- “You are already an author” refers to the day-to-day activities that we all do that involve writing. When you text others, you are writing to communicate your ideas. We all have our individual texting (writing) style. Do you type in lowercase? Do you use a lot of emojis? When you create an Instagram caption, you are telling a short story about the context of the pictures. When you tell your friends a story about your difficult college classes, you are employing aspects of writing such as your tone, your word choice, and the imagery used to describe your class. For our own writing, this existing writing expertise can help us employ RLW because we already know our writing styles or the style that your professor may be requiring. Bunn’s breakdown of RLW gives insight into how to improve our own writing. He identifies aspects of reading that we should be analyzing such as word selection, genre, writing purpose, and intended audience. Paying close attention to the writing pieces of other experienced writers can help us improve as writers. Now that we know how to use RLW, we can expand our writing style and learn different ways of communicating so that we become more articulate writers.
- One thing that I noticed from Bunn’s article is that he says to question whether aspects of the writing are appropriate and effective in addition to deciding whether you liked or disliked them. I find this very helpful when employing the RLW technique because you will learn the writing style and techniques that you like the most based on what was the most effective for you in your own reading. You can adopt these strategies to strengthen your own writing. This can also help you when reviewing your own drafts because you will know the literary devices and word choices that can make your own writing the most effective to your intended audience. Another thing that I noticed was the way that Bunn attempts to create a connection with the reader by mentioning his own life experience. I think it is crucial in any writing piece, to create a connection with your target audience in order to retain their interest for a longer period of time while also aiding them with comprehension.
Excellent! I agree that making connections to your audience is crucial, and that’s true even for more “objective” work as well, making sure who your audience is and addressing them in whatever way is appropriate.
I hadn’t thought of RLW as a revision tool, but it totally is! Nice insight.