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How To Read Like A Writer

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What do you think it means to be a good reader, or read well? Second,  is questioning an important part of reading? What do you think and why? What questions should you as a reader ask before, during, and after you read? What does the author think? Why? Please explain and give reasons and examples for your responses to these two questions. Finally, Do you, or can you read like a writer? Would it be helpful?

18 Comments

  1. Ashleyn

    I think to be a good reader is to be able to understand the depth of a story. You can have amazing fluency and still not fully comprehend a text. A lot of the times we have to read in between the lines to truly take in what the author has written. I think to do that you have to get into a different mindset because you’re reading a perspective that’s different than your own. Mike mentioned in his essay that a lot of the way he read depended on the genre he was reading which makes complete sense because not every story is written the same way.

    • Ashleyn

      *Continuing my response (accidentally clicked submit)

      when I read I always tend to ask questions. I think it’s because I’m always wanting to know more. I do think that questioning is an important part of reading. I think one of the intentions authors have is to get readers thinking. They’re not only sharing a story but in a way trying to give you a new perspective on things and can be shown in the way they write. The words used can have a deeper meanings than the sentences themselves. According to Mike, before you read you should ask yourself: what is the authors purpose and who are their intended audience. While your reading you should ask the same questions as well as asking yourself about how the author supports their intro and why kind of language they use and why. I feel like I can read like a writer given that in high school I had to analyze how a story was written and it sort of stuck with me. This would be helpful when it comes to writing your own story for the reason that in order to build your own narrative you’ll have to understand how a one is built.

    • Kawthar

      “You can have amazing fluency and still not fully comprehend a text”.

      I agree with what you are saying. It also reminds me of how sometimes we read because we are forced to read and answer certain questions. But if we understand the way we should be reading it will help us answer more questions and fully get the idea of the story. The Author mentions ” This is because most writing instructors are so focused on teaching writing that they forget to show students how they want them to read”. If we learn the correct way to read we will be better at our own writing.

      • Allan

        I also agree reading can be something great if you learn to grasp the concept and be able to see the different things played as well as double meanings behind the words instead of finishing a page and forgetting about it wen starting next from bad teaching on how to deconstruct topics

  2. Shivam Patel

    I feel that to be a good reader you should be able to understand the emotions and ideas that the author was feeling in that specific moment and delve into the purposes of the author. Bunn wants us to do rhetorical analysis, so that we can “construct” writing of our own. During his connection to Corinthian columns, he clearly expressed the goal of becoming good writers through reading. We need to ask why the author used one technique over another or why they used the diction that they did. I believe that question is a vital part of reading as it is only through questioning will you be able to form your own thoughts and opinion. I feel that a question that the reader asks before the reading would be why the author chose this topic and how would they attempt to maintain the interest of the reader. A question that I feel the reader should ask during the reading is why the author chooses to convey this emotion and why they specifically choose to use this technique. A question I would ask after I read the book would be what the author was trying to convey throughout the book, what I learned and how that is going to affect me. Bunn even delved into the rhetorical analysis of the first paragraph of the essay.  

  3. Christopher Romero

    In order to be a good reader, you need to be able to break down the text you are reading and not only read for information but also the purpose behind each word/sentence. Finding purpose gives you insight on what your reading and filling in the blanks you possibly could have missed on your first read. Being a good reader means you can decipher text and fully comprehend the meaning behind the authors words by asking the proper questions before, during, or after reading. Questioning is a major part of reading, it helps you see the text from all perspectives and builds your writing skills as a whole, for example early on in Mike Bunn’s essay he mentions a hypothetical where a author starts off their writing piece with a quote from Barack Obama. Asking questions like is this effective in bringing readers in, is the length of the quote too short, too long, what if this was a quote from someone else, can help you understand why they chose to make this decision, who this is targeted to, and give you ideas on how to start your own material. Questions to ask before you read can be who is the intended audience and in what genre was this written? During reading you should be analyzing the evidence the author uses and ask how effective is it and/or would something else be more effective. These are all suggestions by the writer himself, but after reading I suggest you ask yourself would I personally use what I just read and apply it to my own work and did the author get their purpose across to the reader. By using this advice I believe I could read like a writer and enhance the way I write or better form a argument/rationale. RLW is completely beneficial and as previously stated not only does it help your own writing but makes you a much better reader too.

