WEEKLY REQUIRED WORK
These are time sensitive. You do not receive credit if you write them after the deadline each week.
First, there's a blog entry (about 250 words) which will have you respond to a hopefully thought-provoking question. Each week, you must do the blog entry with enough time left in the week to be able to enter into dialogue online with your classmates. Write, reply, write more, reply more, and then write and reply more.
Second, there's a reading. There’s no blog entry associated with this. Just read.
Third, there's a written response to the reading. Your reading and writing on the blog must be completed by the SATURDAY (by midnight) of the week in which the reading falls. This entry should be a long paragraph. YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESPOND TO OTHER STUDENTS' PART THREE EACH WEEK.
Orwell’s essay states each sentence should be as simplified as possible. Writing should not be redundant. The reader shouldn’t have any trouble reading what is written. A clear picture should come to mind when reading a passage.
ReplyDeleteTwain says each sentence should have a purpose. A tale should not wander. Each statement should tie together to form a well-written tale. Twain’s rule number seven was original. “He shall not talk like a Negro minstrel at the end of it.” I failed in means that I cannot explain that.
Elmore was focused on the tone of writing. Dialogue should be written with the word “said.” There’s no reason to get creative with subbing the word “said” with synonyms. Exclamation points make a person sound angry or obnoxious to the reader. Reading should be *calm*. Therefore, dialect should be calm.
I think that even though most of these writing rules are basic, many students still struggle with most of them. I think some of the most important advices given are the ones that talk about how to express in your writing. People just focus on trying to put the idea on paper and they leave out the grammar part because it is the most difficult part of writing. We tend to use a less variety of words than we would if we were to revise a text. We also tend to ignore the effect of a word and with repetition this becomes a problem because it turns a text boring. The advice that we should not put an exaggerated amount of details is very important because besides the story, details grab the attention of the reader but they can also bore the reader. The characters of a story are also very important and we should be very careful in the way characters act and express themselves because they develop the story.
ReplyDeleteMy most important rules for writing are to express everything you want to say no matter how long a text becomes, unless there is a word limit for the text. I also think is very important to be specific in your writing but to add different words to prevent your text from being boring. Finally, I think is very important to get the reader by having a clear picture of your ideas in your writing
Mark Twain was such an intelligent man. His eighth entry, regarding “crass stupidities” made me laugh aloud, mainly because this is a rule often broken today, especially in fiction. Another hilarious entry was that personages should be alive, unless of course they are corpses. Elmore Leonard’s rules were more direct, (albeit less comical). I disagree, somewhat, with his opinion of avoiding great detail in describing people, places, and things. I feel it is often necessary, especially regarding places, to be very detailed in order to transport the reader to that world. I suppose, however, it is a matter of opinion as to what constitutes a “great” amount of detail.
ReplyDeleteWhat I gathered from these three rules of writing is be clear, concise and to the point. Dont beat around the bush and dont over describe (I dotn care if there is a old chair in the corner with flower print on it). The parts I tend to skip in books is when the setting is being described in more than one paragraph. This is where I struggle in my writing because I am very to the point and because of that I find it hard to write longer papers. I can take a ten page paper and easily make it a three page paper AND it'll probably be better than the ten page one. But for me to take a three page and turn it into a ten page... ha! I will fail.
ReplyDeleteOne of the rules that stuck out to me was "dont use anything other than 'said' when writing dialog" and "youre only allowed two to three explination points per 100,000 words". ???? What if Im writing about a heated argument? If I was unable to use the words "shout", "yelled" "cried" along with the corresponding punctuation, my argument would not have the effect I would like it to have on my readers.
I agree with the writing rules. I feel that as Orwell's essay tells us, that it is crucial to know what you are writing and that it is clear to the reader. I agree with Mark Twain, that it is crucial to keep conversation realistic and have the characters dialect reflect the region where he/she is from. You can not have a character from the South speaking like a New Yorker, it makes the story unbelievable. I, however, do not agree with Elmer's Leonard rule which states, "Avoid detailed description of characters," I think that is the most important part. As a reader I want detail, I want to be able to close my eyes and imagine the scene. I feel that a good story should elicit your senses and the only way to do that is by using details. The rule that I feel is the most important is the one by Mark Twain where he states that the author should captivate the reader and make him love the protagonist and hate the antagonist. The books that I consider the best are always books that make me feel hatred and dislike toward the antagonist but make me admire and sympathize with the protagonist.
