R/W responses

Week 1

Vonnegut's article was advice that any writer, good or bad, can use to help improve their work. The two things that really stuck out for me in the article were to find a subject you care about and to sound like yourself. It is always much easier to be able to write about something that you care about or are interested in. If you care about something, it will be much easier to write something more meaningful and compelling to read. As Vonnegut says you will be able to use your emotion and not any super compelling language to get your point across. It also does not matter the length it can be as small as a petition or as long as a novel, as long as it is something you care about.

The other point to sound like yourself is also something I took to heart because I often find myself writing and trying to write something that the reader wants to hear. It is better to write how you want to because its the best way you will be able to get your point across because its your own words. Though I only wrote about these two points, I do think that everything Vonnegut wrote about can help you improve. The only reason I can think of to why he wrote this is, as other people have mentioned, to help people write better. Vonnegut is a very successful write whose advice can help anyone improve.

Week 2

Orwell organizes his essay chronologically throughout his life and his career as a writer. He goes through each major event in his life and talks about how it shaped him as a writer. By including this information, Orwell can help his readers relate to what was going on in the world at the time of the writings. I believe he spends more time discussing certain events but some event might have had more of an impact on his life than others. Orwell said he wanted to turn political writing into an art. He fully discloses his political standpoint through his various writings but that does not necessarily tarnish his writings. The only early experience that I have really brought through life is my desire to build things. Being a civil engineer, my career will be to build new structures, something I have been doing with toys since I was a kid.

Week 3

The section of writing that was most valuable to me was section 3: The Little Green Ball. Whenever I write, I always struggle to go into detail and when I do it is still very vague. Reid really showed how important details are with the example with her class. She told everyone to close their eyes and then with their hands make what they think the size of the small green ball would be. When the class opens their eyes, they see that every one has a different idea of how small the ball will be. Everyone can interpret something differently without detail. This goes for writing also; if you are vague with your detail people will interpret your writing differently. Reid also gave the advice to take your sentences or ideas and give them as much detail as you can think of to better get your point across.