  4. Elianny

    I believe that being a good reader is having the ability to understand what you read and draw your own conclusions in the end. I think that questioning yourself is the most important basis for a reading since while you do it when you are reading you are answering yourself and it helps you a lot with what would be understanding. Before a reader should ask themselves “what am I reading?, what is it about?”, while the questions “why is this happening?, what led to this happening?, what do I think will happen next?Who is this for? ” and then some good questions would be “how could this reading help me now?, what was it all for?”. I think that what the author thinks is what you understand, of course, everyone has their point of view of seeing things, and each person could have different opinions of what the author thinks. Taking into account all the advice already given, it would help me a lot to question myself while I read and it is not necessary to understand a reading on the first try since I have always said that it does not matter how many times you read it, the important thing is that you understand it and you can draw a good conclusion and explanation of what you read as long as you understand it.

  5. Kawthar

    I think Reading like a writer is to recognize and understand what you are reading. When you read as a writer you are trying to consider the ways the author writes the writing so you could make one for yourself. As the author states” You are already an author, and that means you have a bulid-in advantage when reading like a writer. All of your previous writing experiences inside the classroom and out- can contribute to your success with RLW”. This coveys that you have to fully understand and examine the writing to know what techniques and mistakes you want to use after reading like a writer. Questioning is an important part of reading like a writer, it leads you to look for the different perspectives in the story. Asking questions also makes us aware of what we are reading and is a great way to create comprehension skills. Some questions to ask before reading are” What’s the author’s purpose for this piece of writing?, Who is the intended audience for this piece of writing? and in what genre is this writing?”. During reading, you should be able to ask yourself the same questions you asked before and answer them. You should add these questions as well “How effective is the language the author uses? Is it too formal? too informal? Perfectly appropriate?”. Finally, after completing the reading, you are able to answer the questions about the purpose of the writing and the message behind it. Is this reading a writing I would like to use in my own writing? would these techniques benefit or harm my writing? The author believes it would be a pro move to keep these questions in mind because “you will end up with a useful list of specific techniques to have at your disposal when it comes time to begin your own writing”. The author thinks questioning is a part of reading because it makes us think of the other ways things could have been written or said. To sum up, I feel like I could read like a writer but will will take practice to be an expert at it. After reading this article, I will for sure consider reading like a writer because it will help me understand and be better at my own writing. This reading was very helpful leading me to be a better reader and writer.

  6. Ibraheem Zokari

    What I think to be a good reader or read well is to be able to understand and comprehend the reading and to achieve your purpose of reading. There are many ways to read and people have different reasons for reading such as reading a recipe to learn how to cook a meal or reading reviews on a product to see if it’s worth buying which is why to be a good reader you must ask questions before you read and understand why you’re reading. Being a good reader doesn’t mean you can read fast or read for a long period, it means you’re able to understand why you’re reading and what you’re reading. For example, the strategy RLW (Reading Like a Writer) mentioned in the essay ¨How to Read Like a Writer) by Mike Bunn is a technique that involves trying to understand the choices made by the author. Understanding the way the author structures the writing and why the author made those choices can help improve your comprehension and writing skills. To be a good reader, you must be able to make sense of the reading and understand your purpose of reading. There are a lot of different ways to read depending on the genre so understanding the purpose of the reading is necessary. Questions are an important part of reading. Asking questions before, during, and after reading is very important in becoming a better reader especially if you have a hard time understanding the reading. Asking questions like “Why am I reading this?”, “What do I already know about this?¨, “What can I gain out of this reading?”, and “What is the genre?¨ are helpful. Some questions Mark Bunns suggests asking are “ Do you know the author’s purpose for this piece of writing” and ¨Do you know who the intended audience is for this piece of writing? This is also helpful especially if you want to read like a writer. Asking questions while reading can help us improve our understanding of the reading and why the author made certain choices. Some questions you can ask yourself while you read are ¨Why did the author choose to say this?¨ or ¨What parts did I understand?¨ Some things to consider after reading are how you felt before and after reading. Do you feel like your purpose was met or should you read more and look for a different reading? It all depends on your perspective and purpose. It’s also good to analyze the techniques used by the author during the reading and which parts made us feel like good readers and pay attention to the choices the authors made during their writing. Asking yourself these questions can not only help achieve your purpose of reading but also improve your comprehension and writing skills. To answer the final question, I can read like a writer but I’ve never tried the technique before. All my life as a reader, I’ve always read trying to understand what the author is saying but I’ve never really paid close attention to the author’s choices in the writing. I think it’s because I’ve never really been taught that strategy and on writing discussion posts or essays I mainly focused on just getting it done. Now that I read Mike Bunn´s explanation of the strategy, I think it would help improve not only my writing but my comprehension skills and make better choices in my writing. As stated by Bunn, ¨You are already an Author¨and that means you have a built-in advantage when reading like a writer. All of your previous writing experiences—inside the classroom and out—can contribute to your success with RLW. Because you “have written” things yourself.¨ RLW along with our past experiences of writing can introduce you to a new way of writing and improve our choices.

