Writing With Something In Mind

           English is probably one of my least favorite subjects. Nothing against English professors or teachers, it's just that I don't enjoy sitting down and writing analytically on a novel. I love to read. That being said, I love reading when I don't have to be constantly keeping track of diction, symbols, syntax, themes, etc. When analysis comes into play; is when a book is no longer enjoyable to me. Novels were written as learning tools as well. Every story has some sort of message or messages to be learned from it. And in English 1101.01 one of our jobs for the research paper was to find a story and analyze the story and its meaning using other sources to back-up our claim. While writing this paper and doing other assignments in the class, I learned things that I will always keep in mind. I learned that when writing the reader should always be kept in mind no matter if the writing is creative or analytical.

Analytical and creative writing have their similarities and their differences. Most importantly, both forms of writing want the reader to stay engaged throughout the whole paper. In analytical papers it’s a lot harder to do that than in creative writing. In analytical papers you have to put all the facts out there for the readers. Leaving them guessing is the sign of a bad analysis paper. On the other hand, creative writing is all about making the reader guess and come to his/her own conclusions. That’s how you keep the reader engaged. My experience with creative writing was small but enjoyable. It’s not often that you get to use your imagination to make something come to life in words. Rhetoric is the last piece to the puzzle for both types of writing. It’s what keeps people reading. (If you are not engaged at this point I’m quite sorry I have not done a good job, but you’re over halfway done so why not keep reading right?)

Rhetoric is all about keeping the readers feelings in mind while writing. You want readers to be able to sympathize with you while reading. In the beginning of this blog I started off by saying, “English is probably one of my least favorite subjects,” right off the bat I am getting those who don’t like English or are more favored to a different subject to be more willing to hear what I have to say. Hopefully, some people are agreeing with what I’m saying by now or else I haven’t learned nearly as much in this class as I thought.

The rhetoric in the creative writing assignment was all about first person views. By narrating in first person, the reader felt more engaged as if it were the reader experiencing the story first hand. The sensory details, vivid scenery description, and thoughts all make the first person point of view come to life. It’s the words that mean the most for rhetoric. In the assignment choosing words that made the view feel first person was the most important part. For analytical papers, the rhetoric is all about having the reader relate to your argument. You want to make the argument feel as if your argument is the right one without forcing it down their throat.

Writing is not easy to do and knowing if something is going to relate with others before being published isn't easy either. Hopefully some of you can relate with the beginning parts and feel that the reader is always one of the main thoughts a writer should have on his mind. If not I would love to hear how I can improve. I believe I learned a lot from English 1110.01 but I know that there is still more to learn.