelings so they control actions and words is far more useful.” -Chapter 14 I liked reading the passage about voice because I never really understood what teachers were saying when they talked about grading voice. It seems like an unknown to students that teachers just grade people on. This passage helped abolish that myth.
“Writing dominated by is also suffers from too many nouns and adjectives, which the verb connects. It lacks the force and liveliness of writing filled with verbs that communicate specific action, like careen, screech, tickle, swallow, etc.” - Chapter 18 This is another good passage because it explains why the use of the verb to be weakens writing. Again, so many english teachers talk a lot about how this happens, but rarely tell us the reasons behind what they are saying.
I think that having a personal journal is definitely not something that is a bad thing. Why would it be that keeping something that is beneficial to yourself isn’t actually good writing? Isn’t that inner dialogue what we try to mimic most in our writing?
13: "In your journal, record simple facts, opinions, preferences—anything that counts for you at the moment." That's what I have the hardest time with when I try to write journals. I try and make everything important and detailed, yet I should just be jotting down A LOT of things, and the expanding on them later. Sometimes quantity is better than quality.
14: "A person frequently finds that his pen seems to have taken over the job of writing and he's sitting there watching the words go down on paper. A writer should do whatever he can to help bring about this state." I don't really agree with this statement. I might not be understanding it perfectly, but I think that (especially with the type of writing we're doing in APW) that the writer should be very cognizant of the words going down, meticulously placing them on the paper. When I write things for APW, I'm 100% there, controlling exactly what goes down on the paper.
15: "Otherwise [the essay] may turn out worse, brittle or misshapen" This usually happens to me when I try to sharpen papers. I always take out random words because (at that time) I think they're not needed. I always come back and re-read what I had just sharpen to figure out that I just screwed up the essay more, making it confusing. I think good sharpening techniques should be employed much earlier on in the English courses, because I'm finding that's my hardest challenge right now as a student.
Question for 13: Why did they put so many (and such long) journals in this chapter? I don't really care, and have no need to read them. Why didn't they talk more about how to write a journal then me reading about some random 'Aunt Sadie'?
Ch. 13 "All good journals observe one fundamental: they don't speak privately." (pg. 141) This chapter discusses the importance of sharing a story. It also says how sometimes are best writing is when we are writing about the things we love to write about.
Ch.14 "In the phase 'bottom of the boat,' the writer has repeated the b sound skillfully." (pg. 153) This chapter discusses the sounds the words make when they are being said together and the voice of the writer.
Ch.15 "...students are asked to write book reports, which are assigned mostly to find out weather the student read the book." (pg. 168) Papers written about a book or in school are often informative of the subject they are capturing but not substantive to the writer.
Ch. 18 "To many uses of the word is drive a writer to stuffing his sentences with the words it and there." (pg. 224) This chapter zooms into the specifics of how students write. We have many errors that if we only reread we'd notice they were hasty or we could have said something different. Some times it's hard to fill a paper with truths and it's easier to fill it with is and it and there. If people wrote for themselves not for an assignments sake do you think they would be better writers?
Chapter 13: "Students in school seldom have the opportunity to consider an experience or idea over a period of time and from different and developing viewpoints"(147). This is an excellent and succinct way to explain why journal writing (good journal writing) is difficult for students and young people. We don't have a long view, we don't have many different internal viewpoints, we don't have a long period of time to think about things. On the other hand, we have plenty of "strong feelings" hitting us each day, so most of us can write journals, even if they are untempered.
Chapter 14: "Poetry… must have all the attributes of good writing discussed in this book, only brought to their ultimate concentrated power." Earlier in the book, the author claims that the reason people can be 'afraid' of poetry is because they've been tossed 'knuckleballs' - slow poems that seem boring. I think that at least a part of the reason is because of this quote. Poetry is very, very hard to write for someone who isn't practiced at it, especially in a school environment of Engfish. This is intimidating - it elevates those who can write good poetry, and makes some people fearful of trying to write it. Packing words to bursting with meaning is no light task.
Chapter 15: "Most such book reports are dumb"(168). This is an example of the author of Telling Writing practicing what he preaches: hard, telling facts. Offensive as this might be to some thin-skinned student somewhere, it's true. The explanations surrounding the phrase remove doubt, and explain the fact's meaning fully, but this fact hits the reader like a slap to the face.
Chapter 18: "In any sort of writing, the excessive use of it piles up other unnecessary words in a sentence"(226). Would excessive use of it be referred to as ititis or itis?
“The entries looked like this: ‘Played ball his morning. Had lunch at 12:30. Didn’t do much the rest of the day.’ The writer of journals like that can’t say or won’t say. The reader gets no telling facts” (140, chapter 13). I keep a journal very much like the one quoted here, but it serves my purposes. I write like this to record events which otherwise I might forget. I don’t intend for others to read it; I only intend to keep it to search through when I need to find out the location of a competition, the date I released an app, or something else which may be important in the future. I suppose I could start writing telling narratives, but that seems like a lot of work for something which I use only for record keeping.
“Mr. Wright suggested [the student] go home and pour a glass of milk over his brother’s head and then listen to his father. He did. He heard considerable alliteration” (152, chapter 14). This quote suggests an obedience to teachers (in 1966) which I can’t imagine fifty years later. If Mr. Bourne told our entire class to do this, I doubt a single one would comply. This quote is a good example, though, of how emotional sounds use alliteration. It also illustrates that this relationship is rarely noticed, because it seems natural for sounds to punctuate meaning.
“In any sort of writing, the excessive use of it piles up other unnecessary words in a sentence…It has a way of picking up bad company. It seems are two words that frequently do bad things together” (226, chapter 18). It seems that a word can be bad, especially when it is being used to introduce an idea in a weak manner. The preceding sentence uses bad writing techniques intentionally. The French language has an entire tense built on phrases like “it seems that” and “it is doubtful that.” For every passive sentence which would be sharpened by Macrorie, the French use the subjunctive. Whenever I write in French, I am proud of myself when I remember to use the subjunctive. Therefore, I have a positive feeling toward bad English sentences which I hope to remedy soon.
Chapter 15. “It’s not hard to avoid [producing Engfish and uncommunicative writing]. Read a story or poem…and respond truthfully to it…Then respond with feelings or thoughts that come to you as you read or after you’re finished” (169). Is it really this easy to write a good response to a literary work? If so, why do so many people write garbage?
Julia reflects: Chapter 13: "In your journal, record simple facts, opinions, preferences—anything that counts for you at the moment." I like this. Instead of focusing on big insightful ideas, one should focus on smaller, simpler ideas that are Important to them instead of trying to sound smart.
Chapter 14: "To write fully, you must use all your senses." True. I need to work on this. In order for an essay to be engaging the reader must believe they are in the story.
Chapter 15: "students are asked to write book reports, which are assigned mostly to find out weather the student read the book." This is true with everything in school. The assessments are designed to see if the person did the work instead of seeing if they actually understand what they're doing.
