Debbonnaire Kovacs: An Analysis

Stephen King includes in his book advice for writers to become the best they can be. One of his tips if that “…good writing consists of mastering the fundamentals (vocabulary, grammar, the elements of style) and then filling the third level…with the right instruments,” (King 142). The fundamentals of writing in which King discusses is learned through practice and studying. Passionate writers will take the time to perfect these skills and then add their own flavor to make their writing more interesting and their own. To make pieces of writing personalized to the author, the author must be creative and original.

It is essential to understand that classes taken in grade school do not give students a full understanding of each subject. With the topic of writing, there will always be a new lesson to learn, an aspect to improve, or a differing way to explain. Author Craig Vetter states in Bonehead Writing, “This is your enemy: a perfectly empty sheet of paper. Nothing will ever happen here except what you make happen.” Each story, essay, or response comes from a writer’s experiences. With each attempt at a new piece comes an underlying story of emotions the writer is facing. Each person’s writing is unique and the ideas people have are related to their past experiences and what they believe to be familiar with when deciding which writing style to use. As a high school student, I have learned many things about writing that helped me become the improved writer I am today, but the most essential advice I have received is practice makes perfect. Although there is no actual perfect way of writing, I have discovered that each essay I write, my writing improves. It is easier to spot mistakes, find areas to improve, and ponder elevated word choice to use.

The goal of writing is to clearly say oneself, administer knowledge, convince, or to construct an intelligent piece. There are four intentions writers utilize for writing. Expressive writing is used to show our preferences. Its first goal is to create relationships to others, add to human thought and culture, and to establish and deepen human contact. Email, Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other social networking sites are used in expressive writing. Literary work is a form of creative writing as in fiction or nonfiction. Its main purpose is to entertain. Novels, plays, and poems are examples of literary works. Informative writing is used to educate or explain something to the audience. This type of writing is clear, accurate, organized, thorough, and fair. Essays, research papers, and presentations are examples of informative writing. Persuasive writing is a more serious form of writing on a doubtful topic. The writer’s goal is to change the minds of the readers or at least to get the readers to question their position on a debate and think about the writer’s point of view. According to Bill Wheeler, “Good writing is clear thinking made visible.” This quote demonstrates that as a good writer you have the ability to express your thoughts clearly. Good writing involves anticipation of the audience’s questions, credibility, logic and storytelling.

Dan Melzer, a former student at Florida State University, discusses a few approaches to succeeding as a writer in “Understanding Writing Assignments: Tips and Techniques.” Melzer addresses seven methods to do well as a writer; whether that be in school or the workplace. To shortly summarize the tips, Melzer explores ways that students can help themselves by using their resources. Also, by analyzing the questions and instructions that a teacher asks of the class. He goes on to say that it is also important for the writer to figure out who the audience is. This will ultimately determine the writing style. Basically, if the writer is aware of the audience then he/she will execute the writing assignment differently than if he/she were to just make assumptions of who

Everyone knows what writing is to one extent or another, but we all have different definitions of how it should be done and varying degrees of seriousness about the art. We all have a process of writing, but each is unique to ourselves and our own experiences. Annie Dillard and Stephen King are two well known authors who have published many pieces, two of which describe how they view the writing process and let their readers get a peek of what goes on through their minds when they write. These two pieces are Dillard’s The Writing Life and King’s “What Writing Is.”

Writing is not a meaningless task, writers do not form a complex formula of words just because they can. A reason that writers have the drive to do what they do is because they have a compulsory force pushing them to share their viewpoint with as many as will

In my English 1010 class, I have learned to do a number of things through writing essays. I have written a Literacy Narrative, a Discourse Community Analysis, and a Writing Research essay. Firstly, I have learned to identify how an author’s purpose, audience, genre, and context determine effective writing. The purpose of the literacy narrative was to help me understand myself better as a writer (Jones 1). My teacher was the intended audience of the narrative. The genre of the narrative was non-fiction by cause of it being about my experience as a writer. The context of writing made my writing more interesting and more effective. Knowing those elements helps you to compose writing that is more effective due to you needing to know what you need to write about and who is receiving your writing. I displayed these skills by going into detail about my experiences with reading and writing through my life. As shown in the following sentence from my literacy narrative I shared how fun and exciting it was when my second-grade class received the opportunity to write a book, A Book of Future Astronauts, “Everyone in the class was truly excited to be writing our own book,” (Writing is Good).

