Category: Intro

As I was reading “How to Read Like a Writer” by Mike Bunn, I came across something that was written which stated “ you are already an author”. In my opinion this means we are able to read and write and this can allow us to learn more skills. Reading someone else’s work can influence us in our own writing. We read and write on a daily basis for example when reading road signs while driving we have to read or even when someone texts us we have to read in order to respond correctly. When you read, this helps you understand how to respond or even decide what you want to include in your writing. Some of the things that I write already are different types of genres, I usually write essays and sometimes short story’s. I’m constantly adding dialogue along with quotes. In Mike Bunns article I noticed that he spoke about “style of writing” which is something I definitely need to work on. It’s quite difficult For me to be humorous or show any type of emotion and tone through my writing but I would love to work on this. I even noticed that he gave many questions we should be asking ourselves as we read such as, do you know the author’s purpose for this? Do you know who the intended audience is? Is the language that the author uses effective? How did the writer stay in my memory? And how did the writer get me to feel? All of these questions are extremely helpful to better understand what we are reading and this can even assist us when we write so we can have many choices and techniques when it comes to our own writing. Reading “How To Read Like A Writer” definitely gave me many choices and ideas of what I should include in my writing. I can’t wait to begin writing so I can try these new techniques and see how it turns out in my own writing.

In the article, “How to Read Like a Writer,” by Mike Bunn, he says “You are already an author “.  I have never heard of this expression. The article begins as a personal essay and as I read, it transitioned to a how-to article all about reading like a writer. I found this article interesting. When reading a book or an article, we read for a purpose, whether it’s for an assignment or for information. Mike Bunn brings an interesting point about how we should read like a writer. He says reading like a writer helps us understand the process of writing. When he says,”You are already an author,” I think he means that we are all capable of being authors. We just don’t realize it, but we can explore these different techniques from different writings and utilize it in our own writings. We already write daily. It can be a post on social media or an essay. If we can read like writers, we learn the new ways of writing, such as starting off with a quote, a question, something personal, or being humorous. 

After reading the article, I realized that I naturally already “read like a writer” somewhat. However, I’ve never really questioned why exactly an author would choose a word. English is a second language for me. When reading a book or an article, I come across words and expressions I’ve never heard of and I would look it up. Reading like a writer has helped me learn new vocabulary words. It has helped me improve my writing skills and communication skills. Identifying some of the words authors choose is one of the ways you can read like a writer, and it’s something I will continue to do so. I unknowingly read like a writer, but going forward, I would look into an authors writing much deeper.

Notes:

• To read like a writer means to examine what you read — what choice did the author make and what choice would you have made 
• Reading like a writer is different from normal reading as it’s a way to figure out texts that are used
• Instead of reading the way you would normally, Mike Bunn suggests to read like a writer to “see how something was constructed so that you can construct something similar yourself”
• RLW is more difficult than it sounds
• We’re focused on what we’re reading about. Now this new way of reading has us examining how the author came up with their choice of words and what technique was used for their writing. 
• Before reading: author’s purpose and audience? — Mike’s purpose is to encourage us to read like writers
• Determine the type of genre in a writing 

When Mike Bunn says “You are already an author” in his article I think he means that you’re the one that writes your own story, and in this case the story is your life. If you really think about it whether it’s from a first or third person point of view everybody is capable of writing and narrating their own life story in a way that nobody else can since you’re the one who experiences everything first hand and there are a bunch of details that only you know of that would be left out if somebody else wrote it for you. Me personally, I occasionally write in a journal or type up wordy posts on this small instagram account I have that all of the people I’m close with follow. Even though it’s usually rants or about controversial topics, this existing expertise will help me with my reading and writing for college and beyond because of the amount of words I learn subconsciously to make my sentences sound more put together as well as always making sure that it’s clear which topic I’m writing about and wording it in a way that’ll grab attention the quickest and keep the reader intrigued (depending on the topic). Something I noticed in Bunn’s article that I would like to try doing with my own writing is add more liveliness to it so it feels like you’re actually talking to me when you read my stuff especially since I’m the kind of person who doesn’t really talk that much in real life, but on paper or a screen I could write/type out a whole storybook cause I feel that it’s easier and less anxiety inducing to communicate and express myself that way so i might as well make the best of it right?