Writing may be an enthralling experience for one and a clever way to decompress for another. In general, however, writing has different purposes for a variety of people. “Why I Write,” written in the late 20th century by Terry Tempest Williams, describes various reasons for writing narrated from a female’s perspective. The short essay begins in the middle of the night with a woman engulfed in her own thoughts. She abruptly goes forth by reciting the multiple reasons why she continues to write in her life. Through a variety of rhetorical devices such as repetition, imagery, analogies, and symbolism, Terry Tempest Williams produces an elegant piece of writing that offers the audience insight into the narrator’s life and forces the audience to have empathy for the narrator with the situation she is incurring.
The constant repetition of certain words throughout the entire piece of writing by Williams allows the audience to instantly connect with the narrator, which, in turn, allows the reader to create a more personal relationship with the narrator. The author begins each sentence in the essay with the words: “I write.” The narrator’s extreme passion towards writing resonates through the abundant use of a single but powerful phrase, “I write…” which causes the audience to interpret her tone as forceful and ardent toward the subject at hand. Not only does repetition assist in offering the audience a deep connection with the narrator, but it also reiterates the various reasons
Writing is a powerful tool for communication and connection. As an extension and expression of the mind, writing is as much about the mental processes of the author as it is about the final marks laid to paper. As we write, we hold in mind our own thoughts on the work, anticipate the reader’s thoughts, and think both in concrete and abstract ways in order to accomplish the task at hand. Whether an academic research paper, a novel, or text message to friends, writing seeks to engage, persuade, or impress concepts upon an audience. Like language and other art forms in general, the practice of writing is ever-evolving and is subject to cultural and contextual influence, expectations, and conventions. Each writer holds a theory
In her article “I Stand Here Writing”, Nancy Sommers examines the writing process and formulating ideas for writing in a more empirical manner. She states that before she found her creative zeal/ niche her writing was often undisciplined, unmethodical, and sloppy. Sommers reveals that in college she was less known for her writing and more for her long hair and misapplication of phrases. She found her true inspiration while writing her Senior Thesis on Emerson’s “Eloquence.” Throughout the entire essay, Sommers provides the reader with advice about writing. A key point that she mentions is, “If I could teach my students about writing it would be to see themselves as sources, as places from which ideas originate, to see themselves as Emerson’s transparent eyeball, all that they have read and experienced-the-dictionaries of their lives circulating through them.”
I 've always liked writing. Even before I knew how to write I would make up stories and pretend to write them down. Each year in high school I 've written a multitude of essays on varying topics. I have selected three of these writings from each of my years in high school to examine as part of this rhetorical analysis of my writing history. As I 've grown older, my writing style has changed and I 've learned more about the world and developed my own personal writing voice more and more.
The desire to attain a pensive repercussion to readers through the work of literature is limned in Richard Wilbur's, The Writer. The poem follows the progression and contemplation of a father’s daughter who is aimed to write a story in the peace and serenity of her home. As he observes her, he finds that she types at unequal rates, breaking at certain intervals sometimes puzzled to regain her thoughts. “Young as she is, the stuff / Of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy: / I wish her a lucky passage.” The father believes that her message is to be of significance and that she should not fret when stuck in a state of absence. He only desires the best for his daughter and acknowledges that despite the length of time needed, one should
All writing comes in many different styles and attracts a certain audience in which it strikes their minds and opens them up to a new world of thinking or looking at things. “Writing to Connect” by Mary Pipher tells about this concept and elaborates on it greatly to encourage aspiring writers who may be feeling discouraged. Writing to Connect is a chapter in Mary Pipher’s newest book Writing to Change the World, where she discusses the use of powerful writing, changing aspects of the way people view things, and inspiring others to share their own stories and never be afraid of what you feel needs to be shared. Pipher directs the chapter toward aspiring writers to tell her audience they should never give up and inspires them with the use of rhetorical choices. Specific rhetorical choices provide further support for Pipher’s purpose of writing the chapter, she effectively writes to show her audience it’s never wrong to write what they feel, and to take chances in their writing. In “Writing to Connect” by Mary Pipher, she urges aspiring writers to push past their comfort zone of writing with the use of identification, personal anecdotes, and historical texts/occasions to effectively persuade them to never give up on what they feel needs to be said through writing.
When given this assignment to describe what kind of writer I am, I panicked. I spent hours staring at a blank page, trying to decide whether to fabricate a story, describe my feelings of inadequacy in the area of writing or simply drop this class. The truth is my past is very blurry, I may have been an excellent writer at one time in my life, but the chances of me remembering that are very slim. So this is not so much a story from my life, it is more of the story of why I can’t remember my life.