  7. Jaylene

     I think to be a good reader means to be able to read, fully comprehend and break down a text. I think questioning is an important part of reading because it helps challenge your thoughts on a text which enhances your comprehension. Reading makes you a better writer and vice versa. Before reading, you should ask questions related to the context of what you’re reading. While reading, you should consider how you would approach the material and question the author’s methods. After reading you should return to the previous questions and assess your understanding of the author’s message. Reading like a writer would be helpful in comprehending a text, I can do that if I read more.

    • Ibraheem Zokari

      I agree with what you said about how Reading makes you a better writer and vice versa. Reading and writing have very similar benefits which are they are strongly connected with each other and help you become smarter. While you read, you are improving your writing skills, and while you’re writing you’re improving your reading skills.

  8. Josue Giron

    A good reader is someone that understands what they are reading; the vocabulary, the different ideas that are being used by the author, and to be able to read through the lines to understand and uncover key messages the author is giving us. Is not about how fast you can read a text: Mike Bunn, he said that he had to re-read words, sentences not only because of the distractions, but that I made him comprehend more. Reading like a writer Is about asking yourself questions about the text, characters, or the setting. Like: Why did the author use this type of vocabulary? How does the setting affect the main character? And what does the setting symbolize? Questions like these help us (readers) have a different point of view of the text.

    Before reading we should ask ourselves questions like: What is the text going to be about? Am I willing to finish the book? On the other hand, when reading we should ask: Why is the author’s vocabulary changing as I read? How is the vocabulary affecting his point of view or mine? We should ask questions about the characters along with trying to guess the theme of the text, to make sure we are understanding. When getting to the end of the text we should ask: What problem(s) did the author solve? How he could’ve avoided them? What have I learned from this text? And how can I use what I’ve learned in the real world?

    When asking questions when we read we can have a better understanding of the text. It helps the reader comprehend many critical factors of the text, making them acquire more knowledge.

    When I read, I make sure that I am understanding. But in many cases I caught myself making questions that end up without answers, learning tactics, but never using them. Reading the same paragraph a couple of times and having a poor understanding of it. In the end, I just need to read more and practice different approaches.

    • Allan

      I agree with the perspective of not grasping the concept sometimes reading has the bad reputation of being uninteresting and can cause people myself included to sometimes not put effort into gaining knowledge and or understanding beyond what’s written which requires effort and trying into making it a more enjoyable experience

  9. Gustavo Aviles

    I believe a good reader is someone who understands the background of the story like the authors perspectives and their choices and how the authors want us to read the book like for example “you are reading to learn about writing”. I believe that questioning is important because it lets you grasp what makes you most curious and you can experience the fullest with the questions. Some questions you can ask before reading would be if you truly are able to get through the book? This would help because you might like some topics and genres and might dislike others. When it comes to questions during the books i believe it would depend on what you know and believe so far in the book. Every story is different so different questions would pop up. I believe the author, Mike Bunn thinks that questions would give a general idea of the story as so as their surroundings around that idea.

    When it comes to me reading, I believe that I can understand the stories but don’t really go into depth like what the author thinks about their choices. I really can only get the general idea but not about the background things that happen in the stories I read.

  10. Franchesca

    I think to be a good reader is not only getting through the book but actually understanding what you have read. There are many times where I have had to read something and I’m noticing that I can’t even recall what the last 2 pages have said. To be a good reader is when you can fully understand what is going on and can analyze why the writer might have chose to say something a certain way or why the writer chose for a character to do something etc. many people can get through a book but the difference in really reading is when you can comprehend the reading and actually understand what is being said.

