I'm sorry if you think that my handing out writing tips means that I am bragging about my personal prowess as a writer. This is not the case. At least, I don't want you to think it's the case. Also, I am very well aware that the writing demonstrated here (on my blog, that is) isn't my best writing. I often overlook grammatical/spelling errors and hardly ever proofread because this is for fun. If it were to be graded, I would want it graded on content, not on proficiency.
All that being said, I'd like to think that I'm good at this for a junior in high school, and I just feel like giving a few helpful hints that have gotten me through some of the more difficult essays in my time. Although, I'm sure the majority of you don't actually need these, because most of you are over forty. (Hello, parents.) But I digress. You get my tips anyway, whether you want them or not, so there!
1. Your voice is always important. Whether you're writing fiction, a memoir, an assigned essay, or a research paper, your voice needs to come through. Voice is important because it makes your essay different than everyone else's. You may have the exact same thesis and support as someone else, but your voice is what makes the paper interesting. It can show why the subject matters to you or establish familiarity. Effective voice should be like somebody reading your diary; don't be afraid to air your feelings.
2. BE CAREFUL with your support/research/facts. I had to do an enormous research paper for AP Lit last year, and I didn't get as high a grade as I had hoped because of citation issues. Make sure that you know EXACTLY what your teacher expects for citations BEFORE you turn in your paper. You don't want to accidentally plagiarize because you forgot to cite something that you thought was just common knowledge. If a bibliography/works cited page is required, take your time to do it carefully and don't just rush through it. After the research paper debacle, I took to finishing my bibliographies first to make sure my brain wasn't fried from writing so much and I missed things. In addition to watching citations, make sure that the information you gather is legit. That means no Wikipedia. Your best bet is to go to the library and try to find a book in addition to online research. Also watch out for bias and make sure you address it if it's obvious. Other people's opinions can get tricky when you're trying to convert them into your own work.
3. If you're writing something persuasive, DO NOT USE PERSONAL PRONOUNS. This is hard, because the paper is supposed to reflect your opinion, right? Right. But using personal pronouns isn't formal and it distracts too much from the content of the paper. Your audience becomes caught up in what YOU think rather than what you want THEM to think. It also makes your argument sound shaky and weak if you continually use phrases like "I think" or "I believe". Just eliminate those altogether. So if your argument is "I think turkey bacon is a much healthier and tastier alternative to regular bacon", change it to "Turkey bacon is a much healthier and tastier alternative to regular bacon". Remember that the audience is reading YOUR paper, so it's obvious that these are your opinions already.
4. Character development is key in writing fiction. I am not so great at writing fiction, but I can tell when it's done well. (Rhyming!) If you're writing from a first-person point of view, the reader should feel like the main character is his or her best friend. If you're writing a love story, the reader should understand perfectly why the main character loves whoever it is he or she loves. The antagonist should be just as developed. It should be apparent WHY he or she is against the hero/heroin. Take Voldemort. JK Rowling has 7 extremely thick books that develop characters beautifully. Voldemort is no exception. Her readers know exactly why he is so evil, because she takes the time to build his character and give him more dimensions than pure evil. I'm not saying you have to have 7 books to your name in order to establish effective character development or anything, just that it takes some time and some serious thinking.
5. Conclusions should "stick it". While I was watching the Olympic trials, it occurred to me that the gymnasts never looked happy with their performances unless they stuck the landing. No matter how flawless the routine had been, the landing is the most important part. The conclusion is often what the reader remembers the best. It can't just summarize everything you've already told them, because that's boring. A conclusion truly needs to hit home with your audience. It should explain the so-what of your thesis. Why is this important? What's the point? Conclusions are HARD. They take time to master. I suck at writing conclusions, because after writing an entire essay, I just want to wrap it up as quickly as possible so I can turn it in. Try to figure out the so-what before you write your paper. If you have multiple drafts to turn in, do your best the first time around and ask your teacher for help in making it more effective.
I hope that this was at least mildly helpful to someone out there. If you're over forty, hopefully you already know these things, but I appreciate you bearing with me anyway, as usual.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Sunday, August 12, 2012
The Importance of Endings
Today, I am fueled by the three cups of very strong coffee I consumed with my breakfast and the literary insight that can only come from trying to do my AP Lang homework. (Two days in a row! Is this real life?)
Key word: trying(!) to do my AP Lang homework. Perhaps it's the three cups of coffee, but I'm finding myself very easily distracted by basically everything, including my portable lap desk. It has a very pleasant surface, you see, so I often find myself doodling in the corners of it when I get bored with my real work. Today, it started with scribbling down a song lyric that was stuck in my head, and led to the writing of my favorite quotes from novels. And it occurred to me that practically all of these quotes were the last lines of my favorite novels. So, I'll warn you now that if you think you can figure out the ending of a book from the last line, you should stop reading.
However. That warning is just dumb, because the last lines of a novel (when they're written really, really well) almost never give away the plot of the book. And maybe I only think this because I've read all of these books. But honestly, unless I told you, would you be able to guess where "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past" comes from?
