In-Formation

Author: hlieberman

Genre…On the Train

Jay street metro tech platform March 25
On the subway
Time: 8:45pm
The sound of a binder clicking open and shut;  papers turning. A man in front of me reads pages from his binders that contains lots of words and tabs.
Diagonally across the cart near the doors, a couple sits. The man looks totally disinterested while the woman talks about something I can’t really hear. The couple get off together  2 stop later.
At this hour the occupants of my cart seem tired and restless, eager to go home and relax after a long day. No one is conversing. Everyone seems preoccupied in a book or their phone.
Of all days when I am seeking something to write about,  suddenly it’s quiet. Go figure. Oh, luckily there are students on the other side that just got on talking but I can’t hear anything except the sounds of voices in a foreign language. They are not talking loud enough for me to get the gist of their conversation. Oh, now their voices have lowered.
Uuuch I just want to get home and take a shower. I feel like my body is covered with a film of airborne dirt from riding the trains. The germs all around me make my stomach churn. Ewww.
Now a Spanish couple came up and about 8 people leave. I can’t even understand Spanish but they speak in hushed voices and are glued to their phone watching a show together while sharing one ear bud……Sadly we have conditioned ourselves to constantly be entertained. Woe to the soul who is unable to text, play games, or watch TV, or think in solitude? Can we ever just allow ourselves to have a breather with technology? I am no better. Look at me. I’m just being a busy body typing about everyone and no one is the wiser. Say, what if the other people were doing the same identical thing I am doing? Close yet so far….
The man with the binder just left with his attaché case. I wonder what kind of documents he was reading?
3 more stops left.
________________________________________________________________________________
April 1st
5:00PM
Grand Central Station platform
A crowded 6 downtown train at 51st
I can barely move
Conversation 1, ” My dad is getting season tickets!”
I am totally distracted. I cannot move. A train was too crowded and I couldn’t get on. Finally I thrust myself into the train…I am goin on, no matter what.
Woman by the door, crammed like a sardine  cries out,  ” is there space for me?
Woman 2 standing beside me responds rather irritated…..”there is a baby carriage behind me, no I cannot move.” and with that, she resumes to her book reading.
I admire her willingness to read. How she can manage to  concentrate, let alone, turn a page when I can barely feel my toe  seems pretty remarkable to me.
Grand Central nightmare now waiting got the 4, or 5 train
There are too many people
A mother and child are separated for a few seconds as she exits the train holding another child. The train remains open While mother grabs for her child. Strangely enough there are no screams. I’m baffled………
I get off and wait across the platform:
The only voice to be heard is the sound of my own, which I admit is rather loud,  “omg is this typical? So many people?”
Random woman in an 80’s do: “Where are you from?”
Me: “I live in NY but not familiar with this”
80’s woman: “Oh it’s everyday. U just get used to it”
On the platform,  an already train approaches slowly. Doors open. Within one second the already crowded train is even more crowded.
MTA Worker: no room people. Step away. No room. Wait for another train.
Next train I am determined to enter. I don’t care I am late
Doors open
Passengers scurrying getting off and me along with others are mad dashing to enter. I am late for school.
The train makes announcements. I’m too preoccupied with everyone’s breath on me. Eeeek. I seriously need to shower and it smells. Why is this mans elbow in my face? I let go of the pole to record this all. Oh the woman with the 80s look is getting off. She sat in a single seat that always screeches a loud sound as it lifts up. Today there are too many people to even hear that sound. Kinda like the tree in a forest but a ridiculously incomparable fact pattern. As people leave I am literally pushed aside until make a deliberate mad effort toward the seat in the upward position.
Yesssssssss! I make sure that’s mine and thankfully there is no competition to sit. Now that is a New City miracle especially for a city that is always on the go.
Screeching sounds making its way all the way down. I see so many pole holders. Everyone is tired and just like me,  want to get home, but I’m going to school instead. Oh the investments I make for a brighter professional future. I best be going. I hope the lady with the fragrant bouquet leans her flowers toward my face so it can at least overcome the putrid odor….. great she is now standing right near me. Hallelujah

Don Murray

1. How does Murray define writing? What is its purpose?

Writing skills is the process of using language to articulate an experience  in a thought provoking level of deep and profound literary communication.

 

2. Talk about what Murray means when he uses terms like “discovery” and “ignorance.”

Writing enables the writer to experience the discovery of meaning through their writing.  Rewriting engages the writer’s creative juices in its quest toward self discovery, or getting lost in their work, the characters, themes and plots that take many twists and turns during  during its creative and imaginative process.  Many such discoveries occur during the literary revision process.  Many feel  the shame and “ignorance” of not knowing what to write. The author personally knows colleagues who cannot believe that many successful writers created masterpieces  without knowing what they were going to write, let alone how the story would develop.

 

3. What is “product” vs. “process”?

Prewrite- everything that takes place before the first draft…85% of the writer’s time

Write- producing the first draft…takes the least amount of time

Rewrite-reconstruct subject, form and audience

The best process is to begin writing and students need to feel the teachers are confidant and not be the judge.

 

4. What is “internal revision”? What is “external revision?”

Internal: writers should have a lot of information through the brainstorming and researching process and select or reject words to arouse the discovery process of what they are writing about.

 

External: editing and proofreading  and making sure there is a logical, clear and concise writing piece.

 

5. Explain, in your own words, what Murray means by the following: “content,” “form and structure,” “language.”

 

A writer should use descriptive language that not only makes sense to the reader, but also encapsulates whatever the author is trying to convey in a clear, logical format.