Donald M. Murray’s 1973 essay titled “The Maker’s Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts”, closely analyzes writers and their meticulous attention to detail present in all their works. He invites the reader into the world of an accomplished author and the mindset behind someone who has had a piece of their writing published for millions to see. The intended audience for this article is the aspiring student or author who’s interested in learning more about the world he may soon step into. Knowing this, Murray starts off the essay without any of the traditional expected fluff and instead brashly informs the reader of the difference between an expert author and one such as the reader.…
Throughout the passage, the author, Dana Gioia, guides the reader’s opinion to resemble his own through the use of persuasive literary tactics. Emotionally charged language, referencing credible sources and presenting factual evidence all assist Gioia to persuade the reader to believe the decline of reading in America negatively impacts today's youth. Gioia uses language that provokes the reader’s emotions to help him form a cogent argument. To relay that Gioia believes America's youth needs to read more, he uses words such as “worrisome” and “troubling” to connote a negative emotion toward students not reading.…
The short Essay, An Experiment in Criticism, by C.S. Lewis brings to light many new perspectives to how people read and experience literature. Throughout the essay Lewis works to give the message that; how good a book is doesn’t depend on the quality of writing but on the reader. He begins by defining two types of readers- the “literary” and the “non-literary”- which he uses through the rest of his essay to categorize different traits for treating literature.…
"Timeless Tact Helps Sustain a Literary Traveller" (TTHSLT) by Geraldine Brooks should definitely be included in a booklet for year 12 students studying belonging. The text focuses on a plague-stricken Eyam who quarantine and sacrifice themselves for the wider community. It is suitable as it requires students to explore the ways in which the concept of belonging is represented in and through the text.…
In this essay “How to Read Like a Writer” Mike Bunn, claims that college students should distinguish choices the writer made and decide whether they want to implement them in their writing; enhancing their level of writing. Bunn explains that reading like a writer is a strategy that questions, analyses and criticizes a text to make readers look at the structure, the style, the word choice in regards to several factors like: the purpose, the audience, and the genre. The author concludes that this strategy will also signal the writer’s argument. The essay ends by providing a step-by-step example to obtain structural analysis and familiarize students with this strategy.…
In the passage from Eudora Welty’s autobiography, One Writer’s Beginnings, Welty depicts how her love for reading was influenced by the challenges Mrs. Calloway, the librarian, presented by guarding the books and by her mother’s example of continuous reading. The zeal she has towards reading creates a motivational tone for the passage, allowing the reader to deeply connect with the meaning of the text. Welty conveys that the willingness to read is established at a young age. She uses many rhetorical devices to emphasise her opinions on reading, such as figurative language, distinct syntax, and unique diction.…
Freire, Paulo. “The Importance of the Act of Reading.” Academic Universe: Research and Writing at Oklahoma State University. Eds. Richard Frohock, Karen Sisk, Jessica Glover, Joshua Cross, James Burbaker, Jean Alger, Jessica Fokken, Kerry Jones, Kimberly Dyer-Fisher, and Ron Brooks. 2nd ed. Plymouth: Hayden-McNeil, 2012. 281-286. Print.…
After reading the article, “Reading Like a Writer”, it made me aware of my reading behaviors. Just like the text, I read to try to understand what the author is attempting to portray. However, what I am doing differently is only reading for information. What the text suggests that readers do is to ask yourself why the author used that method of writing, whether it's persuasive, ironic, or dramatic. Additionally, the author recommends that you discover who the intended audience is; this will benefit you because it makes you understand why the author used this style of writing.…
How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines by Thomas C. Foster is a book that explains there is more to literature than just a few words on a paper or a few pages in a book. Thomas Foster’s book portrays a relatable message to a wide based audience. This book is relatable for two reasons, the way it is written and the examples it uses. The book is written in a conversational manner, as if the reader was in a group discussion about books and writing. As for the examples, they are informative, descriptive, relative, and entertaining.…
Miller asked a question in his text, The Dark Night of the Soul, which is asked on numerous occasions. ‘What might the Literate Arts be good for?’ Miller gives situations and reasons why we could say the Literate Arts are useless in today’s world. What might the Literate Arts be good for? I ask this question a lot nowadays too. When I go for an English class or see literary books, the question creeps into my mind unconsciously. In this modern world ‘reading and writing’ have gone downhill and yet people do not seem bothered or affected by it which makes the doubt in literary power even stronger. But after a lot of thinking and research, I have come to realize that literate arts are still needed in our world.…
Johnson, Barbara. The Critical Difference: Essays in the Contemporary Rhetoric of Reading. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1980. Print.…
Cited: Frethorne, Richard. "Letter to His Mother and Father." Becoming Americans: Four Centuries of Immigrant Writing. Ed. Ilan Stavans. New York: Literacy Classics of the United States, 2009. 1-4. Print.…
Language is used as a powerful tool for authors. People develop ideas and create new items in the world. Authors use language to inspire people to create change in the world. Society is altered with new inventions or products everyday. “Ohio town holds rare history: Races mix freely for nearly 200 years” published by Washington Post expresses the need for integration in the world. The article allows readers to uncover ideas to stop racial injustice.…
book, magazine, newspaper or online. If you carry a poem in your wallet and you look at it once a year, we count you. If you have just finished Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks in German for the third time, or you’ve read one page of a Harlequin Romance and given up because it’s too hard, we count you as equals. We are very egalitarian! What you see for the first time in American history is that less than half of the U.S. adult American population is reading literature. I’m going to talk about what the causes of the problem are, and then I’ll talk about the consequences and the solutions. To go into the data a little big further, we see that we’re producing the first generation of educated people, in some cases college graduates, who no longer become lifelong readers. This is disturbing for reasons above and…
When this project was assigned to me, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Just six weeks ago, the words “nonfiction” created an image of boredom in my mind. I didn’t realize how many great pieces of nonfiction literature there were, and how much would enjoy it. Not only did I read many great pieces of writing, but I also learned a lot about myself as a person and a reader. In future years, this project should definitely be assigned to honors freshmen. One reason this project should be assigned to freshmen in the future is to enjoy independent reading again. School work and sports take up so much of my free time, that I rarely ever have time to relax and free read. If I have any free time during the school week, it’s usually for small windows of time, and I usually head straight towards my smart phone or Macbook. This project allows you to enjoy reading interesting articles and stories, and lets you make better use of your free time. Reading is a pleasure of mine, and without this project, I would’ve never been given the opportunity to enjoy reading during this stressful time. Students should all be able to read when they want to, and although homework takes that away, it’s important that teachers build in some structured time to do so. Another reason why this project should be assigned in the future, is that it teaches you a lot of new, interesting things. The beauty of this assignment is that you can choose to…