Question: How do I stop using it so much in my writing?!
Chapter 13 “When the writer and his professor looked at the three entries together, they saw they made a record of a whole journey from the writer’s scorn for funeral rituals to his acceptance of them, and how and why he moved from that place to this place” This passage occurs immediately after three long journal entries, and after having read several chapters, I’m starting to become quite amazed by the amount of material that this book is made up of. Not only does the writing style make it easy to read (usually) but if one has the patience to read through all of them (I’m afraid my attention won’t last that long) there is a boat’s load of passages, excerpts, essays, and quotes from well-known books and supposed nobodies who’s paper he happened upon and decided to include in his book. I’m starting to wonder just how much time it took to amount the whole of this book. Each passage is so well placed and introduced, it couldn’t have simply been a matter of “I need a passage here” the planning alone, even before the writing makes me admire the writer.
Chapter 14 Okay question time: “Knocking around in every person’s head are the sounds of his native language” “His,” really, not their? So is the author sexist?
Chapter 15 “Rather it’s a crime to take all that time to produce something no one, including the writer, wants to read” I’ll drink to that *takes sip of kool-aid But actually, he brings up a really interesting point that has come up a lot throughout this book, whoever thought a writing style book could have a motif? Anyways, there is this idea that the English department of most schools, or really any class that involves writing, seems to be approaching it from completely the wrong direction. I’m not saying there shouldn’t be limitations, but the fact that a teacher can determine what is a good paper based on more than grammar and content seems a bit wrong to me. If you’re going to call writing an art, why constrain it to one form. Not every painting is impressionist, so why hold them all to that standard. The idea of having a student write a research/profile/descriptive paper makes sense, it helps the student distinguish between several different forms of writing, but there is still a lack in making the student appreciate the lesson. In short I think people who don’t appreciate education should go live in Africa and give up their spot for someone who will actually care about it.
Chapter 18 “I don’t actually have a quote because I couldn’t find a good one to summarize the idea of de-fluffing the paper Yadda-Yadda, the chapter is about sharpening you writing and I am here to argue here’s my point:” I agree with the writer when he talks about tempering a paper, and how it can be satisfying(College apps anyone?). And taking out words, replacing “to be” with more descriptive verbs and descriptions, that all makes sense. When he talks about really cutting down on words, I start to disagree. I know he doesn’t mean take an average sentence and turn it into brunt caveman speak that will get the action across and no more. “Oogah run fast in hunt” Voila, we have learned about Oogah, and how Oogah can run fast in the hunt. Possibly add some flair, and a more modern speaking spin. “Oogah’s long, but quick; strides make him the leader of the hunt.” Now we know how fast he can run, in comparison to others, as well as a nice description of how he does that running. I honestly have no idea where I’m going with this but basically, I think fluff can be a good thing as well as bad, and it depends on the judgment of the writer as to where they should put it.
Chapter 13: “What a square idea” … of this chapter” Ch 13. I have always thought that writing a journal is a great idea, not that I actually acted on this idea. I find that I am just too tired after a hard day’s works and a full night’s homework to actually write what I did that day. Journals are a great way to vent and convey your feelings. They are also a great way to remember what happened. The journal entries from class are a bit different but they solve the same purpose. They allow you to vent your pent up anxieties and relax. This is a positive thing. “He told … alliteration” Ch 14. This was a really funny line. I can’t believe a student would do that. I am even more surprised that the student would just follow the teacher so blindly. I would never try this but this is sound like a lot of fun. I hope that this guy didn’t get in too much trouble. I find that if I get I alliterate a lot too. I don’t really know why but I feel like I haven’t gotten angry enough until I just start alliterating uncontrollably. This seems like a small detail that can make writing sound more accurate. “The critique is still …it will fail” Ch 15. This was a really cool line. It was humbling. When anyone writes they usually try to add a flare of fancy speak that really never helps. They add it thinking that it will make their writing look much cooler and much more mature, but it always sounds pretentious. I find that if writing sounds like talking it feels too loose and if you write over maturely then it sounds utterly pretentious. I think that writers should try to find their own sort of style and parity. They need to find the correct balance of colloquialisms and mature vocabulary. Q: Is alliteration actually helpful in an essay? It sees distracting.
Chapter 13: “Or if you’re a man, your diary went for two days and stopped. The entries looked like this: Played ball this morning. Had lunch at 12:30. Didn’t do much the rest of the day.” –page 140 -I find this a little sexiest. Are they assuming all girls write long journals and that boys don’t? Yes, girls tend to internalize things more than boys do but I think writing it down is different. Even if only kept for you, it’s not as private. It’s on paper, exposed rather than kept inside your head. I see the benefit of keeping a journal but I personally never have unless required and most of the time I kept them short.
Chapter 14: “To write fully, you must use all your senses.” –page 155 -Using your senses is a huge part of writing. It provides personal detail and room for figurative language. Everyone experiences senses but they are different for every individual. One person can experience something that another might not pick up on. With explaining the situation in senses one can compare and relate.
Chapter 15: “ When responses are written truthfully, they help make the practice of criticism valuable” –page 176 -Criticism can be hard to take but I think it helps if people are completely honest with one another. A lot of the time you can tell when people are holding back. If you want to become a better writer you need people to be honest. It’s possible to be truthful without having to be rude about it. For any writer I think criticism is something you must learn to do and learn to take well in return.
Chapter 18: “Often writers say seems when no seeming is involved whatever, but rather clear and certain feeling or fact.” –page 226 -I noticed lately that I tend to do this or say something like, “Can I ask you a question?” before doing so. It’s pointless. A waste. I’m not sure why I do this along with others. I use it in verbal context more than written but still doesn’t add anything to what I have to say, so it’s interesting to see how many people do this on a frequent basis. If you cut that part out it makes it more clear and concise.
Chapter 13: “Revise and sharpen two to five entries you think carry truths and oppositions and present them for criticism.” –page 151 -Are journals meant to be criticized by others? I thought they weren’t supposed to be.
Chapter 13 "Or if you're a man, your diary went to two days and stopped."What? I know plenty of boys who have more to say than "played ball this morning." The author is stereotyping incorrectly and making claims that are not always true. There are girls who don't express their feelings through diaries and boys who do. I do not and never have owned a diary, while I know boys who have. Just because girls are labeled as more emotional doesn't mean their diaries can't consist of "Had lunch at 12:30. Didn't so much the rest of the day."
Chapter 14 "Finding a true voice gives a piece of writing unity" I agree with this statement. I think that a smooth voice can be the difference between a good and bad experience when reading a paper. A consistent, effective voice can be the connective tissue between the beginning, middle and end of the paper. Also, "truthtelling voice" gives an honest and endearing tone to the paper. There is something comforting about reading a paper that shows faults in another human being.
