The Writer 's Credibility And The Reader 's Efficiency

The weather is perfect for racing: not too hot, not too humid, not too windy. I dash down the twisted trails in the woods, trying not to stumble on the gnarled roots protruding from the dirt. My spikes puncture the soft earth with every stride, and my legs repeatedly pound on the ground, soreness surging through them. As sweat trickles down my face and dirt smears across my aching calves, I ascend a steep hill, trying to bring forth the strength I have accumulated throughout endless hours of practice. Now that I am nearing the final two hundred meters, I must force my body to begin sprinting. Breathing heavily, I dart for the imminent finish line, trying to beat the uninterrupted tick of the timer. Even though the crowd surrounds all around me, I can barely hear their animated cheers, because all I can focus on is crossing the line before the girl next to me. I can feel adrenaline surging through my body, and I widen my stride to cap off the remaining distance. When I glance at my Garmin watch, a new personal best time flashes across the screen. I realize that all of the gruelling work I have put in is worth the final result: happiness. (Snapshot Lead)

Flower believes that a competent writer must achieve to close the gap between themselves and the reader. The writer cannot close on themselves because they must reach their own knowledge. The writer determines the reader’s needs are by adapting to the reader’s “language” and knowledge on particular subjects. In addition, the writer must contextualize to help solve a problem or to develop an opinion. In essence, the writer has to suite the reader's attitude and knowledge for them to create an imagine of what the writer’s overall meaning and lesson.

In Joseph Harris’s chapter “Revising” which was originally published in his book, Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts in 2006, Harris emphasizes the importance of the revising process, how to revise and improve effectively, and informs us about the fact that revising is overlooked and rushed by writers today. He shares tips on how to effectively revise and demonstrates using excerpts within his chapters.

Writing varies from a text message to a novel. Writers often have a difficult task in creating a piece of work that truly identifies the meaning of good writing. Every good writer usually starts with the basics such as genre, audience, rhetorical situation, and reflection of the piece. Throughout this semester, we have gone through all of these key terms in great detail with each new assignment that has come our way. In doing this, not only as students but also as writers, we have come to create our own theory of writing. Every writer has a different theory of writing though most are very similar. Now, at this point in the semester after doing countless journals, in-class exercises, and final assignments, I think I have figured out my own

When I was reading Writing is Easy by Steve Martin, I was thinking if writing was actually that easy. Then I finished the article and realized that writing will never be easy. Mr. Martin examples on how to make writing easier make no sense. His tip to getting over writers block gets the writer nowhere. He says “got to an already published novel and find a sentence that you absolutely adore. Copy it down into your manuscript” (Martin). What he is saying is plagiarism. If I was to use this method to overcome writer block I would be thrown out of college. I still believe that writer block is real because even the greatest authors struggle with writers block.

As a reader and writer I always faced given assignments with the intent of doing exceptional jobs and take a sense of pride in my work to complete my tasks. As a reader, I will bore myself through out an entire book and realize I didn 't understand a single thing. Although as a writer, I can go on for so long losing myself on a topic because it feels more interactive. Reflecting on my experiences as a reader and writer have been very bold, I never really found a joy or an interest to become the exceptional student who stands out amongst others because, I always felt ok with myself and my results with the way I did things.

Typically, when most people think about the writing process they think of terms such as a ‘thesis statement,’ developing an outline, body paragraphs, conclusion; it’s imperative to view writing this way. We have only been taught THIS way of writing almost directly after we learned how to spell words—you decide what to write about, usually specified in the thesis statement, then you write a series of paragraphs entailing how you came to this conclusion. Finally, you conclude your paper by restating exactly what it was you spent an entire essay writing about. And most people will go their entire lives believing that is the formula for an effective, well thought-out work of literature. But how often do we go back and read through our writing and completely resent how amateur and forced it sounds? This is usually a direct result of a lack of revision within a work. Defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “a change or a set of changes that corrects or improves something” and “a new version of something that has been corrected or changed,” Revision is not a common word we think of when writing—this raises a serious question: how should you revise? In response to this to this, research was conducted to find a general view as to the significance of revision within various individual’s writing processes. These results, along with research from several academic articles provide a clear description as to where revision could be

#1-“out missus, I’m putting ‘ye out one week today, when I come knocking on this door I want to find nobody here” (McCourt, 277) This quote comes from near the middle of the book when the landlord had come to analyze the damage done of the families household. He is angry with what he saw and gives them a week notice to find another place to live.

In this paper, I will use Murray in order to show that revision is a good method for writers including myself.

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

Ah, you know what I mean. Reid summed up this issue pretty well with that one statement. I think it's an issue we have all faced at some point. We tend to forget that the readers may have no knowledge on the subject we are writing about. It's an issue I have had with my writing for the longest time. I would find myself writing a paper on a book I read, and would go on to write the synopsis of the story, without ever specifying who any of the characters were. Bob killed Jeff. Now then, who is Bob. Who is Jeff? Why did Bob kill Jeff? I would forget that my teacher may not have read the book my paper was on. I had actually once written a story in elementary school, where absolutely all of the dialogue was a string of he saids and she saids. Needless

1. The last time I enjoyed writing something would have to be in the argument and arguing class I took. In that class we got to construct persuasive essays, which was interesting, but the real fun came when we were asked to pick apart other students essays. When tasked with this it becomes extremely fun as the source gathering for many students was either using selective information, or outright lies. Using that, you could essentially tear into anyone fragmenting their arguments and leaving you with a nice sense of satisfaction that I really only get when I prove my superiority over someone in a quasi-powertrip.

According to journalist William Zinsser, a writer must be clear in order to write well. A writer who fills his/her pages with pretentious words, flattery prose, or intricate syntax clouds up his/her sentences and prevents the reader from fully understanding the message at hand. Therefore, Zinsser contends that good writing is achieved when bombastic language and confusing words are avoided. Indeed, stripping “every sentence to its cleanest components”, removing excess verbiage, and molding words into coherent, simple structures prevents the reader from getting lost in a whirlwind of words and thus allows him/her to fully grasp the author’s message (Zinsser 6). In short, clarity leads to writing that is done well.

For example, do you fear the blank page? You may be skipping the essential early phases of writing.

It is my belief that through this class and the tools provided, that my growth as a writer has grown through leaps and bounds I would never have assumed possible. It is not so much the skill I refer to, although I would think skill has gone up in some levels as well, but more so the appreciation for the craft of writing itself. Intially, at the start of this class my sole goal was to further my understanding and appreciation of the writer's and books that I so love to read. Through further evaluation within the first week, a few other goals came to mind, of which were, making writing a habit, finishing what I start, stop second guess my writing skills and making effective use of detail and description. Through the use of the many articles, various reading materials, whether poems or short stories, and especially through the workshop, I feel I was able to really push myself to accomplishing these goals. I have thus far learned how important it is not to be skilled at writing per say, but to have the will to write, that poetry is as much about it's sound as it is about it's subject, just how important character development is, how the narration and point of view of a story is essential to the way the story is told, and just how much of a difference peer's critiques can make to your writing.