When a person composes their work, they allow their ideas to dilate into a story that takes their reader into a journey. The journey is not merely for the reader, but for the author. The author gain a writing experience from their journey that guides when they write other material. All writing experiences are depending on the person. Their writing experience can drive them to regularly add more details to enrich their story. On the other hand, a writer can be compelled to critique their work to enhance it. As a writer, I grasped many lessons from my own experience. One of my most memorable writings was a story in addition to a thought-provoking essay. This memorable writing experience was my research paper for my 12th grade English class.
In “Why I Write” by Terry Tempest Williams, she deliberates the development and affect of writing from the mind. Through the internal destruction of emotions, the reconstructing of the words, and the influence writing has in this world, Terry Williams causes us to reevaluate the meaning of writing and how people write for different reasons. In the introduction of the story, we are given an image of the setting, and an indication of where the story will lead. “It is just after 4:00 a.m. I was dreaming about Moab, Brooke and I walking around the block just before dawn.
Let’s face it: we’ve all written in a journal for some reason or other. Cecily Cardew chooses to write in hers to form a new, better reality for herself. Cecily has been isolated in a house in the country for most of her life. With little reality to go off of, she creates a parallel reality to entertain herself. Although, she does tend to take some of her entries a little too seriously. In this journal I will explain how Cecily creates reality and the connection between reality and writing.
Terry Tempest Williams achieves her purpose in “Why I Write” by composing a love letter to “writing” about how writing can help you cope with life. The author gives a precise summary about why she writes. It seems to be random thoughts, but she has a point to the madness as the reader has to analyze the text more deeply to understand what Williams means. Williams uses this piece to describe a climatic read about why the author feels the need to express herself in this way. However, why would someone write a love letter to writing, or any other art form? For Williams, this is a way of showing her talent as a writer and as an advocate for writing as a profession. Williams does this through her vivid metaphors that push the audience to
CONTENT AND FORM The mystery of what urges writers to write, and then to write the kind of stories they do is an old enigma. I feel writing is a journey to self, Joan Didion aptly says: “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear” (Didion 1976: 18). This isn’t the only reason most writers write, and this essay explores the other reasons, mostly it demonstrates the challenges of writing fiction that required imagining emotional pain and creating traumatic events.
From The Wisdom of the Heart (public library) — the sublime anthology of Henry Miller’s short stories, profiles, and literary essays that gave us his insights on the art of living and the future of mankind — comes a fantastic, timeless essay titled “Reflections on Writing,” in which Miller examines the psychological, emotional, and social roots of the impulse to create
Writing is not an easy task. Writing is strenuous, and requires more than mental focus. Successfully portraying a character takes a toll on both the mind, and soul. The author could spend a lifetime describing the physical, and mental attributes of a person. Writing opens the door to a parallel universe, and sheds light on aspects of life we never knew existed. Throughout the dark times in my life I have found myself creating far off worlds to remain happy. I grew up in a drab home with parents whose passions seemed to revolve around their abusive relationship. Instead of bowing to my circumstances, I accepted the abuse that came with the pen. As I wrote enchanting tales of underdogs overcoming, I felt that I too had conquered life-altering battles within my own circumstances. While devoting all my time and energy on writing my words created a reality that I could bare to live in, by teaching me to become the ultimate overcomer. No matter what transition of life that I have faced, writing has consistently revealed that there will always be something consistently strong inside of
We write to communicate, to express our thoughts and ideas. Writing also enable us to express our feelings about different things. Apart from spoken language, writing, therefore, is one of the best mediums of communication. Poetry, flash fiction, memoir, life legacy and comedy monologue, which we are learning this week, are some of the forms by which we communicate and express ourselves. Different style of writings are often best suited for different
Humans today often overlook the simple things in life. They may overlook flowers in a garden that may seem simple, but if under a microscope, the hidden things are visible to the eye. William Carlos Williams wrote poetry that, when put under a microscope, the reader could see the true complexity of the poem hidden beneath simplicity. William had an artistic eye, which he must have had inherited from his parents, who were painters (Llanas 47). “William Carlos Williams is as magically observant and mimetic as a good novelist….how well he calls into existence our precarious, confused, partial looking out at the world” (qtd. Jarrell). William Carlos Williams’s poems seem to be simple due to the simple structure and vocabulary, but they have a complexity to them.