Archive for month: February, 2016

RLW reading is reading but not to understand the content of what you are reading but understand the structure of the piece to better understand why the author put these pieces together. It is also asking helpful questions about the work you are reading to view the authors reasoning of why the things he/she said were put in their writing . Some important questions you should ask yourself for example are; who wrote this piece either a student or a professor?, who is the intended audience? and are the techniques the author using helpful to get their point across? All of these questions should be helpful to put your own work together, with examples of professional writers. This should give you a clear example of what are some good writing techniques that worked for some authors or some that maybe you should stay away from when you are writing your papers. After analyzing the papers using RLW you should have notes that explain the structure of what you read such s the language being used the type of rhetoric used if any or the genre it is written. I am looking forward to start reading to understand the structure instead of the content I think it will really enhance my writing skills to more professional because now I will be actually using Language Composition in my writing. RLW is also going to make it easier for me to understand what I am going to be reading about.
When I was reading how “RLW reading” helps writers I automatically thought about my favorite story “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Even though it is a short story it has been the best story I have read that describes so many kinds of feelings in such short amount of time. The word structure the author uses grabs the readers attention.
“There are things in that paper which nobody knows but me, or ever will.
Behind that outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer every day.
It is always the same shape, only very numerous.
And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. I don’t like it a bit. I wonder—I begin to think—I wish John would take me away from here!”
This is one of my favorite parts from the book because it is foreshadowing what will happen the author also uses dark diction which creates a gloomy mood. It is the word structure that makes me really get in depth with what am reading. It also guides me to understand what really is happening with this lady. The structure used in this short story is definitely one that I would use to write a story. I would use this type of structure overall because I know it caught my attention and I know if I use it I will also catch peoples attention.
Work cited
Bunn, Mike.”How to Read Like a Writer.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Ed. Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Vol. 1. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor P, 2010. 71-86. Writing Spaces. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.

SparkNotes Editors. (2006). SparkNote on The Yellow Wallpaper. Retrieved January 22, 2016, from http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/yellowwallpaper/

In my senior year of high school, I took a creative writing class in hopes to reignite my once strong love of writing. I expected the entire class to consist of short stories and fiction. What I got was more than that: memoirs, poetry, creative nonfiction, and more. I learned so much, thoroughly enjoyed my class, and I found myself loving writing again. Ever since, I found myself being more aware of writing characteristics, plot points, distinct choices, vocabulary, and the way writers wrote different books, articles, poetry pieces, and even scripts for TV shows and movies. I’d notice these changes and note how I’d make it different, maybe even better, in my opinion. I guess I’d always done that but just never noticed it.

This concept of paying attention to aspects of writing is a skill called Reading Like a Writer. When you Read Like a Writer, you “work to identify some of the choices the author made so that you can better understand how such choices might arise in your own writing” (Bunn 72). By using the choices of other writers, you can become a better writer, choosing to make similar choices or completely different ones, based on your preference and writing style.

For example, one of the books we had to read in my creative writing class in preparations for our
memoirs was The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston. It was a collection of memoirs that focused on Kingston’s lifestyles as a Chinese-Americans living in 20th century U.S. during the Chinese Revolution. Combining her autobiography with Chinese folktales, Kingston explains what her family was like, stories her mother told her of China before they came to the U.S., and the new life her family gained by crossing the ocean. While reading The Woman Warrior, I really got to understand Kingston. Not just by her stories, but by the choices she made in her writing; the stories she chose to tell, the ones she didn’t. Noticing her choices really helped me with writing my memoir and other pieces.

Even now, in my college English courses, I look back on the books, articles, and other writing pieces I’ve read over the years and let them help me decide how to write.

Works Cited

Bunn, Mike.”How to Read Like a Writer.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Ed. Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Vol. 1. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor P, 2010. 71-86. Writing Spaces. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.

Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts. New York: Knopf, 1976. Print.

