Category: Intro (Page 7 of 11)

The Reader as an Artist By Toni Morrison

1. Repeatedly describes reading as art instead of a skill.
2. She lets her imagination take over what she reads
3. She envisions what is there and notices what is not by reading and listening.

A quote I found really interesting is when it says “I don’t need to “like” the work; I want to instead “think” it”. What I believe the author meant by this is that she is in control of her mind, Therefore, all she needs to do is think by using her imagination. Often times, a reader like myself tries so hard to focus on what I’m reading and not really visualizing what it is I am actually reading. We get so caught up on trying to understand when we aren’t really thinking and seeing the bigger picture of what we read from the text.

How to Read Like a Writer By Mike Bunn

1. There are important connections between reading and writing
2. A single word from a text can make the reader feel or respond a certain way. It all depends on how the reader is processing the text.
3.  Examining what you are reading is very important because you may even pick up on a new writing technique the author used in his/her writing.

A quote I really found interesting is when it says “ 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”. I can relate to this quote because often times, whenever I read something and come across good writing techniques, I try to always incorporate it into my own writing. By doing this not only am my gaining knowledge on new techniques, but it helps me develop my skills and turns me into a better writer. These techniques help improve grammar and punctuation.

In the article “How to Read Like a Writer”, Mike Bunn writes “You are already an author.” What the author is trying to convey by writing this quote is simply how we already use reading and writing in our everyday lives. We all have past reading and writing experience. For example, the first thing most people do when they wake up is check their mobile phones. When you go through your messages and social media you are reading whether it be the time, a post, or a message. We write messages to our friends and family all the time. If you are enrolled in school, you tend to do a lot of note taking and write essays. These are just some ways of how we use reading and writing in our daily lives.  I believe that this existing expertise will help me in college because everyday I learn something new. Most of the time, we gain knowledge without even realizing it. For example, if you visit the news app on your mobile phone and start reading any post, you can come across new vocabulary words and new writing techniques you weren’t familiar with before. I always try to take something new that I learned and incorporate it into my writing. That is just how we develop new skills and become better readers and writers. One thing I noticed in Bunn’s article that I  would like to try is asking myself more questions and answering these questions as I write. In the article, Mike Bunn often asked questions about the authors purpose, the readers thoughts and feelings about the text, and the authors’ use of techniques. I believe this is a great way to get people to have a better understanding of what as an author I am trying to portray to the audience.