ReplyDeleteThese three text helped me understand that writing is about being easy to understand and fairly quickly get to the point. I always believed that details were the most important part of writing, but after really thinking about the rules given, I see that too much detail can be boring. Readers want the story to be straightforward and to the point. This is something I struggle with when writing. I will over describe everything because I believe everything is important (even though it is not). Therefore, my essay are always incredibly long and probably very boring. I feel that I disagree with the rules that says "avoid detailed descriptions of characters" and "don't go into great detail of describing places and things." I feel that these topics can be over described, but other time NEED to be described in a detailed manner. How else can we picture and visualize a certain person, place, or thing in a book?
ReplyDeleteOrwell's reading taught the importance or simplicity, Twain's reading focused on being straightforward, and Elmore wrote how to keep a good tone and mood to your writing. All three readings gave excellent rules to keep in the back of your head when writing and reviewing your work.
Out of the three essays I can identify with the first essay form Orwell the best. I feel as though I am challenged by writing in the worst sort of way. Orwell’s steps are really the only guidelines that I could see myself following. They seem to be very matter of fact and to the point. The other two essays by Twain and Elmore are much more involved. They seem to be rules with lots of different variations that could be perceived differently based on the reader. The theatrical version is better for certain types of writing; just the same as the simple facts told in chronological order can be just as affective. Elmore seems to have rules that are one of a kind. I have never heard of most of them nor do I understand why he follows them. It seems to me that when telling a story you should utilize some of those rules, so that your reader better understands the background leading up to the story. Novels should have background on their characters. Also, the should use of the word said and not using adverbs to better describe the action and the feeling that goes along with it seems meaningless. All of my feelings on the last two essays I would love to see change. Maybe I have just not had the opportunity to read work that follows those sets of guidelines and would truly like the style.
ReplyDeleteAll of the readings had information that can help me with writing, as well as improve my understanding when reading literature. The first reading by Orwell stood out to me the most because I feel like I can use that information and apply it to my writings. Orwell talks about being concise and using simplicity to get to the point. Sometimes I feel the need to use longer words when a short one will do and Orwell demonstrates to go with the shorter word. However, I do not agree with never using a foreign phrase or scientific word because sometimes it is necessary for a character to say a line that consists of a scientific phrase to get the message across. I also agree with Elmore Leonard’s rules of writing saying that one should not go into detail of describing things or places. When writing it is not necessary to write a whole paragraph describing what an object in the home looks like because it is not important. However, I do not agree with having to avoid detailed descriptions of characters because giving the reader a detailed description of a character draws the reader more in, allowing the reader to get a picture of what the characters look like. My most important rules of writing are to be concise and thorough with what I say. To have supportive evidence that supports the thesis within my paragraphs, that relates to what I am talking about.
ReplyDeleteFrom the three different readings, my favorite was the first one: Orwell’s essay. I can relate to all of the questions and rules mentioned in the first reading. I struggle at writing and expressing my ideas. I am not sure of how to say what it is that I want to say or what words would correctly express my thoughts. The following two readings helped to answer some of my insecurities and struggles with writing by listing clear rules of what to do and not to do when writing. The rules were obvious, but many of them are rules that I have struggled with many times.
ReplyDeleteMy own rules about writing are to: 1. Have organized thoughts/ideas 2. Make obvious, clear and smooth transitions between thoughts/ideas 3. Be consistent. After reading these excerpts I noticed that my rules about writing are too general. For my future writings I plan to base my writing off some of the rules and questions.
After reading, I feel I can relate to Orwell's essay. Every question he asked is something I would ask myself when I am writing. I sometimes think I make my writing too complicated or too simple to understand. Maybe that was Orwell's point; that as writers we try to get perfection when it comes to our writing, but there are certain rules we must follow in order to write well. We want to write well and we want people to understand what we are trying to say through our writing. I sometimes feel that I do not know how to get to that point in my writing because I did not know all the rules when it comes to writing. This rule made complete sense when I read it and I liked it a lot, "If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out." I can really apply Orwell's rules to my writing, so that I do not over think it and make more mistakes.