I imagine you have heard about the Flint Michigan  water crisis, well the article that I read is from VICE NEWS and looks at how the water supply was poisoned and how the people there were left to drink it. But I didn’t read it just any type of way, I Read like a Writer(RLW). The first thing to point out is the title “Smothering the Outcry”, its very obvious the should evoke an emotion out of you regardless of the intended audience. The author wanted a phrase that is eye-catching and will make you upset. The rest of the title has a similar effect and lets you know that the people in this article are victims and were attacked and someone is to blame also the author assumes that anyone reading this article has heard of the Crisis in Flint Michigan. The article we read in the class asked us to analyze the author intent through the process of reading like a writer which involves looking at the structure of an author’s work and making a judgment on the reading. After reading this artle is what clear tat held the local goverment of flint as well as the Governer responsible.

Works Cited

Bunn, Mike.”How to Read Like a Writer.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Ed. Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Vol. 1. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor P, 2010. 71-86. Writing Spaces. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.

Rubles, Kyle. “Smothering the Outcry: The Inside Story of How the State of Michigan Poisoned Flint.” VICE News RSS. Vice News, 9 Feb. 2016. Web. 09 Feb. 2016.

RWL stands for Read Like a Writer. Typically I have never though about reading like a writer until I read an article about it called “How to Read Like a Writer” by Mike Bunn. After reading this article I have realized that there are two types of ways to read. The first way to read is to identify content or to better understand the ideas in the writing (which all readers do), and the second way is to try to understand how the piece of writing was put together by the author and what you can learn about writing by reading a particular text. Reading the second way can make the reader think about how the choices the author made and the techniques that he or she used are influencing your own responses as a reader. “The goal as you read like a writer is to locate what you believe are the most important writerly choices represented in the text-choices as large as the overall structure or as small as a single word used only once-to consider the effect of those choices on potential readers (including yourself)” (Bunn 72).

Bunn, Mike.”How to Read Like a Writer.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Ed. Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Vol. 1. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor P, 2010. 71-86. Writing Spaces. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.

A crucial part of the writing process happens before we even have the chance to pick up our pens. In order to be able to write effectively, we must be able to read effectively, so we can model our work after others. For the sake of this assignment I chose to read the short storyTeddy by J.D Salinger; though I had not read the story before, I am very familiar with Salinger’s work and background.

Prior to reading, I followed the series of questions laid out in Bunn’s article “How to Read Like a Writer”, considering what the potential audience and message of the story may be, and whether or not I will be assigned to do any writings similar to this one (Bunn 76-78). Many of Salinger’s writings have to do with his experiences in the army, his bouts with depression, and his spiritual perspectives (particularly of Vedism), so when reading his works it is crucial to be watchful for those themes. Of course, as a science major, it’s unlikely that I will be asked to write any creative pieces for class, but I do write on the side for pleasure and take inspiration from Salinger’s works.

As I read through Teddy, the first evidence toward a depressive them is Teddy’s remark to his mother as he leaves their cruise ship cabin, that once he leaves he “may only exist in the minds of all of [his] acquaintances” and that he might be “an orange peel” (Salinger 170). The story progresses through Teddy’s interactions, primarily transitioning by means of his location aboard the ship; he first goes to the Sport Deck to see his sister (Salinger 172), before heading to do his own work on the Sun Deck. By choosing to divide the story by Teddy’s movements, it allows the audience to visualize his ventures to a greater extent.

The true purpose of the piece becomes more evident, however, through the dialogue that Teddy shares with Bob Nicholson, where Salinger’s religious views are explored explicitly. The genius twelve-year old and this stranger discuss the concept of “Vedantic reincarnation,” which Teddy largely supports as he refutes Nicholson’s attempts to counter its existence (Salinger 185). By reading like a writer, I can not only grasp that Salinger’s objective is to educate his audience about Vedism, but I also see that dialogue can be extremely telling in a piece of writing. Sheer description is not always enough to allow for the audience to see what the author is attempting to convey.

Reading like a writer is extremely effective in the case of fiction, since regular reading often only allows the reader to seek information (Bunn 74). When the intended lesson of a story isn’t so apparent as a nonfiction story, it is easy to ignore what is right in front of our eyes. I believe that in action, reading like a writer allows the reader to walk away with a greater understanding not only of the author’s purpose, but of how they can become clearer and more effective in their own works.

Works Cited

Bunn, Mike.”How to Read Like a Writer.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Ed. Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Vol. 1. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor P, 2010. 71-86. Writing Spaces. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.