Chapter 15 "Most of your readers like to know that you're human, like them." This quote correlates with what I was saying in Chapter 14. Readers make more connections with honest readers. I find that this also pertains to comedians. All of the funniest comedians say things that everybody is thinking but nobody says. In my own writing I find that my readers enjoy my papers more when I admit a fault or humorous mistake.
Chapter 18 I use the word "it" often in my writing because there really is no other word for "it". What is the best way to avoid using such a necessary word without making the writing wordy?
Chapter 13 “All good journals observe one fundamental: they don’t speak pivately.” I like this because it reminds you that if you’re writing a journal and not a diary, you’re writing for an audience to practice writing and not just for yourself to get your thoughts down. I never really thought there was a difference, but now I know there is!!
Chapter 14 “To write fully, you must learn to use all your senses.” This is what we learned in Reading and Rhetoric, to make everything concrete. You can really tell the difference in quality in the example, the ones that are more concrete seem smarter and you can relate better to what is going on and really picture it.
Chapter 15 “When responses are written truthfully, they help to practice criticism.” I like this because it reminds us to say critical things as well as nice things because if you never get a negative opinion or criticism, you will never know what to improve and will continue to write the same way.
Chapter 18 “Writers are often dishonest with themselves, they speak apologetically,... when they do not feel {any of these things}.” I like this because I know people often do this to use as a kind of fluff. They just want to say something so they make up extra emotions and opinions that they don’t actually have. Sometimes this makes people think more deeply though.
what exactly is the difference between a diary and a journal?
Chapter 13: "Students in school seldom have the opportunity to consider an experience or idea over a period of time and from different and developing viewpoints." I found this point to be very true and it is why students our age don't like/ have trouble writing journals and really writing honestly.
Chapter 14: "A person frequently finds that his pen seems to have taken over the job of writing and he's sitting there watching the words go down on paper. A writer should do whatever he can to help bring about this state." I love this quote because I think it is a very profound point about writing.
Chapter 15: “As you’re reading a page or finishing a chapter of a story, record what your mind has been thinking.” This is a good point to do while reading but I find I would never unless told to. It seems like so much extra work.
Chapter 18: What really makes a journal? Isn't it personal to the person writing it?
chapter 13 "A few years later even the writers of these diaries will be unable to get any valuable meaning from them." I disagree, because i think that if nothing else, looking back at writing from your past shows what you were thinking, and how you have developed. this teaches everyone a lot about themselves. chapter 14: "A person frequently finds that his pen seems to have taken over the job of writing and he's sitting there watching the words go down on paper." I completely agree with this statement, as ive had this experience before. if you really care about what you are writing about, then sometimes it feels like your not even writing, but the paper is reading your mind. chapter 15: “When responses are written truthfully, they help make the practice of criticism valuable” I agree with this statement, because if you are going to criticize something you must be truthful. Otherwise, your points bear no merit. any criticism must be backed up by fact, or else you have no right to make the criticism. chapter 18: how can you replace it? there arent many words that are better that mean the same thing.
Chapter 13: "Keeping a journal forces writers to put something in the sock every day or so. Often when they review what's there, they see things that, taken out and sorted, come together with new meaning."
I can relate to this because I kept a journal of my dreams for a few weeks. When I looked back it, I noticed reoccurring themes in them and how they related to what happened to me in real life.
Chapter 14: "A writer's stone should be natural to him or her in the circumstances, and above all it should be justified."
If you write naturally and truthfully, it will make your writing much better. It's hard to write about something that never happened. If you write about yourself and how you feel, it will be much easier. I always find my best work to be the work that is honest. It's the only work that captures reality.
Chapter 15: "Another fundamental of critiquing is to be fair, to mention the good as well as the bad aspects of the productions."
I'm a big fan of this quote. In our class, we always focus on letting the reader know what they did well and what they should work on. Personally, it's feels good to know what I did well, but it also is nice to know what I need to fix because it will improve my writing.
Chapter 18 Question:
I find replacing the word "it" hard, as well. Are there other ways to replace "it" besides using the word "it" is replacing?
Chapter 13: "Persons who only dream of becoming writers spend their time dreaming of becoming writers. Those who really intend to become writers keep a journal and work the mine." I always think of things that I would like to remember, but I never write them down so eventually they just float away. It makes a lot of sense to me to always keep something on you that allows you to copy down your thoughts. I always have my phone on me which I use for such things but maybe I should convert to a small journal.
Chapter 14: "Another way to create faithful and exciting sound in your writing is to write down what you hear." I think that an important aspect of writing is to communicate in a way that doesn't sound overly formal and monotonous. I think that good writing conveys a sense of personability and uses more colloquial language without sounding like slang. I think that good writing is finding that balance between writing how you would speak and formal english.
Chapter 15: "As you're reading a page or finishing a chapter of a story, record what your mind has been thinking. Try for truth rather than bluff." I cannot count the amount of text analyses that I have read that are utterly boring and merely recite what happened in the text. It's so much more interesting to read someone's actual, possibly controversial opinion. This reminded me of the chapter about honest writing, it's important to really express how you feel. This is especially true when it comes to analyses.
Chapter 18: Why is using the verb "to be" so bad? Sometimes you have no choice but to use "to be" or "it".
13. “All good journals observe one fundamental: they don’t speak privately. They can be read with profit by other persons than the writer.” This statement seemed helpful, it shows the idea of being really open gets you good writing, you can not shelter yourself or the people you are writing for otherwise there is not going to be much to gain from a third party reader. The rest of the chapter focuses mainly on pairing oppositions
14. “The best writers seem born with an ear’s memory for the way a person speaks, and if they write down the conversations of a dozen persons in one story, all speak recognizably differently.” I realized this was true as I read it. This truth must reflect in the same way that writers have a distinct writing style and can be recognized, you can also recognize the way someone talks without the audio of their voice. I would be able to use this when it comes to dialects, to me, that would be key. All the people from my home town can have very very clear dialects so I think, if read aloud, you should be able to recognize the character without naming them. May take some analysis, but possible.
15. “If you’d like to approach the quality of a professional’s critiques, you can’t give excuses. Don’t say you didn’t have time.” This is just I think a really constructive thing to keep in mind. No escape goats :D I really need to think about this, and though it does not have a TON to do with writing it has to do with the mind set and keeping oneself. I connect to it, because editing my college essay I had to deal with all my families criticisms- it’s just like “the customer is always right”. Don’t argue with them, improve by yourself.
18. How are you able to discern what is your voice and what is editing to the extreme? I don’t think I could ever make my writing sound like that of the guy who writes this book, maybe he’s just smarter or maybe I just write different. Both? I bet. :P Oh well, yea, my question is above.
13: “All good journal observe one fundamental: they don’t speak privately. They can be read with profit by other persons than the writer.” I completely agree. The purpose of writing is communication and communication requires a flow of information from one person to another. Writing something that is private where nobody else can read it is a complete waste of time.There's always someone even if it's one person that the journal can be meant for to read.
