The Act Of Writing By William Zinsser Summary

Writing is examined in the first chapter of “Writing about Writing”, a textbook by Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Not only does it examine articulate writing, but specifically the threshold Concepts of writing: “ideas that change the way you think, write, and understand a subject,” (Wardle, Downs 2011). Terms are used to educate readers, these terms are essential for the writer to better understand how to write, and for the reader to better understand composition. Three terms seem to do this; construct, contingency, and rhetoric.

By examining the ideas in the essays Freewriting by Peter Elbow and The Makers Eye: Revising your own manuscripts by Donald Murray. One can gain a better understanding of the process of turning a piece of writing from an inspiration into a craft. By examining the elements lined out in each essay can be beneficial in creating a piece of writing that is beyond a college or student level. Elbows essay lines out the importance of a strong prewriting regimen. That editing too early can ruin writing. He believes that by using the method of free writing, it can inspire ideas that may be limited when worrying about grammar. While Murray emphasizes the necessity to create many drafts to form writing into its full potential. Saying each draft is an opportunity to discover what the author has to say and they the best way to say it. By transforming writing into its maximum potential it goes from being an idea an inspiration a masterpiece.

I really liked the last paragraph of the essay when Bullock talked about how he got a gift from his grandmother, just as mine got me an important one. The biggest moment to me in the essay was when Bullock asked for the menu when he was at the restaurant because it showed that he was able to order for himself, instead of his parents ordering for him which showed that he had a lot of power at his age. Bullock is able to get power because instead of having to order on a kid’s menu he is able to order for an adult’s menu. This is the main reason my he was so connected to his grandmother because she has taught Bullock how to do so many things that kids his age would not

Everybody has their own methods for writing; however, I believe there is always room for improvement. Chapter 3 in Everyone’s an Author has shown me that writing involves processes that need to be mastered through constant practice. It also revealed helpful tips on how to develop writing processes that can help write effective papers.

Stephen King includes in his book advice for writers to become the best they can be. One of his tips if that “…good writing consists of mastering the fundamentals (vocabulary, grammar, the elements of style) and then filling the third level…with the right instruments,” (King 142). The fundamentals of writing in which King discusses is learned through practice and studying. Passionate writers will take the time to perfect these skills and then add their own flavor to make their writing more interesting and their own. To make pieces of writing personalized to the author, the author must be creative and original.

It is essential to understand that classes taken in grade school do not give students a full understanding of each subject. With the topic of writing, there will always be a new lesson to learn, an aspect to improve, or a differing way to explain. Author Craig Vetter states in Bonehead Writing, “This is your enemy: a perfectly empty sheet of paper. Nothing will ever happen here except what you make happen.” Each story, essay, or response comes from a writer’s experiences. With each attempt at a new piece comes an underlying story of emotions the writer is facing. Each person’s writing is unique and the ideas people have are related to their past experiences and what they believe to be familiar with when deciding which writing style to use. As a high school student, I have learned many things about writing that helped me become the improved writer I am today, but the most essential advice I have received is practice makes perfect. Although there is no actual perfect way of writing, I have discovered that each essay I write, my writing improves. It is easier to spot mistakes, find areas to improve, and ponder elevated word choice to use.

In the article from Ken Macrorie’s book Telling Writing we are introduced to this concept of Engfish. A language or a writing style that is developed as children grow up and are taught how to “write”. School has a way of socializing children, squishing the creative and vibrant minds they possess in an attempt to “standardize” and create “unity”. The imagination of a child knows no bounds in its earliest forms; trees can talk, colors can sing, and the most trivial of tasks can be great adventures. Macrorie states at the end of this article “But there is a way out.” the question becomes, what are those ways. A few suggestion could be free writing or even poetry classes that break the traditions norms of writing, where grammar and punctuation are almost completely meaningless. The focus of most English classes today are the grammar and the technicalities of writing that the meaning and the words are lost. Writing becomes a tedious and boring task when it should full of passion; it is stressful when it should be energizing. Writing just to write, writing long emails to friends, journals, or even letters are all but obsolete. The personal aspect of writing has been removed. Writing is now done out of necessity for the job or a class, the true meaning of expression has been taken away and standardized. Everyone has a strength and a voice, we are each unique and to taught to conform to writing norms create “dead” writing, paper with no voice, no passion, and no desire or hunger for

Everyone knows what writing is to one extent or another, but we all have different definitions of how it should be done and varying degrees of seriousness about the art. We all have a process of writing, but each is unique to ourselves and our own experiences. Annie Dillard and Stephen King are two well known authors who have published many pieces, two of which describe how they view the writing process and let their readers get a peek of what goes on through their minds when they write. These two pieces are Dillard’s The Writing Life and King’s “What Writing Is.”

This program involved the integration of analytical writing into almost every subject, most times where students are taught the fundamentals of writing, almost like a formula, and often times through these methods were able to take in this knowledge and be able to create and mold ideas and sentences on their own. This technique has been deemed to be more effective than the catch method that has been taught in American

One’s writing is not always perfect. The idea that perfection lies within a piece of written work is justifiably erroneous. In an excerpt entitled, “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott, Lamott explores how writing as a whole is a revisiting process. Lamott opens by simply stating, “all good writers write them [shitty first drafts].” She then goes on to address how people view successful writers as enthusiastically approaching writing and that it is ultimately “easy” to compose a piece of work; Lamott states that this notion is merely a “fantasy of the uninitiated.”

In the first version, 1980, Zinsser created a long and wordy paper. He used specific examples but included details that were unnecessary. This is ironic because the paper is about how writers can write unnecessary words and phrases creating complicated sentences. He was not inclusive of gender, naming men as writers and only using wives as examples of distraction. This draft had a complete count of 20 paragraphs.

In this paper, I will use Murray in order to show that revision is a good method for writers including myself.

Of the many wonderful fragments of wisdom in Greg Dening’s article ‘Writing: Praxis and Performance’, which details how to produce appealing and creative historical prose, I believe one stands out above the rest. Be mysterious, he tells us. I’d be a fool not to take this on board. With that in mind, I wish to begin with a small mystery of my own. “He has married many women, but has never been married. Who is he?” Listen closely, and you might just find out.

Task # 1: C.V. The art of language encompasses many different techniques and styles which writers can utilize in order to improve their craft with proper use and placement. In section one of Stephen King’s non-fiction text On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft he recounts various memories of his childhood and path to transition into the accomplished writer most know him as. To enhance the readers experience and fluidity of his writing, King uses various literary elements and techniques that people would frequently connect with fictional pieces. He scatters similes, staples of fictional writing, all throughout section one.

Simplifying out writing styles benefits us in a myriad of ways. Streamlining out writing process allows the writer to get straight to the point and permits us to get our point across. The less bulky the writing, the clearer and more concise the writing becomes. This is a section of writing in which I am still improving. Additionally, through proof-reading I am able to cut out a portion of the filler words that are not necessary.