Until now, I had always been taught to use complex sentences and use "descriptive" (a.k.a. long) words in my writing. The more complicated the writing was, the better. It had never occurred to me that, perhaps, the whole purpose of writing is to communicate, as explained in presentation, "The Rhetoric Situation." Rather than spending my time trying to spew out as many twenty-cent words as possible in one paragraph, it is much more valuable to make sure I am understood. It is true that descriptive words are valuable as well, but there is a fine line between "description" and what The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing describes as "pompous writing.
In addition, I have never truly understood the scope of symbolism. After reading Foster's How To Read Literature Like a Professor, it seems everything in literature symbolizes or reflects something else. To make matters worse, Foster even says that it doesn't matter whether or not a symbol is intentional. Even if the author merely needed to kill a character and drowning was the most convenient method, it is a symbol. Symbols are integrated into our subconscious. Authors add symbols to their stories unintentionally as well as intentionally. To us humans, so many aspects of life have some sort of meaning to them, even if we know it or not, so we cannot help but integrate it in our writing. That said, instead of whining about how I think an author simply wanted to write a story and all these symbols are adding too much unintended meaning, I can no longer help but notice such symbols everywhere in the culture around me.
Hi Noah,
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate that you were able to show how the class has already taught you a lot and how it differs with what you have previously been taught. It's great that you said you are able to apply these things outside of class. I thought it was interesting how you said "To make matters worse" when describing how Foster stated that sometimes symbols are added unintentionally. I wasn't sure why it was almost negative.
Hey Noah,
ReplyDeleteIt's great that these first few weeks of AP Lit has taught you many things like the "fine line between 'description' and... 'pompous writing'". Just like you I tried to make my writing sophisticated and complex by writing in a complicated manner and adding large words that sometimes I didn't even know.
I think it would help if you added some examples of how this course has taught you how to look at symbols differently or how your writing has changed because of "The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing"
Great Job, Matt Ko