Preview

Roy Peter Clark's The Line Between Fact And Fiction

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
323 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Roy Peter Clark's The Line Between Fact And Fiction
After reading Roy Peter Clark’s “The Line Between Fact and Fiction”, I easily find myself wholeheartedly agreeing with his sentiment that addition is a far greater danger in the world of writing than subtraction will ever be. Those who omit parts of the tale that is being crafted are, as Clark puts it, still remaining faithful to the nonfiction genre associated with journalism reporting, but to add things that did not occur veers into entirely new—and equally hazardous—territory (p. 166). With the expansion of technology and how widespread the wave of information has become any exclusion s of a reported situation can be still be sought out elsewhere, yet creating details alters the entire basis of the story, and presents an issue with integrity.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    In part 2 of They Say/I Say, authors Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein begin the process of teaching how to present the writer’s counter-argument, the “I say.” The “I say” segment is where you discuss and offer your own argument to what they have said or wrote. The three most common ways of using “I Say” are agreement, disagreement, and a combination of the two. Graff and Birkenstein goes on to explain that when you agree, disagree, or even both, you should not mildly or incompetently do either. Be clear and concise, offer some explanation for your view. The authors present several examples of ways to effectively explain your stance, but it is crucial that you explain why you feel the way you do. Even if you agree with another’s point of view,…

    • 294 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jones’ William Clark… chapter 3 starts with George Rogers Clark (GRC) declining Jefferson’s offer to lead a military excursion westward, suggesting that a few men could sufficiently do the job. Jones then writes of the Clark family’s belated travels across the Appalachians and down the dangerous Monongahela and Ohio rivers before landing outside Louisville and building a farm. He then writes about more problems with Indians, prompting GRC to lead an unsuccessful military campaign after a forced peace treaty was disregarded by non-invested tribes. William Clark is also written about: his joining of and exploits in the Kentucky militia, his journalizing of these exploits and the areas they took him, his self-taught education and naturalistic writings, and his commissioning as a lieutenant in the newly reformed, post-St. Clair’s Defeat US Army. Clark’s early duties as a lieutenant, Jones writes, involved ferrying soldiers and supplies around western outposts and forts, and even to the Chickasaw Indian tribe once. Within a few years, Clark became quartermaster of one of the four Sub-Legions of the US Army, joining the campaign into northern Indian lands that culminated in the Battle of Fallen Timbers, the final and deciding battle in the Northwest Indian War. Jones then recounts General Anthony Wayne’s successful…

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A paranormal investigator claimed that a beaten inmate’s spirit talked to him after he was put in a “trance”.…

    • 56 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Your course syllabus covers course policies, assignments, dates, and procedures; please read it carefully before emailing the teaching team. Your TA is your primary contact for this course, who will forward messages to me as needed.…

    • 3239 Words
    • 16 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    James E. Loewen's book Lies My teacher Told Me is a book that should be read by everyone at some point in their lives. According to James W. Loewen, students hate history classes and when they have to take history, the students think it's boring. They repress everythingthey were taught. James W. Loewen spent a lot of time studying 12 history textbooks; he observed high school history classes and interveiwed high school history teachers. Ths is how he knows that the textbook leave out conflict or real suspense (pg 13). In his book he tells us what the textbooks lleft out or distorted about events that took place in history. He asks the question "Why are history textbooks so bad? (pg14). Nationaism is one reason; they want us to be proud of America…

    • 1398 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the chapter ¨How To Tell A True War Story¨ for example, the narrator is talking about how a war story should be told and what it should consist of. He says on page 67 ¨IN any war story, but especially a true one, it's difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen.¨ Which means that sometimes people don't necessarily tell stories EXACTLY how they happened. Sometimes there are a few details added in here or there that either make the story a little more interesting, or water it down a little.…

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Incorporating strict fact and events, expository writing, excludes the author’s opinion of the subject matter. This is unmistakably not the case in “The Autobiography of Benjamin…

    • 164 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout human history, man has found himself fascinated with the Gods and the mysticism that surrounds them. The idea of praying to a higher power has always appealed to the ethos of mankind, as a way of comfort. Divine intervention has led to the construction of grand temples, churches, and mosques while, the rest of the people lived in shacks battling destitute poverty. Religion has ignored many problems of the human condition in favor of the fantasy of revelation and salvation. It has led to vicious wars, disenfranchisement of entire groups of people all because of the sweet promise of salvation. In John D. Caputo's essay, Caputo highlights the divisive nature of religion and how the promises of revelation and salvation result ultimately lead to further perpetuate the lies and violence that religion has brought…

    • 568 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What defines honesty and integrity? Is there a connection between these two words, and what does that imply? Stephen L. Carter, a law professor and writer, questions the common definitions of these words and the their moral interpretations in his essay, “The Insufficiency of Honesty”. In the essay, he makes several about the key differences between what “honesty” and “integrity” actually mean, and I agree with Carter that too often integrity is mistaken for honesty. He mentions that, “…acting in accordance with what you think is right and risking no loss in the process is a rather thin and unadmirable form of honesty”, and I concur that selfishness of that caliber lacks integrity by definition.…

    • 523 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The different sources of information provided to a writer can also complicate the shared past narrative. For example, the writer may not always trust the oral history shared between Native Americans. The writer may also omit several different sources of information, such as Native American charts or drawings that indicate a key part of their…

    • 633 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Relaying on historical documentations to write a story, the author sometimes is left to fill the gap of some of the events to make the story more plausible for the readers such as Nannie's death incident when Larson "used threads of known details to weave plausible account." On the contrary, Douglas Satrr stated that he "have taken no liberties with facts or the context in which the events related in the book." What limitations does the author have to employ his artistic imaginations to interpret some situations? Would the readers infer these events as the only truth rather than speculative situations?…

    • 296 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tim O’Brien makes a very big deal out of the concept of “truth” throughout his novel The Things They Carried; such a big deal, in fact, that over the course of his work he continually redefines and even contradicts himself as to what “truth” really is. In the chapter entitled “How to Tell A True War Story”, O’Brien offers a multitude of criteria that supposedly defines what does and does not make a true war story.…

    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Over the weekend an article surfaced about debating the practicality of art. The article argued that. When Grendel is introduced to the Dragon and the Shaper they have the greatest influence on Grendel’s journey and he voluntarily submits to these influences. The Shaper’s art is a practical one, an art that serves its time and its place. This is one of the points that Gardner emphasizes in On Moral Fiction: art is not a set of idealistic prescribed rules, or mere self-expression, but an approach that “seeks to improve life, not debase it. It seeks to hold off, at least for a while, the twilight of the gods and us.” The Shaper’s role, similar to that of a King, a philosopher, or any other leader within a society is to keep at the human condition…

    • 221 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In today’s era, fiction novels and material can be found almost everywhere you look. Tabloids, news, movies, and many other media and novels alike thrive on fiction and the imagination it brings. Each person has their preferences on type of entertainment they like. Some enjoy strictly fiction while others like only factual novels and such, and some may enjoy reading both. But the thing to understand is why they do so.…

    • 618 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Non fiction essay 1

    • 560 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Rhetorical strategies are everywhere especially in the book As the Caged Bird Sings By: Maya Angelo. There are several examples of repetition, rhetorical questions, dialect, and similes but there are three that really stood out to me allusions, alliteration and parallelism. Just by knowing and understanding what these three rhetorical strategies were it made the book a lot clearer and I could understand it more. By using allusion, alliteration and parallelism, Angelo proves that it was hard growing up in the 1930’s as a young black woman.…

    • 560 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays