Analysis Of Thought By Louis H. Sullivan

Improved Essays
In his essay “Thought,” Louis H. Sullivan greatly stresses the importance of thinking critically and creatively, and presents the argument that one must think not in words but rather in images, rhythm, and other wordless forms of communication. Sullivan resorts heavily on comparisons and analogies and metaphors to convey the impractical usage of words. “But in passing I may say that real thinking is better done without words than with them, and creative thinking must be done without words,” Sullivan argues, and he goes on to explain the intellectual heft and rigor of thinking creatively and highlights its rewards. Sullivan also asserts that one must think in the present and the present alone, for his reasoning is that “you cannot in the past, …show more content…
Like with quality reading, quality writing is the activity of being alone, but with the exception of reading words, one must pick out words, choosing the very best to jot down on the page. The inspiration varies with each writer, even if the writer is not fully aware that he is in fact a writer, but the inspiration is the same for the artist, for the musician, the architect, and the sculptor. When one writes, they are not only expressing themselves (and, if they like to write, expressing themselves in the purest way they deem possible), they are also creating something, whether they are conscious of this or not, because the formation of words, the development of sentences, and the structuralizing of anything written takes a considerable amount of effort, discipline, thought and creativity—no matter what the finished written work is. In other words, to write means to think and to think means to have thought, which Sullivan actually affirms when he says, “you cannot create unless you think, and you cannot truly think without creating thought.” So, in another instance of using Sullivan’s own argument against him, writing is a slow activity not because the mind is going too fast but because the mind is disciplining itself by gathering its thoughts and translating them into readable

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    It was almost just typing, just making my fingers move. And the writing would be terrible” (Lamott). This quote could be shown to people to demonstrate that the first draft is not the best piece of writing and some ways for people to start their own…

    • 1027 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For the article “Shitty First Drafts” we read this week, it remained me something about writing. This is a essay written by Anne Lamott, who is the author of six novels, the food reviewer for the magazine, a book reviewer for Mademoiselle, and a regular contributor to Salon.’s .“Mothers Who Think..” She’s busy because of several occupation at the same time, but there's still a question that what made her writing attracted? In this essay we read, there may be the answer.…

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This essay stands out in my mind because of its relatable topic; pretty much everyone at some point or another has struggled with writing, whether they care to admit it or not. Lamott realizes this, which spurred her on to trying to help audiences to realize that no one writes perfectly at first, and that brainstorming by write without caring inevitably breeds perfection. First drafts, as Lamott reveals, are “The child’s draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that not one is going to see it and that you can shape it later” (222). For instance, whenever a person starts a new writing, thousands of thoughts and words are echoing through their heads. Not knowing where to begin or what to first write down.…

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Real Writer,” for example, Sarah Allen argues that writing is not a gift you are born with and if someone is determined to better their writing they must write without fear. Others such as Lennie Irvine agree, arguing In “What is Academic Writing?,” that there are many myths about writing that make it seem very structural,…

    • 1395 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The argument employed in Reading and Thought by Dwight MacDonald is an attack on the new culture of writing embedded into Time magazine. MacDonald goes on to describe the writing to be largely “massed” with many topics, however, these topics simply serve as an outlet to fulfill your curiosity with no other true function. He also goes on to state that the majority of the writing is useless because it does not cause action to be stirred up in a reader to cause them to “make more money, take some political or other action to advance his interests, or become a better person.” MacDonald in return goes on to even proclaim that this new form of writing has developed our thought and minds to be “rapid, purely rational, classifying habit of mind, something…

    • 1319 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Richard Paul Evans does a great job using inner thinking to develop how Michael is feeling. For example when Michael was about to be fed to the rats it said “a shock of pain shot through my ankle.”(Paul Evans 323). This shows that Michael was experiencing pain because it pain shot through my ankle which proves that he is experiencing pain. Another example of the inner thinking is when he was trapped by a tribe living in the amazon rain forest “My ankle throbbed with pain, and a few times I had to stop, which was meant with a lot of pushing and shoving.…

    • 147 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Old words in the service of a new idea are the problem. What inhibits creativity is new words in the service of an old idea”…

    • 1091 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To respond the question what I thought about the essay as a story about research, I would like to use the part of the essay when John Jeremiah Sullivan is writing that, “anyone with an interest in American culture should find a way to hear this record.” (p.264). He is pointing to a keyword, INTEREST. I think being interested in knowing better ourselves such as our history and cultures, favorites, surrounding the world, past, and future or having a passion and motivated to the pursuit of truth is the first step of beginning any kind of research activities. Having a reachable goal, an unreachable dream, and appropriate incentives are the strongest foundation for any kind of researchers activities.…

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Instead of composing on paper, word handling makes it less demanding to modify content, improve sections, and adjust the shape and tone of a piece. Turkle also makes note that word processing can likewise make a bad writer worse since one can rapidly fill a page with content without thinking if it makes sense or not. Turkle states, “The idea of thinking ahead has become exotic”(Turkle 3), meaning it’s rare that you find writers who know what they are doing ahead of time. She uses support from a talk she had with with a seventh grader who found her mother 's typewriter and thought it was “cool because you have to type each letter by itself. You have to know what you are doing in advance or it comes out a mess” (Turkle…

    • 709 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Whether we know it or not in this modern society we are writers everyday of our lives. These interactions shape not only how we communicate but how we write as well. Personally, I have been shaped by the influence of both other writers I have known and those I have only read the creations of. Those same influences contributed to both my writing style in the classroom and to my identity as a writer. I spent a lot of my childhood with my nose deep in fiction novels at near by libraries.…

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Stephen King, in his piece “What Writing Is”, claims that “it’s writing, damn it, not washing the car or putting on eyeliner. If you can take it seriously, we can do business”. Not only is writing an intellectual and reflective activity, it is a vital skill in all fields of work and academia, and can be learned through abundant reading and practice. Effective and engaging writing can bring about change. Claim:…

    • 1883 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    LT391: Essay (2) “To write is to love and honour and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice.” Sometime it is devastating that broken relationship can never be fixed and this is presented in this short story, “Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice”, in which the protagonist learns the genuine significance of writing by the loss of his story which is destroyed by how it is made. Nam Lee is portrayed as a writing student who takes writing too casually and engaging the past with his father entirely changes his attitude toward writing within the act of love and honour and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice of which he eventually learned they are the metaphor of writing.…

    • 1477 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Parents and teachers often have trouble deciphering what they wrote, and also students struggle with reading their own notes sometimes. Graham remarks that, “All beginning writers struggle with fluency and legibility to some extent, and that inevitably affects their approach to composing. Young writers typically cope with the multiple demands of handwriting and composing by minimizing the composing process (planning, organizing, etc.)” (Graham, 2010, p.50). If there is early attention put into handwriting about student’s legibility there will be a decrease in the likelihood of them becoming poor writers in the…

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    My Path to Literacy For a very long time writing and reading was a huge struggle for me. I was one of those students who was very intelligent, but disliked reading tremendously and was often told, “You write the way you talk”. The older I grew the more I realized that my struggles with writing was due to my lack of reading. I was aware of my issues but because it became a part of my writing habits it was hard to adapt to anything different. I wanted to be like everyone else and be a good authentic and productive writer but it seemed almost impossible.…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Simon Blackburn’s “Think”, Blackburn argues whether an all good, all knowing, and all powerful entity does exist. I focused on the argument Blackburn posed on Chapter 5, “God”. Blackburn is wrong to claim that the existence of evil suggests an entity who is all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful does not exist. Simon Blackburn discusses that there is no actual truth to religion since there is no concrete proof that there is even a God. Blackburn brings up the fact that it is not possible for an all good, all knowing, and all powerful to exist.…

    • 1122 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays