Read âHow to Read Like a Writerâ by Mike Bunn. In this article, Bunn says that his students suggest that the advice they would give to future students is that they âwrite yourself notes and summaries both during and after reading.â So Iâd like you to do that. Please take out a piece of paper and a pen (or pencil) and have it beside you as you read. Just write down whatever stands out to you from the text– jot down a few key words. Doodle! Write a summary. Write a question. There are no right or wrong answers here. Then write a response to the following questions!Â
- What did you think of the piece? Did you like it? Or not? Why? Explain! (Donât worry my feelings wonât be hurt! Be honest!)
- Letâs think about the âcontextâ of this text. What is the author (Mike Bunnâs) purpose in writing this piece? Who is his intended audience?
- What is the genre of this text? It’s okay if you donât know! Just give it a shot! (essay, article, poem, etc.)
- What did you notice about HOW this text was written? Choose one observation!
- In his article, Mike Bunn writes âYou are already an author.â Heâs talking to you.  What do you think he means by this? What are some of the things you write already? (Hint: âNothingâ is not an acceptable answer.) Think of all of the ways you already use words in your everyday life. Thatâs authorship! How will that existing expertise help you in your college reading and writing career?
- Was there anything you noticed in Bunnâs article that you would like to try to do in your own writing? What, in particular? Please be specific!
- Can you explain what you think the author means when he says, âWhen you read like a writer, you are trying to figure out how the text you are reading was constructed so that you learn how to âbuildâ one for yourselfâ (74). Be specific. Share a personal example, if possible.
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I liked this piece because it taught me something new. This piece gave me a different perspective on how to look at reading to help me write, which will be very useful for future schoolwork and me personally writing in general. Mike Bunn’s purpose in writing this piece was to inform the audience about his experience when learning to read like a writer. Also, to teach the audience what it means to read like writer and how to read like a writer. I think the intended audience is writers, students, and readers. The genre of this piece is an article. I noticed that in the text when Bunn used a quote from different people like professors or famous poets, he gave the quote its own section and paragraph. That really stood out to me because I have never seen a quote in a piece written like that before in a piece and it might be something I use in my writing one day. When Mike Bunn says “You are already an author” he means that because of all the readers previous writing experiences from inside and outside the classroom this makes you an author. Some things I write already is letters, speeches, and essays. This existing expertise will help me in my college reading and writing career because it will help me understand how to read and write those different types of pieces. Something I noticed from Bunn’s article that I would like to do in my own writing is titling each paragraph. It helps the writing become more organized and it gives the reader a glimpse into what the next paragraph is going to be about before reading it. When Bunn says, “When you read like a writer, you are trying to figure out how the text you are reading was constructed so that you learn how to ‘build’ one for yourself.” Bunn means when reading the text as a writer you have to know all about the small details that went into constructing the text like how the author is wording their sentences or the choices the author made. You must know the small details that went into constructing the text in order ‘build’ something similar yourself. A personal example I have myself is writing speeches for my public speaking class last semester. I studied how to write speeches by reading different types of speeches. So, while I was reading, I had to try to understand the small details about how to construct a persuasive speech, demonstrative speech, and an informative speech.
I found this piece interesting and very informative. I liked it because it gave good tips on how we can become better writers and what we can do to make a better writing piece. I also learned that when we read, we shouldnât just read to understand the purpose but to critique the readings and use as much writing techniques as possible. Mike Bunnâs purpose in writing this piece is to teach students, readers and writers on how to read like a writer. He is teaching us how we as writers should interpret a reading and take as much writing techniques used in the reading and apply it to our own writing. I think the genre of this text is informative writing. One thing I noticed is that the author writes his text by imposing a question and responding to it in a few paragraphs. He does give brief examples on how a reading can be interpreted and the many ideas we can learn from it. When Mike Bunn writes â You are already an authorâ, heâs referring to us as writers because we have written pieces in the past even though some may be small but we apply different writing techniques for different purposes. Some things I write would be emails to management or brief summaries on whatâs going on at work. One thing that I noticed in Bunnâs article that I would like to try is to be very detailed as he was in his introduction. He chose to make his writing descriptive and not straight forward by writing âThe palace was a beautiful red brick, four-story theatre in the heart of Londonâs famous West End..â Just like the author I would like to create a visual in the audienceâs head and have them feel as if theyâre there physically. When the author says, âWhen you read like a writer, you are trying to figure out how the text you are reading was constructed so that you learn how to âbuildâ one for yourselfâ he is telling us to read deeply and understand why the author chose that specific technique that may intrigue the audience to keep reading. A personal example would be starting an essay with a quote from a former president regarding immigration. From this quote I was able to introduce the topic of my essay and I was able to refer to some topics that I was going to cover.