14: "A person frequently finds that his pen seems to have taken over the job of writing and he's sitting there watching the words go down on paper." It would be nice if this was always true. On occasion it happens to me but through a keyboard rather than a pen. If I am passionate or inspired by a subject, the words do just flow out. I wish this could happen more often.
15: "As you're reading a page or finishing a chapter of a story, record what your mind has been thinking. Try for truth rather than bluff." I don't think this is a good idea. On the rare occasion that I have read something that actually affects how I feel, the best part about it is the mystery. Sometimes I don't know if I should be happy or sad when a character in a book dies or if i like the ending or not. I like fighting with these concepts and wouldn't want to dissect them until there's nothing left to think about.
Chapter 18: How do I keep my voice in my writing when I'm editing it to death and cutting down on the word count?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteChapter 13: "Of all strange things and unaccountable this journalizing is the strangest It will allow nothing to be predicted of it; its good is not good, nor its bad bad...or pearls from coromandel. [January 29,1841] (p.151).
ReplyDeleteI really liked this last passage of chapter 13, I feel that I can relate to it, because journals can be weird but also interesting. We can learn a lot from them after going back and reading them. I feel that when I write journals many ideas and different topics come to my head, that not are not related to the first topic I was writing about.
Chapter 14: "Look over two of your past three writing's and attempt to eliminate from them weak passive verbs, empty verbs like make and have, the overuse of adjectives, and the unnecessary use of intensifying words like tremendously and great big" (p.232).
I think that this is a good point for me to learn from but also all writing's in general. Its important to sharpen down writing to make it good but simple. I feel that in my writing, I tend to use all the stuff they say above that a writer should not use.
Chapter 16: In general, does creating form mean creating a sort of form that works well with one's writing?
Chapter 15:
Delete"As you're reading a page or finishing a chapter of a story, record what your mind has been thinking. Try for truth rather than bluff. You'll get down on paper valuable human responses, the best of which will be worth sharing with others" (p.169).
I really like the advice the author gives in this chapter. I feel that I can relate to this because I think a lot when I am reading.
Chapter 13:
ReplyDelete"What a square idea," you may have said to yourself when you read the title of this chapter."
I like this quote because it is very relatable. In Reading and Rhetoric last year, we were told we'd have to write daily journals each morning and I was very unhappy. As the semester progressed, it got much easier and I actually started to enjoy writing down my thoughts. Like they say in the chapter, looking back at past journals can be very rewarding. I loved reading my old journals and remembering what I was doing at that point in time.
Chapter 14:
"To write fully, you must use all your senses."
This is very true. Whenever describing something like a person or an object, it really helps to add in sensory descriptions. Writing about how something smells or tastes gives the paper a new dimension and helps it connect to the reader more. I try to employ these sensory descriptions but always find it difficult as I'm not used to describing smells or taste.
Chapter 15:
"Another fundamental of critiquing is to be fair, to mention the good as well as the bad aspects of the productions."
I like this quote because reading critiques where it's all negative is not enjoyable. Like we do in writing circles, the warm and fluffies followed by the negative criticism is much more helpful and interesting. Critiques that are all one way or all another way are dry and really don't make for a good review.
Chapter 16:
Why do outlines freeze most writers?
Chapter 13: “A few years later even the writers of these diaries will be unable to get any valuable meaning from them” (140). I have gone back an reread old journals that I’d kept in elementary school. Of course, I wasn’t a very good writer then, but I think that at a younger age it is easier for people to write telling facts. At the same time, I do agree that years later, most of what I’d written doesn’t make sense or seems completely useless due to a lack of any other details. It is fun to go back and remember the different people I knew and experiences I’d had though.
ReplyDeleteChapter 15: “Another fundamental of critiquing is to be fair, to mention the good as well as the bad aspects of a production” (184). In writing circles, I think we do a good job balancing both positive aspects and things to work on. We usually start by highlighting our favorite sentences, then move on to how the writer could improve organization or where he or she needs to add more details. I think this is the best way to improve a piece. The author knows what to keep, what to eliminate, and what to add in order to make their piece more effective.
Chapter 18: “When you notice a lot of adjectives and nouns and pronouns popping up in your sentences, you’ll probably find that they were created by the excessive use of is or other forms of to be” (227). When I revise my writing, I notice that this is true. It makes the sentences wordy. Stephen King, in his book “On Writing,” said that adverbs also make sentences unnecessarily wordy. The context should replace the adverb.
Chapter 14: Could some alliterations work as a disadvantage in showing the emotion of a piece?
Chapter 13: I kind of disagree with how the author says one should keep a journal. In chapter 13 he says "all good journals observe one fundamental- they don't speak privately" I believe that a journal should not be written for the benefit of others but for the benefit of the author. A journal is a method to communicate with oneself without looking like a crazy person and talking to yourself. It's a way to assess one's thoughts and release all sorts of emotions about personal matters. I agree that journals are important and can sometimes be embarrassing, but in my mind there will always be a difference between a journal, or a diary, and a piece of writing. In my mind, if you are writing to impress others, or make it so that others can understand your work, then you should write in a completely different style than that of a personal journal.
ReplyDeleteChapter 14: It is very true that "A writers tones hold be natural to him or her in the circumstances and above all it should be justified. Nothing is more ridiculous than a person who takes on the wrong tone-unless as a joke." I like the examples that the author uses to explain this fact-- a corporal yelling at his soldiers using really pretentious words, or someone trying to be condescending while using very simple language. It's something like when you read in class and you don't see that a sentence is a question, so you read it normally in completely the wrong tone, and then see the question mark and sound like a fool and have to say it all over again. The same goes when a sentence has an exclamation point at the end. Tone is very important and one can look very silly if they mess it up.
Chapter 15: "Most of the time your mind is running like a motor, reacting, responding to stimuli before you. It hums both consciously and unconsciously, making connections, marking differences, coming to conclusions rapidly and sometimes brilliantly, unless you slow it down and distract it by attempting to show off." I like this quote because it is explaining how a reader should react to a certain passage that they might find boring or confusing. Sometimes when I am reading textbooks-- or books about writing-- I find my mind drifting, and cannot possibly begin to know how I'm supposed to write about a certain passage. This quote reminds me that the mind always has an opinion on something, I'm just sometimes too lazy to realize what it is.
Chapter 18: "The last revision above saves three words from the original sentences, but if the author's purpose was to slow down the reader and delay the divulging of the decision, he might better use the original version, which carries a different rhythm" I like that the author mentioned this in chapter 18, because he was starting to make it seem like there is only one way for people to write, and that is by using strong verbs, cutting out unnecessary words, etc. In reality, I have found that there are so many specific styles of writing that are set to accomplish so many different tasks and tones, and tell so many different kinds of stories, that it's impossible to dictate how exactly one should write. Every single story is meant to have a different voice, or a different 'rhythm.'
question: Don't you sometimes need "weaselries" to express a certain type of confusion, or to describe a certain kind of scene?"
