Jeff Elliott In class 1

Jeff Elliott

1. “Reading Like a Writer” is much different from the ways in which I have read for other classes. The biggest difference I can think of is that when reading like a writer one must look for techniques that the author used to create their piece of writing. So instead of reading to learn the facts like in other classes “reading like a writer” demands the reader to look for techniques the author used to convey their purpose and whether or not those decisions work or if they can be changed. The similarities between this type of reading and other readings in other classes is that the reader is analyzing the writing in both instances but in RLW the readers is analyzing the way in which the argument is made rather than the content within the argument.

2. In my own written work I make a few choices that readers might identify with. Given that it depends on the type piece I am composing but I like to use quotes for academic papers that relate to my subject, while I use descriptive language or Enargeria in writings that are not specifically related to academic purposes.

3. A few things I would like to try in my own writing, which I noticed in the essay, was his use of questions. In his essay this author asked a lot of questions which he then answered in a structured easy to follow way. I might use this in an argument type paper where I am trying to convince my audience of something.

4. Some ways that a reader can learn about the context of a text before reading it is to think about the timing of this piece of writing. The reader will know the title of the piece so they can hopefully get a sense of what it is going to be about so they can figure out the context of the piece. They can figure this out through their knowledge if anything related to the writing piece has happened any time soon. As well as the audiences own background information on the subject will make up a part of the context as well.