Cliv Clive's Essay: The Audience Effect

Have you ever felt frustrated staring at that infamous blank page, the cursor relentlessly blinking as if mocking your inability to summon the perfect words? It is a universal struggle shared by both aspiring novices and seasoned professionals. Amidst the plethora of polished works, it is easy to believe that writing appears effortless. Yet, therein lies a profound truth: the beauty of writing emerges from the messy, imperfect process itself. If we view writing as a dynamic process rather than a static product, we explore how writing shapes the outcome's beauty and power.

Peter Elbow (b.1935) is an author and professor, who wrote “Writing without Teachers” which was last published in 1998. Elbow’s essay “Freewriting” talks about why we should freewrite and it’s benefits. Elbow said, “ The habit of compulsive, premature editing doesn’t just make writing hard. It also makes writing dead.” This means that when you're writing you should continue to write and finish, before you start to critique yourself because it could lead to a “dead” essay. One interesting detail, is when Elbow said, “Freewritings are vacuums. Gradually you will begin to carry over into your regular writing some of the voice, force, and connectedness that creep into those vacuums.” Freewriting lets you express yourself and through time that voice will start to creep into regular writing.

In Donald Murray’s essay “The Maker’s Eye,” he says that writing is not a short process and that writers must create a series of drafts before he or she has a successful piece of writing. They also have to be open to both negative and positive feedback because each draft can be edited to make it clearer. Murray also talks about the importance of rewriting, which includes processes like scanning drafts and modifying problems which sentences are not relative to the thesis in order to make them readable (Murray, p.83). In addition, writers must remember to be more conscious of readers’ interests and be certain their readers want to receive the information, which the authors are trying to convey accurately. In other words, writers must understand

I chose to interview Gabby Turner, who is a graphic designer and social media strategist. She works for a non-profit organization called Ekhaya Youth Project, which provides support to families involved in the Louisiana Mental Health Services. After discussing the importance of strong writing and the function of grammar within her profession with Ms. Turner, I discovered new information about my future career path. She explained that strong writing plays an important role in her career because of the effect it has on her image. If she presents an idea through an email or presentation and her writing is not strong, then potential clients or co-workers may view her as inferior. Ms. Turner believes that although strong writing is important, in

Before a writer begins to write, they immediately start to think about their audience because they play a huge role in the writing process. "Rhetors conceptions of audiences may lead them to create new roles for themselves to address those audiences." (Grant-Davie 356.) Grant-Davie elaborates more on this topic in his essay. He states that the writer and the audience are "dynamic and interdependent."(Grant-Davie 271.) The audience can be considered as a discourse community. According to the University of Cincinnati, a discourse community is a "social group that communicates in at least part via written texts and shares common goals.." For a writer to successfully engage that discourse community, they have to know particular information that

He begins to explore if it is really having a negative impact as others have said. Andrea Lunsford a professor at Stanford examined nearly fifteen thousand student’s writing samples from in-class assignments to tweets. “First thing she found is that young people today write far more than any generation before” (Thompson 585). Today, people write about just about anything to anyone even strangers on have that be social media or even a blog post. People like to be heard and have their ideas validated by others or even hear different points of view. Ultimately it is about “...knowing who you’re writing for and why you’re writing might be the most crucial factor of all” (Thompson 586). If people know who they are writing to they begin to have fun with what they are writing and they change their tone based on their

“Writing means sharing. It's part of the human condition to want to share things - thoughts, ideas, opinions.” -Paulo Coelho

After reading the article, “The Maker’s Eye” by Donal Murray, I agree with the author on how writing isn’t a one step process to becoming a strong writer. Murray mentions when writers write and pause to look at others’ point of views, they go back and change their own writing. It’s true when he says that most writers are harsh on themselves. Reflecting upon myself in high school, I believe that looking at other students’ point of views would help me get new ideas because I knew my writing wasn’t the best. For instance, what my tenth grade English teacher did was a “walk through gallery” which allowed students to read other students’ responses towards the assignment and mention one good and bad part of their work. Therefore, being able to view other styles of writing caused me to change bits and pieces within my essay.