Chapter 13:
ReplyDelete"A few years later even the writers of these diaries will be unable to get any valuable meaning from them." page 140.
I disagree with this statement because I believe that you can in fact find value in reading old journal entries. Writing down your thoughts is a great way of recording how you feel or what you see during that specific time. When you read an entry at a later time, you remember things that you would not have otherwise.
Chapter 14:
“Another way to create faithful and exciting sound in your writing is to try to put down what your hear.” page 153.
I think this is a great tip that unfortunately I don’t use enough. I like seeing how author’s interpret a sound into words that aren’t even real. At times you might read a passage that contains an example of this and think to yourself you know what? It totally does sound like that! My favorite example is actually from a Calvin and Hobbes strip that I can remember. Watterson uses the word “Piffffff!” to express the sound of a snowball hitting Susie’s face.
Chapter 15:
“As you’re reading a page or finishing a chapter of a story, record what your mind has been thinking.” page 169.
I think that this is an excellent tip for writing a response. Often times I will be reading a piece of material and have a certain train of thought. Later I can’t remember what exactly I was thinking, and it might’ve been useful for writing about it. I think this is something that I’ll definitely try in the future.
Chapter 18:
How can you avoid using the word “is” too much?
13: The author talks about the importance of writing truths in a journal, but a journal is someone retelling their events to themselves. Is the author trying to make a journal too professional?
ReplyDelete14: "..one of the marks of a strong writer is that through his sentences appears from time to time an occasional repetition of sound that gives words a strength like the "bone" in spaghetti cooked not too soft by an expert Italian cook" (p. 153). Repetition is the most effective "sound" technique at least for me. I'm more likely to remember something for a while if it has repeating sounds. That's why "The Raven" is a successful poem.
15. "...but you're a thinking being. That's the difference between you and animals. Most of the time your mind is running like a motor, reacting, responding to stimuli before you" (p. 169). When I was reading "The Radioactive Boyscout" I was thinking critically the whole time. Thinking critically allows me to care about the material I'm reading more because I am taking the time to understand it my way by relating it to things I'm familiar with.
18. "The weakness of "sort of" and "kind of" is that they don't tell the reader whether the writer really thought "it" was a flop or "he" was a 'hero" (p. 234). I used to be guilty of this crime. It is so easy to mix talking with writing. People use bad grammar in speech all the time. It messes me up when I write.
Quote from Chapter 13: “If you keep a journal, you can make your letters and school writing better, for it not only provides practice ground, but also gives you entries you can combine into longer work” (p. 141). I think that it this statement is true. Keeping a journal helps you remember things and therefor can help you when retelling a story, through writing or discussion. The only time I kept a journal was on my trip in Africa. Looking back I am really glad that I took the time each day to write in it because it is a lot of fun to look back on and it helps me remember where we were and what we saw each day. Also by writing every day your words flow smoother and your ideas form quicker.
ReplyDeleteQuote from Chapter 15: “The critique is still your personal response. If you try to use it as an opportunity to show off, it will fail” (p. 186). When I write a response to a book or article I usually write as quickly as possible. I don’t spend the time trying to show off but usually write about what I like and don’t like. It is annoying to read a chapter and than write a response on it because I will do nothing with it and neither will the teacher. I think critiques are good ways of looking at writing broadly and sometimes they do help you make connections and realizations that you had not initially thought of.
Quote from Chapter 18: “The moral of this chapter is not to do away with all uses of the cited words, but to learn where to look for possible week spots in your sentences” (p 232). My writing is usually pretty concise, so I many times I have problems adding because it seems to wordy and taking words away because I feel that they are necessary. There are always little word choices that my people catch that sound better than what I have written, but it is hard for me to pick up on those. I get stuck with the words that I have written down and am lost when trying to find a better way of saying things (college supplements are a great example).
Question from Chapter 14: What does it mean by “In free writing a person frequently finds that his pen or typewriter seems to have taken over the job of writing and he’s sitting there watching the words go down on paper” because this does not frequently happen to me. Is it that people write without thinking?
13.) “All good journals observe one fundamental: they don’t speak privately” (p.141). I disagree with this statement. I think journals can speak privately. Journals are probably most interesting when someone says interesting, unheard things about themselves. It allows the reader to discover parts of them that maybe isn’t obvious. I don’t think it would be hard for someone to understand a journal that’s personal.
ReplyDelete14.) “Another way to create faithful and exciting sound in your writing is to try to put down what you hear” (p.153). I actually agree with the author on this one. In our everyday life we hear noises constantly and I bet taking down just some of those could create interesting things for your writing. It’s like what some artists do. They get inspiration from their surroundings. They take down notes on what they see, which allows them to create pieces that allow people to connect to the song. I feel like that could be the same with sounds.
15.) I am little confused by the lines “…they must be careful to give enough of what they’re judging so that readers will be able to judge their judgments of it” (p.178). Is the author saying that you should critique and judge but not too much because the writer needs to critique on your critiquing?
18.) “Too many uses of the word is drive a writer to stuffing his sentences with the words it and there” (p.224). I think this is spot on. I’ve always had trouble with this. Sometimes I don’t know what to use, like what word to use to describe the person’s activity or such and use is. It has made my writing boring at times. I think things like this should get taught more often. Grammar is important but this is too.
“All good journal observe one fundamental: they don’t speak privately. They can be read with profit by other persons than the writer.” - Chapter 13
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read this I thought that it was absolutely wrong because writing a personal journal is surely productive at least some of the time. Then I realized that their meaning of personal is different than the one that I was using. It is hard for me to imagine any writing that couldn’t be read by anyone else for their benefit.
“There’s nothing so good as feeling to control actions. Lots of talk flying around these days about developing intellectual control, but to learn to tap feelings so they control actions and words is far more useful.” -Chapter 14
I liked reading the passage about voice because I never really understood what teachers were saying when they talked about grading voice. It seems like an unknown to students that teachers just grade people on. This passage helped abolish that myth.
“Writing dominated by is also suffers from too many nouns and adjectives, which the verb connects. It lacks the force and liveliness of writing filled with verbs that communicate specific action, like careen, screech, tickle, swallow, etc.” - Chapter 18
This is another good passage because it explains why the use of the verb to be weakens writing. Again, so many english teachers talk a lot about how this happens, but rarely tell us the reasons behind what they are saying.
I think that having a personal journal is definitely not something that is a bad thing. Why would it be that keeping something that is beneficial to yourself isn’t actually good writing? Isn’t that inner dialogue what we try to mimic most in our writing?
13: "In your journal, record simple facts, opinions, preferences—anything that counts for you at the moment." That's what I have the hardest time with when I try to write journals. I try and make everything important and detailed, yet I should just be jotting down A LOT of things, and the expanding on them later. Sometimes quantity is better than quality.
