We Read Good One Day

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First, my apologies to David Sedaris' "Me Talk Pretty One Day."

Today’s reading list addresses these parallel aspirations. And since the number of books written about reading and writing likely far exceeds the reading capacity of a single human lifetime, this omnibus couldn’t be—shouldn’t be an exhaustive list. It is, instead, a collection of timeless texts bound to radically improve your relationship with the written word, from whichever side of the equation you approach it.   

The Elements of Style Illustrated—Strunk, White &Kalmam 
Bird By Bird—Anne Lamott 
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft—Stephen King 
Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You—Ray Bradbury
 The War of Art—Steven Pressfield  
Advice to Writers—Jon Winokur 
How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One—Stanley Fish 
Ernest Hemingway on Writing—Ernest Hemingway edited by Larry W. Phillips 
How to Read A Book—Mortimer J. Adler & Charles Van Doren

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10 Tips on Writing

1.  The better you write, the higher you go.
2. People who think well, write well.
3.   Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well.
4. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.
5. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of pretentiousness.
6. Never write more than two pages on any subject.
7. Check your quotations.
8.  Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning and then edit it.
9.  If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.
10.   Before you send your letter on your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.

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Yet another benefit of writing!

Writing is a great way to develop ideas, organize thoughts, or document facts…how about improving memory?  Studies have shown that writing involves various cognitive processes, one being the, "…planning processes that construct a preverbal message that corresponds to the ideas a writer wants to communicate."  In order to perform such a task, memory retrieval is often required.  However, writing skills decline when writers must focus on other tasks or there are distractions around them while writing.  The study, Working Memory in Writing: Empirical Evidence From the Dual-Task Technique demonstrates the benefits of writing in terms of memory improvement.  Yet another benefit of writing!  To learn more, read the study: http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/docview/614397750/fulltextPDF?accountid=4485#

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Writing Resources Abound, but Where to Start?

Where to Start? The internet is filled with a variety of websites claiming to provide accurate and helpful advice on writing. By Googling, “Advice for Writing,” you will receive over one hundred and ninety million results, and you may wonder where to start or what information is going to be useful. You may also wonder if any of this information is interesting, or if it is all dry facts about grammar, organization, and spelling. Thus, this post includes links to a few articles that could be useful for many different writers and hold the reader’s attention.

Rachelle Gardner: When Googling for writing advice, the first links that appear may or may not come from sites that are credible. One credible source of advice, though, which many overlook, is the blogs of the writing industry professionals. These blogs do not just cover novel writing. They also include posts on form and grammar. For example, this entry by literary agent, Rachelle Gardner, covers a variety words that are often confusing to writers, such as “lay” and “lie” and “affect” and “effect.” Throughout her blog, you can find many more articles on craft, and since these articles were written not only to inform, but entertain, they are often less monotonous than other sites.

Scott Westerfeld: The blogs of writers can also be helpful for writing advice. Although all authors do not provide advice on form and grammar, many do. In this article, the author, Scott Westerfeld, is aiming more at fiction writers, but his advice can be applied by writers of essays and other papers, too. He discusses “writing your way out” of the rut that you may find yourself in due to conflicting advice. This can be especially helpful if you receive feedback from your professor, your peers, and maybe even one of the writing tutors and need to figure out a way to start your revisions.

PrivateWriting.com: Often, writers come into the center with prompts that are non-specific, saying nothing more than something like, “write an argumentative essay on a topic of your choice.” Brainstorming topics can be frustrating, especially when you have a looming deadline and just want to get writing. For an argumentative essay, if you were to come into the writing centers trying to decide on a topic, a tutor might ask you what your interests are and what topics you find important. If you are struggling on your own, though, to develop a list of topics that interest you, it is not a bad idea to turn to the internet. This link, for example, provides a list of brief topics for argumentative essays that could inspire your final thesis. Lists like this can spark ideas and help you get started.

A Funny Personal Statement: Sample papers also are available throughout the internet. Many of these may not be credible or useful, but even if they are mainly just humorous, they can still provide a reference point for your papers. This link presents an amusing personal statement supposedly written by a student applying for college. Writing style-wise, it may not be the best example, but it does cover an aspect of personal statements that students sometimes forget: to tell what is unique about you. The writer of this sample paper tells about a bit too many “unique” experiences, but papers like this can often remind writers of what they need to include in their own papers.

Worthy of  a Read: This link is a list of humorous writing tips. They are simple tips, but they are ones that can be useful for writers of every style and level. As they are also amusing, they are often easier to remember and apply in the future. 

The OWL Purdue: This list would not be complete without a link to the Purdue Owl website. This site is probably the one that students are directed to the most. It provides information about citations, with example works cited pages and paper layouts. The information is straightforward and generally easy to understand. It is not necessarily entertaining, but when citing, it seems that it is more important to have the information readily available, easy to access, and understandable.

Writing is a difficult task, and finding useful resources to help can also be very strenuous. The internet can be an excellent source, but it is necessary to remember that some sites are more credible, and interesting, than others. The university also provides many resources, with one, of course, being the writing centers, where tutors can also point you in the direction of other writing-related sources and websites. 

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The Write Way

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Watch out for these common word-use errors in your students' writing, and be sure to avoid them in your own writing as well! It is important to remember that although we are writing tutors, we are not immune to making silly mistakes. Just the other day, I learned that a rule I teach my students - effect is a noun, affect is a verb; if you affect something it means you have an effect on it - is not always true! Effect can also be a verb meaning 'to bring about or accomplish'; for example, in the phrase 'to effect change.' The more you know!