ReplyDeleteMark Twain's essay talks about how the author must interest the reader through detail and form of expression. The readers should be able to understand and connect with the tale. For Twain, writing should be simple and straight forward. Elmore Leonard's rules for writing are short and all about what you should not write. Leonard's rules were very specific on what words not to write or how many exclamations you should be allowed to use. Elmore Leonard's rules are not rules I could follow just because I do not agree with some of them. For example his rule on "describing places", I do not understand why you should not describe them. I would think that you need to describe those things when you are writing a story. The detail is what helps readers picture what places look like. It also allows the writer to describe a place from their own perspective.
It was very interesting "getting to know" these writer's processes and how they went through their many writings. For me, having rules for my writings is not as important as getting my message across. While I completely understand that there are definite rules that have to be followed while writing, I don't always see the need to have pre-writing rituals or a set template to go off of. This was always a struggle for me in High school and other lower English classes where outlines were required. For me, I always found it much easier to start writing and allow my message to appear with the first ideas that I have. I saw this in Orwell's first four questions, I would say that I always go into a writing prompt or task with most of those questions in mind. Who am I writing for, what do I want them to know and what is the best way for them to get this information; these would be some changes I would make to Orwell's initial question. Another item that stood out to me would be from Leonard's rules for writing. While not in my academic writing, but in my more day to day use and personal use, I often find myself over using the exclamation mark. It was interesting to read the "rule" that Leonard created. I will definitely be paying more attention to this in the future.
ReplyDeleteWhile all three essays relay an eerily similar message, it is somewhat comical that it is said in totally different ways with the same end result of say what you mean clearly, effectively with little to no frills. The process of excess in hidden meanings, descriptions of every minute detail and words a reader may or may not understand are all ways to lose the attention and interest of the reader. These can cause a reader to skip portions of text which completely defeats the purpose of the author, use someone else’s interpretations of the text (i.e. Cliff Notes) or lose all interest in the book entirely. It is interesting that an author would take into account these possibilities during the writing process in a critique of their own work as well as the works of others. As an avid reader I find that stories that are filled with technical jargon, slang and/or regional dialect included within the text often leaves me easily distracted from the meanings intended by the writer. There is a time and place for these techniques but in the case of getting the reader to enjoy a well-written story they are oftentimes unnecessary and unwanted. Less can really be more. It can give the reader the opportunity to create in their own minds characters, places and scenery according to their own interpretations. This is not to say that all writers should focus on only simple language, lackluster and dry but it goes to show that going overboard when not necessary can lose its purpose.
ReplyDeleteI agree that in all three essays it is stressed that author's should cut out un needed details and should opt for a short everyday word. In Orwell's essay it is stressed that the author should be asking what he or she wants the reader to understand from the reading. Twain's essay it is said that is should be straight forward and to the point. The last essay, Leonard wants the writer to not be so descriptive of characters or surroundings. I would have to agree with some of the rules but disagree with others. Like for example, all three writers expressed how if the writer can delete some words than they should and rather go with a short word than a long descriptive one. But in the part I disagree is when in Leonard's essay it is stated how there shouldn't be so much description in character's and surroundings. For myself, descriptions helps me picture the charcters, the setting of the story/essay, and even the tone. Another rule that stood out to me was how in Leonard's rules the writer should always use "said" and no other word should be use. If the story includes emotion and the writer want to provoke emotion to the reader then a stronger word must be used. My important rules of writing are to always make sure that to follow the prompt, be descriptive if needed, and proof read it several times.
ReplyDeleteThe basis of writing from when they were first establish till now, are still implemented in every aspect of writing. The "rules of engagement", to writing an essay, article or a research paper follow these rules or guidelines of conciseness, generalizability and interest. Orwell's rule of writing demonstrates perfect exemplary of today's reading and writing criteria. It shows that even the lowest intellectual man can make the best and smartest writing.
ReplyDeleteAlthough people are taught about these rules of writing, it is not something that comes naturally, nor does it remain in our minds forever. I believe that Orwell's rule of writing have been underrated for its' true value of writing, which is simplicity. And that people try to exaggerate what needs to be said. I, myself, who fall in between the category of people sugar coding his/her writing and skew off of our true intentions, require more practice and comprehension of reading and writing. Hence, I believe that with my enrollment in English 305 and the help of my peers, I can better achieve the state of serenity when it comes to writing.