ReplyDelete14: "A person frequently finds that his pen seems to have taken over the job of writing and he's sitting there watching the words go down on paper. A writer should do whatever he can to help bring about this state." I don't really agree with this statement. I might not be understanding it perfectly, but I think that (especially with the type of writing we're doing in APW) that the writer should be very cognizant of the words going down, meticulously placing them on the paper. When I write things for APW, I'm 100% there, controlling exactly what goes down on the paper.
15: "Otherwise [the essay] may turn out worse, brittle or misshapen" This usually happens to me when I try to sharpen papers. I always take out random words because (at that time) I think they're not needed. I always come back and re-read what I had just sharpen to figure out that I just screwed up the essay more, making it confusing. I think good sharpening techniques should be employed much earlier on in the English courses, because I'm finding that's my hardest challenge right now as a student.
Question for 13: Why did they put so many (and such long) journals in this chapter? I don't really care, and have no need to read them. Why didn't they talk more about how to write a journal then me reading about some random 'Aunt Sadie'?
Ch. 13
ReplyDelete"All good journals observe one fundamental: they don't speak privately." (pg. 141) This chapter discusses the importance of sharing a story. It also says how sometimes are best writing is when we are writing about the things we love to write about.
Ch.14
"In the phase 'bottom of the boat,' the writer has repeated the b sound skillfully." (pg. 153) This chapter discusses the sounds the words make when they are being said together and the voice of the writer.
Ch.15
"...students are asked to write book reports, which are assigned mostly to find out weather the student read the book." (pg. 168) Papers written about a book or in school are often informative of the subject they are capturing but not substantive to the writer.
Ch. 18
"To many uses of the word is drive a writer to stuffing his sentences with the words it and there." (pg. 224) This chapter zooms into the specifics of how students write. We have many errors that if we only reread we'd notice they were hasty or we could have said something different. Some times it's hard to fill a paper with truths and it's easier to fill it with is and it and there. If people wrote for themselves not for an assignments sake do you think they would be better writers?
Chapter 13: "Students in school seldom have the opportunity to consider an experience or idea over a period of time and from different and developing viewpoints"(147).
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent and succinct way to explain why journal writing (good journal writing) is difficult for students and young people. We don't have a long view, we don't have many different internal viewpoints, we don't have a long period of time to think about things. On the other hand, we have plenty of "strong feelings" hitting us each day, so most of us can write journals, even if they are untempered.
Chapter 14: "Poetry… must have all the attributes of good writing discussed in this book, only brought to their ultimate concentrated power."
Earlier in the book, the author claims that the reason people can be 'afraid' of poetry is because they've been tossed 'knuckleballs' - slow poems that seem boring. I think that at least a part of the reason is because of this quote. Poetry is very, very hard to write for someone who isn't practiced at it, especially in a school environment of Engfish. This is intimidating - it elevates those who can write good poetry, and makes some people fearful of trying to write it. Packing words to bursting with meaning is no light task.
Chapter 15: "Most such book reports are dumb"(168).
This is an example of the author of Telling Writing practicing what he preaches: hard, telling facts. Offensive as this might be to some thin-skinned student somewhere, it's true. The explanations surrounding the phrase remove doubt, and explain the fact's meaning fully, but this fact hits the reader like a slap to the face.
Chapter 18: "In any sort of writing, the excessive use of it piles up other unnecessary words in a sentence"(226).
Would excessive use of it be referred to as ititis or itis?
“The entries looked like this: ‘Played ball his morning. Had lunch at 12:30. Didn’t do much the rest of the day.’ The writer of journals like that can’t say or won’t say. The reader gets no telling facts” (140, chapter 13).
ReplyDeleteI keep a journal very much like the one quoted here, but it serves my purposes. I write like this to record events which otherwise I might forget. I don’t intend for others to read it; I only intend to keep it to search through when I need to find out the location of a competition, the date I released an app, or something else which may be important in the future. I suppose I could start writing telling narratives, but that seems like a lot of work for something which I use only for record keeping.
“Mr. Wright suggested [the student] go home and pour a glass of milk over his brother’s head and then listen to his father. He did. He heard considerable alliteration” (152, chapter 14).
This quote suggests an obedience to teachers (in 1966) which I can’t imagine fifty years later. If Mr. Bourne told our entire class to do this, I doubt a single one would comply. This quote is a good example, though, of how emotional sounds use alliteration. It also illustrates that this relationship is rarely noticed, because it seems natural for sounds to punctuate meaning.
“In any sort of writing, the excessive use of it piles up other unnecessary words in a sentence…It has a way of picking up bad company. It seems are two words that frequently do bad things together” (226, chapter 18).
It seems that a word can be bad, especially when it is being used to introduce an idea in a weak manner. The preceding sentence uses bad writing techniques intentionally. The French language has an entire tense built on phrases like “it seems that” and “it is doubtful that.” For every passive sentence which would be sharpened by Macrorie, the French use the subjunctive. Whenever I write in French, I am proud of myself when I remember to use the subjunctive. Therefore, I have a positive feeling toward bad English sentences which I hope to remedy soon.
Chapter 15. “It’s not hard to avoid [producing Engfish and uncommunicative writing]. Read a story or poem…and respond truthfully to it…Then respond with feelings or thoughts that come to you as you read or after you’re finished” (169).
Is it really this easy to write a good response to a literary work? If so, why do so many people write garbage?
Julia reflects:
ReplyDeleteChapter 13: "In your journal, record simple facts, opinions, preferences—anything that counts for you at the moment."
I like this. Instead of focusing on big insightful ideas, one should focus on smaller, simpler ideas that are Important to them instead of trying to sound smart.
Chapter 14: "To write fully, you must use all your senses."
True. I need to work on this. In order for an essay to be engaging the reader must believe they are in the story.
Chapter 15: "students are asked to write book reports, which are assigned mostly to find out weather the student read the book."
This is true with everything in school. The assessments are designed to see if the person did the work instead of seeing if they actually understand what they're doing.
Question: How do I stop using it so much in my writing?!
Chapter 13
ReplyDelete“When the writer and his professor looked at the three entries together, they saw they made a record of a whole journey from the writer’s scorn for funeral rituals to his acceptance of them, and how and why he moved from that place to this place”
This passage occurs immediately after three long journal entries, and after having read several chapters, I’m starting to become quite amazed by the amount of material that this book is made up of. Not only does the writing style make it easy to read (usually) but if one has the patience to read through all of them (I’m afraid my attention won’t last that long) there is a boat’s load of passages, excerpts, essays, and quotes from well-known books and supposed nobodies who’s paper he happened upon and decided to include in his book. I’m starting to wonder just how much time it took to amount the whole of this book. Each passage is so well placed and introduced, it couldn’t have simply been a matter of “I need a passage here” the planning alone, even before the writing makes me admire the writer.
Chapter 14
Okay question time:
“Knocking around in every person’s head are the sounds of his native language”
“His,” really, not their? So is the author sexist?