To be brutally honest I didnât like this piece, it was a boring read. While I donât deny that it definitely gives a lot of good information on writing, and especially some good tips to make life a lot easier, it reads like a textbook. Clearly this is an informative essay. From the formal yet calm tone, to the format of the entire piece, and the fact that it spans (ignoring the title and citation pages) 15 long and boring pages, it practically screams that its only purpose is to inform and teach its audience. As Mike Bunnâs audience being mostly students, he wanted to teach them on how writers at the professional level would and should read text as well as to teach that same audience methodology and tricks to write at that same level.
Going into more detail about the formats, more specifically his writing format, he often begins by asking a question to himself or the audience, after which he would respond in short multiple paragraphs. This makes the piece have a QNA type of layout that would ensure that at the very least you wonât fall asleep as you must know the answer to the question. Otherwise the question will be crawling in your mind for the rest of the night.
While reading what’s clearly my most favorite piece yet, the author says âYou are already an author.â. He means that if you had written a text, an email, a letter, even a note passed around class, then you are the author of something, it’s not a best selling book or a paper sent to a research institute but it is something that you wrote and someone else read. Youâve written something within a genre. You are an author.
Some of the writing I have experience in are argumentative and analytical research papers, essays of all types, and letters. As for how it can help me further my writing and reading career in college, honestly I donât know how to properly put it into text, it just will.
Another statement said by the author says, âWhen you read like a writer, you are trying to figure out how the text you are reading was constructed so that you learn how to âbuildâ one for yourself.â. This is only slightly more complex but still simple enough to understand initially. Mike is saying that while you are critically reading a piece, reading like a writer, the goal is to understand the structure that the author of the piece has made. Once you identify a part or property of the text you can then use and restructure the structure of that particular part for your own pieces and works. For example, in this essay I was rather snarky because I didnât like the text. I’m telling you now I don’t usually do this, most of the time Iâm rather straightforward and to the point. If I do have to write with some emotion Iâm rather polite in some parts then write as I usually do, straight to the point, when Iâm critical to a particular part. The reason I wrote like that is because I recently proofread a paper for a friend where he decided to add this snarky mean personality to it, and I wanted to try it out.
Now to answer the final question that’s left. A particular aspect that Mike used in this piece that I would like to use in the future isâŠnothing. I honestly find his style of writing here a bit similar to how I write already. If I am forced to give an answer though I suppose the bullet points. He used them to ask questions before answering, while I just wrote them as is into the paragraph themselves.
· I like this article because I think it has a certain teaching concept, and it explains to me how to analyze an article from different perspectives and put myself into it to understand why the author makes a certain choice. I think this article can provide a good idea and help for students in English Composition class.
· His intended audience is students or hobbyists who have just started writing. I think the author’s purpose in writing this article is to help those who are interested in writing or take writing classes in college.
· I think the genre of this piece is education essay because he provides readers with many tips on writing, he also quotes many famous people’s examples to show the readers of this article.
· I noticed that his writing first raised a question and then explained the answer according to his own understanding or cited some trustworthy celebrity examples to support his views.
· I think Mike Bunn writes âYou are already an authorâ means everyone has their own writing style, everyone’s environment and life affect their writing style and then create what kind of a writer they are today.
· I think when he says, âWhen you read like a writer, you are trying to figure out how the text you are reading was constructed so that you learn how to âbuildâ one for yourselfâ means learn how a paper is constructed step by step, word by word, from the introduction to the conclusion. After learning from the experience, you may apply your favorite thing or writing style to your future writing.
I enjoyed reading âHow to read like a writerâ . It was very informative and was written in a way that doesnât make you want to stop as well as making you question the choices you make while reading. In this case the Author Mike Bunnâs purpose for writing this essay it to educate and inspire, leading me to believe that his intended audience are students and educators, making the genre of the essay an op ed. what i think the Author of âyou are already an authorâ is referring to is the fact that we as the reader are learning how to write by reading in the process of becoming a better writer you also get to pick up on reading comprehension as well as develops an understanding of what the use of specific words mean on a spoken conversation expanding your vocabulary. Something about the article âhow to read like a writerâ that i would like to incorporate to my own reading skill is to question the intentions of the author a lot more and to put myself in the position of the author and see where i would have taken the narrative. when Mke Bunnâs says âwhen you read like a writer,you are trying to figure out how the text you are reading was constructed so that you learn how to âbuildâ one yourselfâ i think he referring to structure of the text that makes the reader be interested in the it, how the authors may use specific scenarios that are more alike to a specific audience that the writer is trying to reach.
