What’s Nature Got To Do With It?
I am taking a course in writing technology, and the last thing you would imagine as a topic is how natural writing can or cannot be. Our teacher for this course had us come up with a writing project. We were asked to make twenty words or less using any tool that was natural and did not involve high technology. This means we could not use computers, paints, or markers. In discussing what we could use, the class quickly broke down the options. It appeared almost impossible. We got nothing. This is where begging and pleading for ideas came in to play, and perhaps our instructor is a little financially better off if someone offered him a bribe, who knows.. How could it be done? Why? What would we learn about such an unnatural task that would even relate to the topic writing technology?
What I learned rather quickly was that these very questions were all apart of why the assignment was given. What at first seemed to be a pointless exercise really answered these questions in a profound way which I want to share with you today. My hope is that you too get a renewed appreciation for writing and it’s history.
In the essay from Pencils to Pixels, Dennis Baron details the world’s journey from the use and making of the pencil to the computer. Barron states that the pencil wasn’t originally intended to be used as a writing device. There’s a bit of information you probably hadn’t heard before. Yes, pencils were actually adopted as a tool by “note takers.. ..scientists...and others who need to write”. They were taken from artists and adapted it for use as a writing tool ( Dennis Barron 44).
And so, in engaging in my project, I found myself thinking of how I could adopt a natural tool and adapt that tool to my writing task. I first thought about writing some letters in water, but I could really find no natural container to hold the water. I could have used some sticks or some type of colored liquid and take a snapshot of it, but there was no natural platform to hold the water. This was not going to work.
Writing with Readings and Handbook. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2013. 52-57. Print.
Glaspell, Susan. Trifles. Literature and the Writing Process. Eds. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X. Day, and Robert Funk. 4th Ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice, 1996. 999-1008.
This assignment is a testament of growth and contributed to my outlook on strategies towards improving my writing through the importance of understanding how crucial, each component of the writing process is and how in depth you should take each process. Lastly, this reflection advocated how editing is the principal task of every good writer. “To write is human, to edit is divine,” Stephen
In a well written paragraph, analyze which genre, historical fiction or informational text, better develops their ‘characters’. Choose one character to focus on and provide text evidence. Make sure you include evidence from both works to support your reasoning.
Recently, I have been writing quite a few essays and papers throughout my college experience. This entails, but not limited to, English, History, and Economics. My style of writing and methods have generally remained the same throughout the process. In this assignment, I will be discussing how I prepare to start a paper, what my thoughts are through the process, and my strengths and weaknesses of what my final drafts look like.
Upon asking a random individual in what they thought of when they heard the word fairy tale, the response I received involved "princesses, pixie dust, castle 's and princes," all elements that Walt Disney specifically highlighted in his renditions of fairy tales. Although these elements exist in the Charles Perrault or Brothers Grimm tales, they were not dramatized as largely as in
All three examples above serve as first steps to the larger world of literary theory and criticism. Writing prompts like this ask you to examine a work from a particular perspective. You may not be comfortable with this new perspective. Chances are that since your instructor has given you such an assignment, the issues in question will be at least partially covered in
My analysis over the development of my writing throughout this semester. I will assess many aspects of my experiences with English 1301 up to this point in the semester. I will explain the ways by which I have blossomed as a writer during this time. I will provide brief examples of my work to show what I am basing the evaluation of my writing on. What my conceptions of writing were, at the start of, the semester and compare it to what they are now. I will clarify how my work this semester reflects the concepts of writing and reading we have been working on and studying in class. I will tell about what and how particular reading assignments have been influential in my growth of creative ideas. Lastly, my interpretation of what it means to be a writer, and how my experiences this semester has influenced my opinion on writing.
Without delay, I begin my in-depth look into the requirements of this study and what was expected of me, as an English 111 student. To successively complete these assignments, I would need to be focused on the process of such writing assignments. Along with the instructor’s ideas that our writing would be done in such different ways it will eventually consume every waking moment of my time and become top priority for the next four months.
Unlike any other form of literature or entertainment, Fairy Tales help children to discover their identity and suggest experiences needed to develop their character. In Bruno Bettelheim’s “Life Divined from the Inside” Bettelheim states that “Fairy Tales intimate that a rewarding, good life is within one’s reach despite adversity-but only if one does not shy away from the hazardous struggles without which one can never achieve true identity (Bettelheim 106). Anne Sexton’s “Cinderella” is a perfect example of Bettelheim’s definition of a Fairy Tale.
Meyer, Michael, ed. Thinking and Writing About Literature. Second Edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001.
Writing can be a very difficult process for those who do not know how to go about constructing
The Children’s and Household Tales, more commonly known as Grimms’ Fairy Tales were first published in 1812 by the Grimm brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm. Although the title suggests otherwise, the vast majority were not intended as children’s tales. Containing violence, gore, and suggestive references, the stories were not well-suited for children. The stories were didactic at a time when discipline relied on fear and were written as “warning tales” for children. What made the stories so memorable were the many uses of figurative devices used to enhance them. The use of characterization, imagery, theme, and symbolism helped make the simple narratives beautiful, striking, and
Zipes, J. (2007) ‘Why Fairy Tales Stick: The Evolution and Relevance of a Genre’ Routledge: New Ed.
The social role of fairy tales during the time of the Brothers Grimm was to amuse and communicate morals to a wide audience. The Grimms’ were innovative in the way that they created fairy tales, as well as delivered them. The Brothers Grimm did not write the fairy tales themselves, but rather collected folk stories from citizens of nearby towns and cities in Europe. The people who contributed stories were both upper and lower class. The people came from diverse cultures as well as different genders and ages. Because of this, many of these stories have deep roots in European heritage. (Zipes Legacies 5) The Brothers collected the folk stories and produced many volumes of fairy tale books. The fairy tales in these books proved to be very educational to not only children but rather they taught morals to all people who read them. There are many examples of fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm with morals that would have resonated with the people in the 1800’s (Joosen). However, there is some controversy as to whether the Brothers Grimm changed the historic stories that they collected, therefore giving them a different social role