Category: Unit 1

When Bunn writes “You’re already an author”, he’s trying to somewhat comfort the reader. Not everyone considers themself to be a writer, let alone author. It makes the reader more open to listening and learning what he has to say. We write texts and emails already on a daily basis. We know how to format words into sentences, and sentences into paragraphs, like what Bunn said. We can use our knowledge to relate to how we can read like writers.

I noticed that Bunn created a setting in the beginning of the essay. He put a lot of detail into the setting, getting the reader’s attention. I feel like it was effective being that I was more interested in continuing the read because of the first couple of paragraphs. The only disadvantage I noticed is that it’s a little disappointing when you continue reading. The first couple of paragraphs are almost like if a story is about to be told. And the essay isn’t a fictional story. But I’d take the risk and use that technique because I feel like it was mostly effective, and I personally like it.

Notes: 1) ”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.”- this comparison made me understand better what reading like a writer is. 2) ”Throughout the rest of the essay I’d like to share some of their insights and suggestions; after all, who is better qualified to help you learn what you need to know about reading in college writing courses than students who recently took those courses themselves?”- I like how Bunn included the suggestions of college students, I think it helped him include suggestions he may not known of. 3)”. . . when I read fiction or creative nonfiction, I look for how the author inserts dialogue or character sketches within narration or environmental observation.”- I think this part of the article also helped me better understand what to read like a writer is.

Questions: 1) I think Mike Bunn means when he writes ”You are already an author”, that we are already writers and we have have experience writing since we were in school writing essays and short paragraphs.  Some of the things I write already are short paragraphs for school and for myself, I journal sometimes. I think writing text messages could be included too. That existing expertise will help in my college reading and writing career by helping me better understand why a writer includes a detail/ details in their writing. I think writing a text messages would help me with my writing career since sometimes you write a text message a certain way to create suspense and other emotions. I think journaling would help me with my writing career since it would help me better see what details I should include in my writing. Like details that only relate to my topic. Journaling could also help me include short stories in my writing before writing about my topic to get readers interested. 2) In Bunn’s article I noticed he included a short story in the beginning before he actually started writing about ”reading like a writer” and I would like to try doing that in my own writing. I think it really helped draw me in as a reader and made me want to read more. I would like to write interesting specific details like he did. Another thing I noticed that I would like to do in my writing is Bunn including comparisons and descriptions to better understand what he meant. Example are quotes number 1 and 3 of my notes. I was so lost in what he meant about ”reading like a writer” until I saw these examples, it all clicked once I read them. I don’t think I would be interested in the article without these examples.