Author: Samantha (Page 10 of 11)

Annotations:

1. (pg.72 p3) “The idea is to carefully examine the things you read, looking at the writerly techniques in the text in order to decide if you might want to adopt similar (or the same) techniques in your writing. You are reading to learn about writing.” I’ve never really thought about a different kind of reading. There is always that one way when you just read a book or whatever it is and ask yourself what does this mean to me? or what did I learn?. This made me want to realize and focus and writing techniques of authors to apply them to my own writing.
2. (pg.74 p3) “Allen Tate’s metaphor of reading as if you were an architect is a great way to think about RLW. 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. Author David Jauss makes a similar comparison when he writes that “reading won’t help you much unless you learn to read like a writer. You must look at a book the way a carpenter looks at a house someone else built, examining the details in order to see how it was made” (64).” It’s all about being an architect, the structure of the writing and the origin. Reading like a writer seems hard but it’s seems better for the future. In the way to improve my own writing and have a different reading style.
3. (pg. 75 p3) “When we read like writers we understand and participate in the writing. We see the choices the writer has made, and we see how the writer has coped with the consequences of those choices.” Writing starts from the very first thought of the author, to the audience, the story, the language. The choices in the writing leads to how great or how poor you want to interpret. Such as choices in our own writing, consequences to my readers.
4.  (pg.79 p3) “When reading I tend to be asking myself a million questions. If I were writing this, where would I go with the story? If the author goes in a different direction (as they so often do) from what I am thinking, I will ask myself, why did they do this? What are they telling me?”.  These are questions I should be asking myself when I read, to read more like a writer. I would try and apply the context and the format I like into my own writing. A goal of mine has always been to capture an audience who relates to my story, or what I’m trying to say.
5. (pg. 84 p2) “Think about what effect presenting this personal information might have on readers. Does it make it feel like a real person, some “ordinary guy,” is talking to you? Does it draw you into the essay and make you want to keep reading?”.  Here he is talking about the essay he wrote and how he started it. To be honest I thought this story at the beginning was about him being a security guard, but then I realized, OH! he was talking to me about reading like a writer. I have to admit, him mentioning London did give that “ordinary guy vibe”. can i give off an ordinary vibe?

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