These readings are very interesting. When I read those rules, each author’s rules brought me to different type situation of writing. Orwell’s rules are direct, straight, and technical. These rules are so handy when we write a non-fiction type of writing, such as writing my MBA papers. I will absolutely use these rules as my guidelines when I write my term paper or synthesis paper. On the other hand, these rules might limit my way of writing a little bit when I write a fiction story. I used to be an active blogger, I like to write freely. Twain’s has given me more detail and clearer on what I can do and what I cannot do in writing a fiction story even though some of his rules are similar to Orwell’s. I cannot agree more with his first rule: “A tale shall accomplish something and arrive somewhere.” Before we write a story, we have to know where we are going. It is so important that the story will not go to anywhere else. Twain’s rules about how we describe a personage are really helpful. This personage part is brilliant. There has to be a consistency among personage’s character that an author describes with how he or she behave, and with how an author brings up the conversations. Elmore’s is my favorite. To satisfy my curiosity, I dig more about this rules in the internet. The last three rules: avoid detailed descriptions of characters, don’t go into great detail describing places and things, and try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip, remind me to the reason why I stop reading Danielle Steel’s novels. The way Steel describes her personage is too long, it can take several pages. I can skip several pages without missing the story. Well, my opinion is really subjective. It might be just her style of writing. She is a good author with a ton of readers. The rules of using exclamation point and “suddenly” are also interesting. I agree with Elmore that the use of the word “suddenly” will trigger a writer to use more exclamation points. I think the reason is because it involves the emotion of the writer.
ReplyDeleteThese writers all have some valid rules for writing but I would say that Orwell had the most useful and realistic rules with the questions he asked himself. Those are the similar questions that I ask myself when I write. I try to make the story flow well, use simple English and proper grammer, and try to think from the reader’s perspective since they are taking the time to read it. You want to keep the reader interested. This is where Mark Twain’s rules became somewhat ridiculous. He believed that stories should be realistic and full of possibilities, but I believe that stories like fiction and sci-fi allow the reading to expand their imagination which is important. I rather get lost in a book about wizards and vampires rather than cowboys or business affairs. I also think that Elmore’s rules are not as helpful as Orwell’s. He doesn’t want the author to describe the characters or details much, whereas Twain recommends describing them completely. This is where we should meet in the middle. Writers should explain the characters and settings well enough to give the reader some sort of ground work so their imagination can do the rest. I like to know enough about the characters personality and brief description so I can imagine what they would look like and the places they visited.
ReplyDeleteAll of the writing passages have deep meaning and thought behind their chose of words. They are very interesting to read and think about why they would say those things. After reading, two of my favorites were "Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous", and "Never use the passive where you can use the active" from Orwell's essay. I think these are interesting and important because he is trying to say breaking those rules would be better than writing something that has nothing to do with the remains of the writing or just doesn't need to be said at all. I like the rule about using active instead of passive. I think its just a good reminder to consider when righting. All the writers had rules that would help advise a writing what would help and not help for their writing. Some people go into too much detail and Elmore Leonard has rules against it. I love that he made a rule regarding exclamation points. Many of my rules for writing is, say what you are trying to say. I know people and mostly professors reading papers or writing with to many unnecessary words to sound smarter than they are. It starts to become overwhelming and obnoxious. I try to remember to not let me sentence become to long. I have a natural habit of wanting to continue with my sentence and without realizing it can become a run-on. The last rule I have for myself is, write something I would be proud of and know I put effort in.
ReplyDeleteI agree with most of these writing rules. I have always believed that it is best to write as concisely as possible and dislike having to expand my writing to a required page count when fewer pages could cover the topic sufficiently. I have never done a great deal of fiction writing, so I am not that familiar with many of Twain’s writing rules. I do agree with him that characters in fiction should speak like real people, I have read a few books in which the characters did not seem real because they did not talk like normal people, their language was often too formal to feel natural. I enjoyed reading Elmore Leonard’s final rule for writing “try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.” This is not a rule that I have ever considered, but I really like it. There are many times when I read something and get bored half way through, so I try to skim until it becomes interesting again. This is something that I will definitely try to avoid in my writing.
ReplyDeleteMy personal writing rules are fairly simple. I believe in using appropriate grammar and spelling. I try to keep my writing as short as possible, and not to use excessive language. Though I have been known to make mistakes of my own, I know that I tend to be critical when I read others writing, especially in social media. This is especially true when it comes to the usage of the words there, their, and they’re; to, too, and two; and especially then and than.