Audience- The audience is person or group of people who the writing is directed towards.

Many lose their confidence when they begin writing since it is difficult for them to get down their thoughts in a truthful and interesting way

As one continues to work on a new skill, one is bound to get better and better. I can clearly see this through my writing. I have never been the best writer and I don’t necessarily hate that fact. I just always assumed that it was just one of those things I wasn’t good at. However, as I continually worked at it and learned more skills and techniques I could put into use, I began to be proud of my writing. I went from writing thought straight to paper to slowing down and analyzing what I was thinking and how it could best be represented on paper. We learned how to present an argument not only to the public but also to a resistant audience which was a challenge. We learned how to use Pathos, Logos and Ethos to provide different

Whether while writing an essay or a birthday card, we have all struggled to find the proper words to illustrate our thoughts or feelings from time to time. Upholding the occupation of a writer would multiply that struggle tenfold. An occupation that depends on interesting, fluid pieces of writing every submission requires an adequate number of attempts and patience. Lamott expresses that writers “all often feel like we are pulling teeth” (Lamott), which proves the difficulty of writing is still there no matter the level of writer behind the work. Lamott also emphasizes that a writer “has to start somewhere” and shares her friend’s ideas in her writing to simply “get something - anything - down on paper” (Lamott). Lamott, and the other writers mentioned in this piece, carry incredible track records, while still admitting that perfection did not come initially, or even easily. Thus, proving that the Shitty First Draft has a place in any writer’s notebook or Word document. Lamott’s admission to struggling to properly begin a piece of writing surprised me, given of her success. I could not imagine a woman of her accomplishments stressing out over a food review, yet I felt relieved that someone of Lamott’s title relates to an amateur writer like myself. I often put off my writing as well when I cannot articulate a proper introduction. I do every other possible homework, or shy away from homework in general because the

In Anne Lamott’s essay, “Shitty First Drafts,” she explains her writing philosophy of just getting ideas down on paper and then editing them later. While some disagree with this method, such as George Dila in his critical response, “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft,” many writers employ this technique to not only better their writing, but to overcome obstacles in the writing process. Even the most successful of writers will say that they actually hate writing, Lamott even compares it to pulling teeth. The intimidation of just starting to write becomes too much and leads writers to procrastinate. For many, an overwhelming, overbearing sense of perfectionism creeps in and creates anxiety and often lead to writer’s block. Everyone writes first drafts, but if a writer allows themselves to let go of all personal judgment and permits their writing to be “bad,” then they will most likely end up with great ideas that they did not even know were inside their heads. Once these ideas are allowed to flow out, then it becomes easier to visualize a realistic way of developing them into a full composition. By writing inferior first drafts, writers can focus on and express their ideas while overcoming the difficulties typically associated with the writing process.

Carr brings up a superb point about the advantages of the published word: “The finality of the act of publishing has long instilled in the best and most conscientious writers and editors a desire, even anxiety, to perfect the works they produce – to write with an eye toward eternity.” (Carr 107). Furthermore, excuse the departure from the subject, but are we continuing our intellectual decline by pampering our brains rather than daring ourselves to do better? Does genuine laziness pilot our need to supply handy, easy-to- use material? I for one think that most of the best things I’ve come across in life entailed commitment and a little hard work to

In today’s society one would not be able to communicate effectively with the world if writing was not involved. People all around the world send emails, texts, and letter to numerous amounts of individuals each second. Talking on the phone is slowly becoming a thing of the past while the writing side of technology is taking over. The meaning of writing is changing in society. Writing used to be specifically for academics or the occasional letter to a loved one. As time has passed writing has taken more forms and more meanings. In the world we live in now writing is classified as texting, emailing, instant messaging, and even comments or tweets on social media. Although writing has these multiple new forms, it still holds its academic side strongly. Everything with meaning in turn affects a person’s day to day life. Writing has the effect of making one more intellectual. Writing has become a bridge between communication and the cultures and people of today’s society. It gives way for different options in stating sentences or phrases. (Olson). Each affect should change with age. As a person grows older, their writing styles should mature and take on a more professional aspect.