I did not like this piece because it was very repetitive and too long for the amount of useful information given (which is not a lot considering the essay is 14 pages). I feel that it could have been shorter and still very effective on the importance of Reading Like a Writer. “How to Read Like a Writer” by Mike Bunn, is an educational essay, ment for students to learn how to become better readers. Mike Bunn teaches that questioning the author’s decisions on why he/she wrote the text in a certain way can improve your writing skills. His target audience are students, students that are learning to become better readers. Giving past experience of his students to better support his reason for writing the article.The text had a lot of references back to earlier in the article, such as when he explains why he put a story in the beginning and asks us to question his decisions throughout the text.When Mike Bunn states âYou are already an authorâ, he means that you have written or interpreted writing in your own way. As a student having written many different essays and articles, you have knowledge of how you write and how many authors write. He wants us to understand that your own writing can be improved by questioning your own decisions and asking yourself why or how I can make my work better based on past experience. I liked that Bunn used other students’ experience to help the reader better understand his claim and build upon it. Giving crucial tips that are based on formed experience. I would add a form of relatability to my writing for a better and easier understanding which this text did for me. Mike Bunn states âWhen you read like a writer, you are trying to figure out how the text you are reading was constructed so that you learn how to âbuildâ one for yourselfâ, meaning when you are reading, you are looking for different ways the author has written the text and questioning why. Understanding the way the text was written to then incorporate some of the techniques into your own writing. I have written an article about Forex Trading and I have used many resources in how to make an informative essay that is easy to understand. As trading in the Forex market is complicated to explain to a person that doesnât know about trading or is just a beginner. Taking many effective techniques and using them to better construct my writing.
a) While this article proves very informative and presents a baseline of information, it lacks a true feel in what an article should represent. The author, Mike Bunn, begins his stalemate by enlightening that his work experience consisted of being a security dude patrolling one section of the Palace Theatre. Furthermore, he goes ahead and states, “As I struggled to read in this environment, I began to realize that the way I was reading–one word at a time– was exactly the same way that the author had written the text”. This quote seems like it derails the focal point of his work experience and the overall article, which leads into an informational piece about ‘reading like a writer’. I practically cackled as he stated he was an English major that didn’t think about reading, because that’s not what an English major would say – the goal would be looking through perspective on all forms of writing and reading. I agree that the read is very informative and can change a person’s conception about writing, however I believe his own experience wasn’t needed in order to compose this article of sorts.
b) As outlined previously, the article is more of an information piece by Bunn directed towards college students who are learning how to read and write more effectively. It gives into perspective on how a reader/writer should perceive text, in a way that is structured in the way an author presents an article. Bunn explains this thoroughly stating, “As you read in this way, you think about how the choices the author made and the techniques that he/she used are influencing your own responses as a reader”. This is very important when you read text, as understanding where an author is coming from based on the style of text, motive behind the text, and the garnered information surrounding the text overall improves reader’s approach to text.
c) The genre definitely radiates an educational essay, as Bunn is putting his own experience aside to inform other writers how to “read like a writer”. In short, this idea by Bunn to have a strong defense about writing as a previous English major overall impacts his own experience and his perspective of how he acknowledges the reading and writing standpoint, with the help of friends who contributed into sharing the same dialect. Moreover, I still don’t believe his work experience would’ve stammered the main focus of the article and should be removed.
d) If in the circumstance Bunn is insinuating that we, the audience, are already authors, then he is absolutely correct. Being an author can mean many things, as you’re thinking about all of these ideas but in the end, you are an author who composes literary work. As for my own experience, I have a book I’m writing that is conveyed into science fiction. It’s a passion project and I’ve already began working on it.
e) I wouldn’t say there is anything I would incorporate from Bunn’s writing that I would use on my own, however it definitely serves as a starting point to how readers should approach text in general.
f) His meaning towards this quote directly reflects how he feels about reader perspective. As previously stated, Bunn wants readers and writers alike to be able to look at a text and analyze it to where you understand what, who, and how the author is presenting his or hers information to an audience group. This is very crucial for readers, as you should be concerned with the way a certain author is presenting text in many styles of deposition. Summaries, for example, extrapolates author reading and condenses them into readable text about what a person may have learned from reading text.