Chapter 15
“Rather it’s a crime to take all that time to produce something no one, including the writer, wants to read”
I’ll drink to that *takes sip of kool-aid
But actually, he brings up a really interesting point that has come up a lot throughout this book, whoever thought a writing style book could have a motif? Anyways, there is this idea that the English department of most schools, or really any class that involves writing, seems to be approaching it from completely the wrong direction. I’m not saying there shouldn’t be limitations, but the fact that a teacher can determine what is a good paper based on more than grammar and content seems a bit wrong to me. If you’re going to call writing an art, why constrain it to one form. Not every painting is impressionist, so why hold them all to that standard. The idea of having a student write a research/profile/descriptive paper makes sense, it helps the student distinguish between several different forms of writing, but there is still a lack in making the student appreciate the lesson. In short I think people who don’t appreciate education should go live in Africa and give up their spot for someone who will actually care about it.
Chapter 18
“I don’t actually have a quote because I couldn’t find a good one to summarize the idea of de-fluffing the paper Yadda-Yadda, the chapter is about sharpening you writing and I am here to argue here’s my point:”
I agree with the writer when he talks about tempering a paper, and how it can be satisfying(College apps anyone?). And taking out words, replacing “to be” with more descriptive verbs and descriptions, that all makes sense. When he talks about really cutting down on words, I start to disagree. I know he doesn’t mean take an average sentence and turn it into brunt caveman speak that will get the action across and no more. “Oogah run fast in hunt” Voila, we have learned about Oogah, and how Oogah can run fast in the hunt. Possibly add some flair, and a more modern speaking spin. “Oogah’s long, but quick; strides make him the leader of the hunt.” Now we know how fast he can run, in comparison to others, as well as a nice description of how he does that running. I honestly have no idea where I’m going with this but basically, I think fluff can be a good thing as well as bad, and it depends on the judgment of the writer as to where they should put it.
Chapter 13:
ReplyDelete“What a square idea” … of this chapter” Ch 13.
I have always thought that writing a journal is a great idea, not that I actually acted on this idea. I find that I am just too tired after a hard day’s works and a full night’s homework to actually write what I did that day. Journals are a great way to vent and convey your feelings. They are also a great way to remember what happened. The journal entries from class are a bit different but they solve the same purpose. They allow you to vent your pent up anxieties and relax. This is a positive thing.
“He told … alliteration” Ch 14.
This was a really funny line. I can’t believe a student would do that. I am even more surprised that the student would just follow the teacher so blindly. I would never try this but this is sound like a lot of fun. I hope that this guy didn’t get in too much trouble. I find that if I get I alliterate a lot too. I don’t really know why but I feel like I haven’t gotten angry enough until I just start alliterating uncontrollably. This seems like a small detail that can make writing sound more accurate.
“The critique is still …it will fail” Ch 15.
This was a really cool line. It was humbling. When anyone writes they usually try to add a flare of fancy speak that really never helps. They add it thinking that it will make their writing look much cooler and much more mature, but it always sounds pretentious. I find that if writing sounds like talking it feels too loose and if you write over maturely then it sounds utterly pretentious. I think that writers should try to find their own sort of style and parity. They need to find the correct balance of colloquialisms and mature vocabulary.
Q: Is alliteration actually helpful in an essay? It sees distracting.
Chapter 13: “Or if you’re a man, your diary went for two days and stopped. The entries looked like this: Played ball this morning. Had lunch at 12:30. Didn’t do much the rest of the day.” –page 140
ReplyDelete-I find this a little sexiest. Are they assuming all girls write long journals and that boys don’t? Yes, girls tend to internalize things more than boys do but I think writing it down is different. Even if only kept for you, it’s not as private. It’s on paper, exposed rather than kept inside your head. I see the benefit of keeping a journal but I personally never have unless required and most of the time I kept them short.
Chapter 14: “To write fully, you must use all your senses.” –page 155
-Using your senses is a huge part of writing. It provides personal detail and room for figurative language. Everyone experiences senses but they are different for every individual. One person can experience something that another might not pick up on. With explaining the situation in senses one can compare and relate.
Chapter 15: “ When responses are written truthfully, they help make the practice of criticism valuable” –page 176
-Criticism can be hard to take but I think it helps if people are completely honest with one another. A lot of the time you can tell when people are holding back. If you want to become a better writer you need people to be honest. It’s possible to be truthful without having to be rude about it. For any writer I think criticism is something you must learn to do and learn to take well in return.
Chapter 18: “Often writers say seems when no seeming is involved whatever, but rather clear and certain feeling or fact.” –page 226
-I noticed lately that I tend to do this or say something like, “Can I ask you a question?” before doing so. It’s pointless. A waste. I’m not sure why I do this along with others. I use it in verbal context more than written but still doesn’t add anything to what I have to say, so it’s interesting to see how many people do this on a frequent basis. If you cut that part out it makes it more clear and concise.
Chapter 13: “Revise and sharpen two to five entries you think carry truths and oppositions and present them for criticism.” –page 151
-Are journals meant to be criticized by others? I thought they weren’t supposed to be.
Chapter 13 "Or if you're a man, your diary went to two days and stopped."What? I know plenty of boys who have more to say than "played ball this morning." The author is stereotyping incorrectly and making claims that are not always true. There are girls who don't express their feelings through diaries and boys who do. I do not and never have owned a diary, while I know boys who have. Just because girls are labeled as more emotional doesn't mean their diaries can't consist of "Had lunch at 12:30. Didn't so much the rest of the day."
ReplyDeleteChapter 14
"Finding a true voice gives a piece of writing unity"
I agree with this statement. I think that a smooth voice can be the difference between a good and bad experience when reading a paper. A consistent, effective voice can be the connective tissue between the beginning, middle and end of the paper. Also, "truthtelling voice" gives an honest and endearing tone to the paper. There is something comforting about reading a paper that shows faults in another human being.
Chapter 15
"Most of your readers like to know that you're human, like them." This quote correlates with what I was saying in Chapter 14. Readers make more connections with honest readers. I find that this also pertains to comedians. All of the funniest comedians say things that everybody is thinking but nobody says. In my own writing I find that my readers enjoy my papers more when I admit a fault or humorous mistake.
Chapter 18
I use the word "it" often in my writing because there really is no other word for "it". What is the best way to avoid using such a necessary word without making the writing wordy?
Chapter 13
ReplyDelete“All good journals observe one fundamental: they don’t speak pivately.”
I like this because it reminds you that if you’re writing a journal and not a diary, you’re writing for an audience to practice writing and not just for yourself to get your thoughts down. I never really thought there was a difference, but now I know there is!!
Chapter 14
“To write fully, you must learn to use all your senses.”
This is what we learned in Reading and Rhetoric, to make everything concrete. You can really tell the difference in quality in the example, the ones that are more concrete seem smarter and you can relate better to what is going on and really picture it.
