A- As I read “How to Read Like a Writer” by Mike Burn, the part that I felt was important to me and I quote “this effort to uncover how authors build texts is what makes reading like a writer so useful for student writers.” I felt that this was an important piece of information because through writing or text you can sometimes tell the type of tone the author has or even tell the mood of the way the author might express himself during the writing, whether visiting a text, book, or even a paper for that matter. This quote to me means that when you put your energy into comprehending reading like a writer, you can learn how to write a lot better by taking what you read and completely understanding what you read. That’s why it’s called “Reading Like a Writer.”
B- As I read “Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass, I feel and I quote “in entering upon the duties of a slaveholder, she did not seem to perceive that I sustained to her the relation of a mere chattel, and that for her to treat me as a human being was not only wrong, but dangerously so.” This quote was found in paragraph two of this article. In my belief this was an example of resilience. What this quote is saying in other words is that as a slaveholder she had certain duties to abide by, however the mistress seen him as a chattel. Chattel means any tangible, movable property. I believe that in this article she used that as a metaphor to compare him to something moving as if he had potential. Although, the mistress felt that treating him like a human being was wrong, she also knew the dangers of it. So in other words she pushed him because she seen the potential and wanted him to utilize his qualities even though she knew the dangers of doing so.
Felix — You made an excellent choice of a quote from the essay. Indeed, the quote you chose a very significant quote from Bunn’s essay: “this effort to uncover how authors build texts is what makes reading like a writer so useful for student writers.”
Now — can you zero in / focus on these words:
“this effort to uncover how authors build texts”
What do you think these words mean? I ask you to thinik about the word BUILD. If you “uncover” or discover or study how authors BUILD texts (text=the writing, the essay, the work), how does this help you as a writer who is learning to write better?
You are doing great in keeping up and doing the re4ading and thinking and HWs, so far. I know it’s hard work. Keep it up!
Another excellent choice of quote for the Douglass essay! You are good at find significant parts of essays!
In antebellum United States (antebellum meaning before the American CIvil War when slavery was the law of the land), black people were considered “chattel” or property. Thinkng about the word slaveowner, that is exactly what they were: people who owned other people and saw and treated them like property.
According to the text, it was “dangerous” to treat property as human beings (who can think and learn). What happens when a slave owner educate a slave?