Orwell’s rules for writing are about the questions that writers should ask themselves. Writers should use clear effective words. These words and writings should be simple, short and straight to the point. It should be easy for others to understand what the writer is trying to say. Twains rules for writing consist of a lengthy list compared to the others rules. Twain believes that parts and words of a story should help improve it. The parts of the tales should be interesting and go fluently with the tale. I found his rule #10 “The author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and their fate; and that he shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones” to be interesting and stand out. It stood out because I personally find this in most of the books I read. The authors do a good job making me root for the good characters and against the bad ones. Also, #17 “use good grammar” stood out to me because I struggle when it comes to grammar. Leonard’s rules for writing seem to be the shortest and most direct. He uses the phrase Do not in most if the rules. One of his rules was to never use the word “suddenly” which I often do. Also, he talks about how detailed descriptions should be avoided. I thought detail was a good important aspect of writing. I personally don’t have any of my own rules for writing. I just try to do what I am taught and write a good paper that my audience will like. All of these rules don’t give explanations, which has me a little confused on some of them. Maybe I will learn more about them through this class.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing that caught my eye about all of these essays was that they said to either do, or not do, something that I was told the opposite when I was being taught to write.Well, except for the Orwell portion. I was actually able to agree with pretty much all of what he claims. Twain's portion was rather, different...and surprising. As I got to number 7 on his list, I had to take a step back and think, "What!?" then laugh. That was very descriptive and maybe offensive towards some. Number 8 was unexpected for me. I understood it as saying that unexpected endings or "inception-style" endings are a "no-no." I actually happen to enjoy forms of entertainment, written or not, that have surprising endings and make you go, "What!?" Number 18 was also surprising, for I was taught to be simple, but descriptive. I mean, how boring and bland would some writings be without detailed descriptions? Also, Twain's portion was anything but simple and straight forward, just take another look at number 7. Leonard's portion was small and decent, but once again, made me rethink of the way I was taught. Leonard's 3rd point was to not use other words to substitute saying, "said." I was taught to be "colorful" with words and to try and substitute basic words for others. Points 8 and 9 also were contradicting to how I was taught since I was taught that in order to get a "feel" of a work, details and descriptions are needed in order to grasp the reader's attention.
ReplyDeleteRelating to some of these points, I recognized a few topics that stood out to me. Predominantly, I noticed that Orwell went into the subject of long words that can be cut short or cut out completely. I tend to be long winded when describing my thoughts or opinions. Realistically, most people tend to not care with the long explanation of things. I also enjoyed what Twain wrote describing that we should "use the right word, not its cousin." I found this not only humorous, but also a necessary point to make. Most people will use words that make no sense in their conversation, however they feel it is correct. Even I catch myself occasionally speaking out of term or saying something that doesn't make any sense. As enjoyable as the points were to read, writing should have a sense of structure. The topics in the reading may seem rigid to some, but to others they are a necessary evil.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Orwell said about asking yourself four simple questions that evaluates and critiques your writing throughout the writing process. I have never done this before but I believe that if I were to give it a try my papers would come out so much better than they currently do. I also like his list of rules. Especially rule number 2, which states that we should never use a long word where a short one will do. I have a habit of trying to think of big words that I hardly understand and putting them in place of a shorter and easier to understand word. I personally have never had a set of writing rules that I thought to be “most important.” I usually just write the best that I can while making sure that my spelling and grammar is okay. I somewhat disagree with of Leonard’s rules of writings. For instance, what does “never open a book with weather” mean? And I don’t understand why he says that we should never use any other verb besides “said” when writing dialogue.
ReplyDeleteI believe all three writings are intertwined with one another. The over all message they were trying to get across was that writers should not make writing difficult. For example: getting straight to the point, using everyday words, and cutting out unnecessary details. What stood out to me in Leonard’s rules for writing was “Avoid detailed descriptions of characters”. In the past, when I have written fictional essays, I have gone into great detail about characters. When I read books I enjoy knowing important details of characters such as their background, personality, and their physical description. Because of those details I am able to picture the character as a person, thus making my reading more vivid. My most important rules of writing is creating a structured outline of my paper and follow the prompt. As well as having someone else proof read it before turning it in. I will consider using these rules of writing for my upcoming essays.
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