    Questioning is an important part of reading because it allows for deeper thinking. For example if I’m reading a book and the writer kills off a character I start to think, hm why did the author do this, is xyz going to happen later etc. Noticing what questions are popping in to your head as you read can also hold you accountable, if you keep questioning something maybe you need to go back and re-read a couple of pages, maybe you need to be in a quieter environment. All of these things matter when really trying to understand and enjoy a book.

    before you read a book you should ask yourself things like what is this book going to be about? what direction is the book going in? what plot twists might arise? (I like to think ahead). During the reading you should be thinking about why the author has said certain things, why did a character do xyz, and wether or not your’re understanding because you might have to take a break to try and understand. After the reading you should think about wether you enjoyed the book, would you chose this genre again? why did certain things happen? what knowledge did you gain? All of these questions help because with questions eventually come answers and if you are making the effort to question something then you are open to understanding more and really letting what is being said, sink in.

    I personally think I read like a writer but it depend on if I’m interested or not. The more interest I have in a book the more open I am to what’s being said. this is not the best trait of mine since I would like to read anything in the world such as stuff I consider boring and really get into it but that’s something ill have to work on.

  11. Nyla Williams

    To be a good reader to me means to analyze and follow the narrative of the texts your reading. Questioning is an important aspect to reading as it helps you dive deeper into what the author wants you to get from the text a lot of texts are not meant to be read once and understood, authors will purposefully confuse the reader to provoke their thoughts. Before you read texts you should be asking yourself what you believe the author is writing about based on the title, while you read you should be questioning what the author is trying to develop based on their writing choices, and after you read you should be analyzing it all to develop an overall theme. Mike Bunn thinks similarly that in order to truly understand a text you must break it down as they write it and question why they write it in the way they did. I learned a lot of techniques on how to read like a writer in high school and I cannot wait to expand that knowledge and put it into practice in this course.

  12. Lucas Barad

    For me, what it means to be a good reader is that you don’t just read to extract information, and/or follow a story but it can mean looking at the piece from the perspective of the writer at least a little. This also leads into the importance of questioning when reading. Questioning the author’s perspective and bias(s) is one example and can be done both before and after reading. This would help with not only seeing how your perspective on them changed before and after but also would alert you for example, to conflicts of interest between the author and topic. Also questioning your default way of interpretation and personal biases at the beginning of the text can help you from missing out on certain parts of a narrative or other piece. Finally you could also try to figure out what the author’s tone/intentioned emotions for the piece were. Some of the questions Bunn suggests are, “What’s the author’s purpose for this piece of writing? Who is the intended audience for this piece of writing?.. and in what genre is this writing?” I don’t think that I can read like a writer consistently, I feel like I do it much more selectively, for example when I feel like a piece is missing certain information, I usually start questioning more.

  13. Allan

    Being a good reader is not only consuming the work of but analyzing the work like a food that you don’t just swallow but instead enjoy the flavors and analyze the purpose of presentation and selection of spices. As well as questioning being important as it makes you wonder why the author used the selection of words phrases or tools on their selected format was as mentioned in the essay it could be for a variety of different reasons such as the targeting of certain groups with selected perspectives or a general audience the words as mentioned in the essay the formality or informality as well as the backing to certain claims style of evidence and or personal stories but before all that general questions should be asked before and after such as the genre or authors bias tours certain things which can give you an insight on what the piece might touch on or avoid and after the work has been deaden the authors choice of words why certain quotes were chosen maybe from an important figure or personal for what purpose what was the over all goal the author tried to achieve? as well as the desired outcome the author may want from their piece, as I previously mentioned from the piece created by author Mike Bunn. Being an author is all about choices, and every word is a deliberate choice in order to cause a certain impact that is of emotion or purpose depending on the genre and the tools used on that genre. Finally, I feel like I could RLW to a degree, not on the deep level an author may have as mentioned in the personal essay, as many writers understand the process and choices; they can deconstruct every word and see why they might’ve been chosen. I believe in my now starting time in college, RLW would be useful to further grasp pieces of deeper complexity to better write and grasp the point they try to give. Understanding the pieces that build every page and the goal and purpose behind every line could make me see the piece in a different, more deep line, giving me a better grade, as well as slowing myself down could make me avoid mistakes that I suffer from not giving enough time to every line while reading instructions at times. 

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