Life is short. That is the simple and unforgiving fact that cannot be avoided. It can often pass by as quickly as it comes when noses are buried in our cell phones instead of observing and appreciating the changing of seasons or the orange-purple sunset that concludes each day. That one idea— to pay attention— is what drives Alice Steinbach 's philosophy on writing along with a collection of other tactics taught to her by her ninth grade creative writing teacher Miss Dennis, which is showcased in her essay "The Miss Dennis School of Writing". Steinbach creates a well-rounded philosophy consisting of many elements throughout the essay.…
In Anne Lamott's "Shitty First Drafts", Anne talks about writing being something that is not rapturous and the only way she is able to actually produce something is by writing real shitty first drafts. In her drafts, she tries being descriptive and elaborative with her ideas and thoughts. They often end up being long, stupefying and, muddled up, but seem to have an overall good effect on her product. I really liked her quote on first drafts, "You need to start somewhere" and I completely agree with that; you need to take in a leap anyways. Unless we are willing to make the first effort and actually believe in what we're writing, it gets difficult to produce something vibrant, eloquent and, explanatory to the readers.…
Walter Dean Myers was a very well respected writer. He was born on Martinsburg West Virgin and was raised in Harlem New York. Mr. Myers had written Bad boys, Monster, Slam!, and many more books. He had a speech impediment which helped him to start writing. He would get picked on and teased about the way he talked.…
In Richard Connell’s writing the many techniques he uses are unique and make his stories very distinctive because his background is reflected in his style and themes of his writing. “Richard Connell has a writing style that sets him apart from other writers of the time. Most of his stories were of the action-adventure genre, allowing his writing style to be fast paced and concise. It is through this technique that makes Connell’s stories, engaging” (Mangold). The action-adventure theme makes the pace of his stories fast, but smooth.…
Tim O’Brien’s writing style represents his own unique approach to writing, where he starts with a short sentence, then levitates towards long run-on sentences, before going back to short sentences. He repeats this form of writing several times throughout the passage. O’Brien might be using this technique as a way to evoke, emphasize, and breakup the different settings, ideas, and thoughts he had at the moment. Firstly, he began by explaining the setting, adding a comma, and then relaying his behaviour of being unable to sleep. Then, he adds another comma and ends the sentence with what he was thinking at the time.…
The door downstairs slammed. Feet were heard coming up the stairs. The cladder of people shuffling to get into the annex, was clear. We had been found.…
I know I have no chance it’s not hard to figure out that she is interested in this boy named Oliver. And I know she thinks I’m weird but unlike Mckenna she doesn’t have a boyfriend and unlike Mckenna Morgan isn’t a big dick 24/7. Morgan is a great friend she listens to what I say she doesn’t always give me feedback but I know she is listening…
McKenna Copher Mrs. Hall Pre-AP English II 30 September 2016 A Person I Admire: Katie Piper Katie Piper, a successful British model was raised in a small English village by her devoted and affectionate family. When she was 22, she moved out on her own to London to further her passion as a television presenter.…
In her collection of short stories, Flannery O’Connor has a characteristic style that is shown through her narrator and figurative language regardless of the plot or scenario. In the first four novella in the collection, O’Connor introduces the reader to these aspects of her style via similar uses and different elements according to each story she tells. Her novellas have a characteristic style through color imagery, a mean-spirited (but humorous) storyteller as the narrator, strange comparisons, and allusions to Catholicism throughout, which together establish her style as one that is unique among other twentieth century writers. In the first paragraph of her short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” O’Connor uses the Grandmother’s comment about a hypothetical situation to suggest and foreshadow the novella’s plot.…
Sometimes you are assigned to read articles for homework and they actually turn out to be helpful for you. Thats exactly what happened to me when I was assigned to read “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott, which caught my attention from its title. I wondered why is it called “shitty.” Anne Lamott explained how important it is to write shitty drafts before your writing becomes better. I thought to myself, I usually get B’s and C’s on my essays and Lamott says to become a good writer you must write shitty drafts first then why don 't I do that?…
While Ripley is contemplating or executing violent or dangerous actions, Highsmith uses language style choices such as wording, sentence structure, detail, and figurative language to make his thoughts seem rational and sympathetic. The text state’s “He had offered Dickie friendship, companionship, and respect, everything he had to offer, and Dickie had replied with ingratitude and now hostility.” (Pg. 95). This quote illustrates Highsmith using sentence structure to make Ripley’s thoughts seem rational.…
Over 15 years ago, Robert Nash (2011) developed a new academic writing style called Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN). For the first time in academics the unacceptable use of the ‘subjective I [me]’was acceptable in scholarly writing. Before SPN only the ‘objective they [we]’ was appropriate for research because scholars believed that only experts could support an agreeable or disagreeable topic. Nash (2011) wanted SPN to become, “a respectable research genre in higher education, particularly in the professional schools” (p. 4), so he wrote his first book, Liberating Scholarly Writing: The Power of Personal Narrative (2004).…
Rubbing the sleepiness from his eyes, Dakota Ursa emerges from the tiny bedroom door. He adjusts his long, black tie under the pristine, white collar of his button up shirt. Straightening his black blazer over his long arms, he heads for the front door of his small, two bedroom apartment. Dakota snatches the comb lying on a small table and levels his curly, caramel hair. He swoops up his brown shoes with a flame design, tightens the white laces, and stomps them onto his feet.…
The thin metal door of Rukia's locker swung open, revealing her colorful folders and an extensive amount of Chappy decorations. Sighing, the raven haired girl deposited a rather large stack of textbooks into the space. "This is what I get for taking all advanced classes," she muttered to herself, grabbing her bag. As Rukia turned to leave her locker, a bright orange figure positioned itself, or rather herself, to Rukia's right.…
As demonstrated by both Peter Elbow and Donald Murray, an author’s approach to writing a piece, whether it is written freely or structured, changes the perspective the reader will take. The different methods followed to achieve their style will depend on the purpose of each writer’s piece. The pieces “Freewriting”, by Peter Elbow, and “The Maker’s Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscript”, by Donald M. Murray, both discuss how to create competent writing; however, Elbow sees writing primarily as a process, whereas Murray sees it as a tool for achieving an end product. The authors describe the goal of each strategy, as well as the benefits obtained from the different styles of writing. They also presented the criticism and changes used to improve writing…