Linda Brodkey's Essay 'Writing On The Bias'

956 Words2 Pages

Success isn’t always so easy. Sometimes there are risks and factors that play along to allow for growth. However; personal development is a lifelong process. It’s a way for individuals to assess their skills and qualities, and consider their aims in life to set goals in order to maximise their potential. In order to receive the best outcome; there may need to be obstacles and challenges in the way to prevent an easy route to reach the top in success.
In the essay “Writing on the Bias” by Linda Brodkey describes her growth as a child, and as a writer. Her point of view regulated around the idea that students are taught to write like readers, rather than true writers. This was the first article I had to disagree with. Although, she had great …show more content…

Opinions. One quote I disagreed with was, “It seems to me that middle-class culture, and schooling gratuitously and foolishly rob children of the pleasures of the physical and intellectual work of learning generally and writing in particular” (21). This is invalid. Not everyone grows up around writing, and reading. Sometimes reading and writing isn’t fun for everyone. It can be boring, or even hard to follow. Reading and writing are a choice, not a requirement. Following onto that quote was one of my favorite quotations by Savannah which stated, “I despaired of becoming a writer whenever a grade or comment even hinted I had not learned and meticulously followed all the rules of spelling, punctuation, and grammar” (3). I do agree with this quote because criticism does break down one’s integrity, and devotion to their work to keep on going. If there is continuous negative feedback given, then it prevents writers from continuing on. I have always struggled as a writer, and I do not appreciate receiving negative criticism. However; when I was younger, my parents had always told me that “criticism is the key to success”. In order to succeed, one must fail as an individual to set higher goals, and actions …show more content…

One quote that stood out to me was “I was struggling to express increasingly complex ideas, and I couldn’t get the language straight: words, as in my second sentence on tragedy, piled up like cars in a serial wreck” (2). This reminds me of when my parents would always tell me to keep writing during my younger stages. Sometimes, through my essays I would give up because the words that are in my head wouldn’t spill out. So, I would become stuck and would consistently ask for help. I literally felt like I was stuck behind traffic, and couldn’t get out until an hour later. However, one good point brought up by Bailey was “I believe that school writing and personal writing are completely different, where school writing can be right or wrong but person writing can be anything without any consequence.” I feel like school writing can play a big role in how one may decided to use their words. If there’s a big essay due; there is a high chance that expressing high complexed ideas would be a lot more harder; than through personal writing because the ‘A’ is a lot more important than actually understanding the context. Another quote I agreed with was, “developing writes will grow… if they are able to write for people who are willing to sit with them and help them as they struggle to write about difficult things” (2). This goes along with my

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