Writing is a practice that most of us were taught when we were young. We were taught the basics of grammar, how to form a sentence, conjunction words, how to write paragraphs and more. Although we have learned this skill while growing up and have used the skill every year after entering kindergarten, this does not mean our writing process will ensure the best work. The authors that I chose each encourage their audience to excel in the art of writing in their own way to help with the writing process.

Like C. S. Lewis said “We do not write to be understood. We write to understand” (Uttich 27). This essay indicated that it’s okay to be different, the way to express yourself when it comes to writing, and what to do when you cannot focus. Writers normally believe if they were to write their thoughts or ideas down, others would somehow come to understand them, but at the end of the day it was originally written for the writer to really comprehend how and what they are truly feeling at that certain time.

The writing process, not only taught us the three writing processes, but also writing in a style appropriate to audience and purpose. Having the audience and purpose of writing or reading is the first strategy to writing or reading. The more you know who your audience are, their background, cultural or belief system, the more you will have an idea on how to make your writing appealing to them and accomplish your purpose. Like I pointed out in the first paragraph, until now, I never considered who my audience for my writing will be and this I believe has defeated my purpose over time. Knowing my audience before each writing has gone a long way to influence my tone, diction and structure of my writings……(explain). Discovering the importance of the audience has been very insightful to the purpose of my writing through the learning

Writing is different for everybody. After reading the first part of On Writing Well by William Zinsser my perspective toward writing changed; starting off by the fact that he admitted that “writing is indeed hard” (12). This author, with humorous stories and anecdotes, explained several principles that help one understand how to write efficiently. First of all, be yourself! Zinsser emphasizes the fact that you should be true to yourself and your writing in order to engage a reader in your piece. Other essential principles are: Be precise and avoid clutter. He claims that “the secret to good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components” (7). As I read, I noticed how important engaging a reader becomes to an author but Zinsser reminded me how my writing was made to “please myself first” and then an audience (25). The last but not least rules to follow are: to “avoid clichés” (Zinsser, 35) and “separate usage from confusing jargon” (Zinsser, 45). It is important to maintain your reader active by expressing clear thoughts and avoiding typical sayings that only make a literary piece

Writers must avoid obvious content because it will help them project their own voice and keep the material fresh. In order to be distinct and voice their opinions, writers must “sum and dispose of the trite and

First, staying focused as a writer can sometimes be a challenge. Writing is one of those things that usually takes time, especially when it comes down to a big assignment. However, a writer has to be able to overcome and persevere to stay focused through the process and finish it. Welty writes, “Still illiterate, I was ready for them, committed to all the reading I could give them” (Welty 6). As long as a writer can stay focused and key in on the subject, they will be able to compose a great piece work no matter what it is.

“You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page” (Jodi Picoult, N.D.). Quote, Question and Connection all bring the writer to think deeper into the subject their writing about, one must read the content but from the content they must derive a thought, an opinion, and a response from what they read and all must be composed on paper. The paper is the piece that blends all together into what the papers about, without the writing you would merely have a thought or idea floating within your head the writing is what helps one to express themselves and helps them acquire the skills needed to put forth the whole message of what they want or need to say.

The necessary basics a writer must consider are audience and purpose as both of these are the foundation of a writers work. For proper consideration, he or she must determine whom they are directing their work towards and the purpose of their writing. Purpose is not what a writer wants to do, it is what the writer wants the audience to do as a result of the interpretation of the writer’s theme. A writers purpose is the reason for communicating with someone and it will determine what they write about. A writer may want to inform, persuade, or express an idea. On the other hand, it is necessary for the writer to understand their audience. The audience is the person or people the writer is trying to communicate with. It is important for the writer