Mike Ness In Class 1

1. When reading for other classes the content of what is being writing is way more important than the writing style itself. In every other course I'm taking I don't read what is required of me in the context of reading like a writer. I read the content to obtain facts or to reflect on the idea the writer is trying to demonstrate. For example when reading my "History of New York City" book my sole objective is to gain the knowledge of what happened in New York at a certain time and perhaps what those events led to or what led to the events themselves. I don't read the book and ask myself questions like what style is the writer utilizing nor do I feel the need to pick apart every sentence.

2. Reflecting on my own writing which is a difficult thing to do in and of itself I realize that I sometimes use too many similes or metaphors as a catalyst to get my point across. Other writers may also realize when reading my writing that I sometimes don't make my point clear. I find myself sometimes getting off topic and this makes the reader wonder what my initial point was.

3. This essay somewhat made me realize the importance of genre. What I would like to do is become excelled in every genre and when someone experienced in writing reads my work can make a clear distinction immediately on what genre I'm attempting to portray. As the student "Mike" in the essay says, when he is reading certain genres he looks for symbols within the writing as cues to understand the writing better. I would like to be able to understand and use the symbols specific to every genre to better my writing. I think that the better one understands genre the better they could make anything they write.

4. The best way to obtain the context of what you are reading is to have some background knowledge on the writing. Therefore to obtain the context you must obtain background knowledge. You must ask the appropriate questions such as why the author is writing what he's writing and who is the author trying to attract to this specific piece of writing.