Chapter 15
“When responses are written truthfully, they help to practice criticism.” I like this because it reminds us to say critical things as well as nice things because if you never get a negative opinion or criticism, you will never know what to improve and will continue to write the same way.
Chapter 18
“Writers are often dishonest with themselves, they speak apologetically,... when they do not feel {any of these things}.” I like this because I know people often do this to use as a kind of fluff. They just want to say something so they make up extra emotions and opinions that they don’t actually have. Sometimes this makes people think more deeply though.
what exactly is the difference between a diary and a journal?
Chapter 13: "Students in school seldom have the opportunity to consider an experience or idea over a period of time and from different and developing viewpoints."
ReplyDeleteI found this point to be very true and it is why students our age don't like/ have trouble writing journals and really writing honestly.
Chapter 14: "A person frequently finds that his pen seems to have taken over the job of writing and he's sitting there watching the words go down on paper. A writer should do whatever he can to help bring about this state." I love this quote because I think it is a very profound point about writing.
Chapter 15: “As you’re reading a page or finishing a chapter of a story, record what your mind has been thinking.” This is a good point to do while reading but I find I would never unless told to. It seems like so much extra work.
Chapter 18: What really makes a journal? Isn't it personal to the person writing it?
chapter 13
ReplyDelete"A few years later even the writers of these diaries will be unable to get any valuable meaning from them." I disagree, because i think that if nothing else, looking back at writing from your past shows what you were thinking, and how you have developed. this teaches everyone a lot about themselves.
chapter 14:
"A person frequently finds that his pen seems to have taken over the job of writing and he's sitting there watching the words go down on paper." I completely agree with this statement, as ive had this experience before. if you really care about what you are writing about, then sometimes it feels like your not even writing, but the paper is reading your mind.
chapter 15:
“When responses are written truthfully, they help make the practice of criticism valuable” I agree with this statement, because if you are going to criticize something you must be truthful. Otherwise, your points bear no merit. any criticism must be backed up by fact, or else you have no right to make the criticism.
chapter 18:
how can you replace it? there arent many words that are better that mean the same thing.
Chapter 13: "Keeping a journal forces writers to put something in the sock every day or so. Often when they review what's there, they see things that, taken out and sorted, come together with new meaning."
ReplyDeleteI can relate to this because I kept a journal of my dreams for a few weeks. When I looked back it, I noticed reoccurring themes in them and how they related to what happened to me in real life.
Chapter 14: "A writer's stone should be natural to him or her in the circumstances, and above all it should be justified."
If you write naturally and truthfully, it will make your writing much better. It's hard to write about something that never happened. If you write about yourself and how you feel, it will be much easier. I always find my best work to be the work that is honest. It's the only work that captures reality.
Chapter 15:
"Another fundamental of critiquing is to be fair, to mention the good as well as the bad aspects of the productions."
I'm a big fan of this quote. In our class, we always focus on letting the reader know what they did well and what they should work on. Personally, it's feels good to know what I did well, but it also is nice to know what I need to fix because it will improve my writing.
Chapter 18 Question:
I find replacing the word "it" hard, as well. Are there other ways to replace "it" besides using the word "it" is replacing?
Chapter 13: "Persons who only dream of becoming writers spend their time dreaming of becoming writers. Those who really intend to become writers keep a journal and work the mine."
ReplyDeleteI always think of things that I would like to remember, but I never write them down so eventually they just float away. It makes a lot of sense to me to always keep something on you that allows you to copy down your thoughts. I always have my phone on me which I use for such things but maybe I should convert to a small journal.
Chapter 14: "Another way to create faithful and exciting sound in your writing is to write down what you hear."
I think that an important aspect of writing is to communicate in a way that doesn't sound overly formal and monotonous. I think that good writing conveys a sense of personability and uses more colloquial language without sounding like slang. I think that good writing is finding that balance between writing how you would speak and formal english.
Chapter 15: "As you're reading a page or finishing a chapter of a story, record what your mind has been thinking. Try for truth rather than bluff."
I cannot count the amount of text analyses that I have read that are utterly boring and merely recite what happened in the text. It's so much more interesting to read someone's actual, possibly controversial opinion. This reminded me of the chapter about honest writing, it's important to really express how you feel. This is especially true when it comes to analyses.
Chapter 18: Why is using the verb "to be" so bad? Sometimes you have no choice but to use "to be" or "it".
13. “All good journals observe one fundamental: they don’t speak privately. They can be read with profit by other persons than the writer.” This statement seemed helpful, it shows the idea of being really open gets you good writing, you can not shelter yourself or the people you are writing for otherwise there is not going to be much to gain from a third party reader.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of the chapter focuses mainly on pairing oppositions
14. “The best writers seem born with an ear’s memory for the way a person speaks, and if they write down the conversations of a dozen persons in one story, all speak recognizably differently.” I realized this was true as I read it. This truth must reflect in the same way that writers have a distinct writing style and can be recognized, you can also recognize the way someone talks without the audio of their voice. I would be able to use this when it comes to dialects, to me, that would be key. All the people from my home town can have very very clear dialects so I think, if read aloud, you should be able to recognize the character without naming them. May take some analysis, but possible.
15. “If you’d like to approach the quality of a professional’s critiques, you can’t give excuses. Don’t say you didn’t have time.” This is just I think a really constructive thing to keep in mind. No escape goats :D I really need to think about this, and though it does not have a TON to do with writing it has to do with the mind set and keeping oneself. I connect to it, because editing my college essay I had to deal with all my families criticisms- it’s just like “the customer is always right”. Don’t argue with them, improve by yourself.
18. How are you able to discern what is your voice and what is editing to the extreme? I don’t think I could ever make my writing sound like that of the guy who writes this book, maybe he’s just smarter or maybe I just write different. Both? I bet. :P Oh well, yea, my question is above.
13: “All good journal observe one fundamental: they don’t speak privately. They can be read with profit by other persons than the writer.” I completely agree. The purpose of writing is communication and communication requires a flow of information from one person to another. Writing something that is private where nobody else can read it is a complete waste of time.There's always someone even if it's one person that the journal can be meant for to read.
ReplyDelete14: "A person frequently finds that his pen seems to have taken over the job of writing and he's sitting there watching the words go down on paper." It would be nice if this was always true. On occasion it happens to me but through a keyboard rather than a pen. If I am passionate or inspired by a subject, the words do just flow out. I wish this could happen more often.
15: "As you're reading a page or finishing a chapter of a story, record what your mind has been thinking. Try for truth rather than bluff." I don't think this is a good idea. On the rare occasion that I have read something that actually affects how I feel, the best part about it is the mystery. Sometimes I don't know if I should be happy or sad when a character in a book dies or if i like the ending or not. I like fighting with these concepts and wouldn't want to dissect them until there's nothing left to think about.
Chapter 18: How do I keep my voice in my writing when I'm editing it to death and cutting down on the word count?