Chris Link's Chapter One Reivew
The
first chapter of our book was pretty much what I expected, a broad overview of
different writing concepts that helps setup what we’ll be working with
throughout the course. One thing that did catch my eye was on the first page
where the author remarked that there are more genres of writing available to us
than the generic “five-paragraph essay or the traditional term paper.” That
line brought me back to AP Lang and Lit where the five-paragraph paper was
almost the only style of writing my teacher had me explore. While I have
written papers in different formats, the five-paragraph essay seems to be the
go-to due to how much I used it throughout elementary, middle, and high school.
On the next page, the topic of reading like a writer was introduced. Personally,
this is the first time I have heard of this method of reading. Hopefully this
is new to everyone and not just a product of a mediocre writing career. While
reading through the chapter, the concept of “writing to your audience” was
brought up. I can see examples of this in a lot of online sites. For example,
there are thousands of Buzzfeed articles that revolve around topics relevant to
their general demographic of teenage to mid-twenties females. This also seems
to occur especially in political outlets such as Fox or CNN. To be quite honest
this was a rather boring chapter to me, but that is to be expected with the way
most introductory chapters in textbooks are. It’s good to be writing again
after not doing so for about six months.
I know exactly what you mean about the term papers or essays. The classes that I loved the most were the ones who broke away from those basic formats and put more fun, interactive ways of writing in the class. Buzzfeed is also a great example of writing to the audience because I cannot tell you how many articles I've clicked on to find out what kind of salad I am or what day of the week is best for me. It is all nonsense but they know that they are just silly enough for people like me to click on them. Also, regarding any news network, they definitely know their audience and try to place facts according to what will please them the most.
ReplyDeleteThat is one thing that caught my eye too. I thought that this class would return to the old-fashioned writing style that we all had to suffer through during grade school. I agree that I know find myself returning to that genre of writing when I have to write essay for my classes. I guess that what the school system does. It brainwash you into staying in that genre. I think your blog would be awesome if you talked about the specific examples of genres like Annie Burton's memoir but I think your reference to Buzzfeed, CNN, and Fox were unique. Great job.
ReplyDeleteLike you, the first couple pages of the chapters really sparked my interest but that was through the types of genre's not just one. While reading your post it made me think back to when all that I would write was 5-page paragraph essays, that was definitely easy but definitely not fun. I did not put to much thought into the idea of reading as a writer but now I have. I also found the introductory chapter not to be super exciting like you but that is understandable. Good post!
ReplyDeleteHaving experience writing the basic and bland 5-paragraph essay format from high school in AP Literature and English, its refreshing to see the varied formats and genres available to be written. Personally, I know about reading like a writer and audience appeal thanks to my high schools creative writing class. I got the chance to write in different genres freely, such as school plays, poetry, and fictional short stories, which were a refreshing change of pace from the 5-paragraph essay genre. I do also agree about the chapter being fairly bland, there wasn't much to really learn from it but I definitely share in your excitement to start writing again.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely agree that classes like AP Lit and Lang have limited my writing style to the typical five paragraph paper. This was pretty much all I was taught in high school to pass the AP exam format. Like you, this chapter brought to my attention the many more types of writing styles that I have yet to explore. I am ready to learn them and be introduced to some of the other formats explained in the chapter. I think almost all of us can relate to this post about our past high school English classes!
ReplyDeleteHi Chris
ReplyDeleteI love the connections you made with the types of essays you're used to writing and what's suggested in this first chapter. There are other ways of writing an essay besides the 5-paragraph formula. Buzzfeed is a great example of writing for an audience and I'm happy you made that connection. Great reflection