It's from The Great Gatsby. Now, if you've read this already, you understand how freaking awesome this last line is. But if you've never read it before, it just looks like a highly literary metaphorical-type statement. Which it is. But there's no way you can guess the plot of the book from it. Make sense? I don't know if I'm making sense. Blame the caffeine.
Basically, the point I'm trying to make is that the novel as a whole makes the last words important. If you read the last line first, it doesn't really mean anything until you read the whole book. So I'm not really giving out spoilers here, I'm just reflecting on the literary brilliance of last lines. Which you won't even really understand without reading the whole book anyways.
Anyway. Some of my favorite last lines come from the work of John Green (I mean, duh). He has this way of wrapping up the conflict of the main character in one sentence. Like at the end of An Abundance of Katherines, it reads: "And he was feeling not-unique in the very best possible way". HERE IS WHERE THERE ARE GOING TO BE SPOILERS. If you've read Katherines, you know that the main character struggles throughout with this desire to be special. He feels as if he's peaked and has nothing to offer other than his extensive knowledge of things that have already happened. He reflects upon the fact that most child prodigies, such as himself, never grow up to be geniuses. This last line summarizes how he has come to accept this. Go read the book, okay? It's a lot more awesome when you read the book.
I assume the majority of you have read The Book Thief, and if you have not you need to stop whatever it is you are doing immediately and go read it. I'm serious, stop it. Right now. Go. I'll wait.
For those of you that have read it, you know that it is narrated by Death. This makes the last line SO COOL. "I am haunted by humans." ISN'T THAT BRILLIANT? Sorry, is my nerd showing? Blame my enthusiasm on caffeine. But WHY is it brilliant? Because it's deliciously ironic, that's why! Is this a paradox? I'm pretty sure it's a paradox. I don't know, my vocabulary is a little rusty this time of the year. DEATH is haunted by HUMANS. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around? It's genius even if you haven't read the book. But, of course, it's even more so when you have.
So what point am I trying to make here? I don't really think I am, actually. I just started geeking out about endings and thought I'd share it with you, Internet. I just love endings. All kinds of endings. Happy, ambiguous, melancholy. ALL THE ENDINGS. Also, endings are really difficult to write. Even when you're just writing an essay for English class, the hardest part is always the conclusion. How do you sum up everything you've already said without repeating what you've already said? It's hard! Endings just reveal the brilliance of the writer. Heck, I consider myself pretty good at this, and I still wrestle with endings for frakkin' blog posts. Like anybody actually cares that much. So let's just say that there is much to be appreciated in an ending, like there is much to be appreciated in the book as a whole.
...
The end.
Key word: trying(!) to do my AP Lang homework. Perhaps it's the three cups of coffee, but I'm finding myself very easily distracted by basically everything, including my portable lap desk. It has a very pleasant surface, you see, so I often find myself doodling in the corners of it when I get bored with my real work. Today, it started with scribbling down a song lyric that was stuck in my head, and led to the writing of my favorite quotes from novels. And it occurred to me that practically all of these quotes were the last lines of my favorite novels. So, I'll warn you now that if you think you can figure out the ending of a book from the last line, you should stop reading.
However. That warning is just dumb, because the last lines of a novel (when they're written really, really well) almost never give away the plot of the book. And maybe I only think this because I've read all of these books. But honestly, unless I told you, would you be able to guess where "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past" comes from?
It's from The Great Gatsby. Now, if you've read this already, you understand how freaking awesome this last line is. But if you've never read it before, it just looks like a highly literary metaphorical-type statement. Which it is. But there's no way you can guess the plot of the book from it. Make sense? I don't know if I'm making sense. Blame the caffeine.
Basically, the point I'm trying to make is that the novel as a whole makes the last words important. If you read the last line first, it doesn't really mean anything until you read the whole book. So I'm not really giving out spoilers here, I'm just reflecting on the literary brilliance of last lines. Which you won't even really understand without reading the whole book anyways.
Anyway. Some of my favorite last lines come from the work of John Green (I mean, duh). He has this way of wrapping up the conflict of the main character in one sentence. Like at the end of An Abundance of Katherines, it reads: "And he was feeling not-unique in the very best possible way". HERE IS WHERE THERE ARE GOING TO BE SPOILERS. If you've read Katherines, you know that the main character struggles throughout with this desire to be special. He feels as if he's peaked and has nothing to offer other than his extensive knowledge of things that have already happened. He reflects upon the fact that most child prodigies, such as himself, never grow up to be geniuses. This last line summarizes how he has come to accept this. Go read the book, okay? It's a lot more awesome when you read the book.
I assume the majority of you have read The Book Thief, and if you have not you need to stop whatever it is you are doing immediately and go read it. I'm serious, stop it. Right now. Go. I'll wait.
For those of you that have read it, you know that it is narrated by Death. This makes the last line SO COOL. "I am haunted by humans." ISN'T THAT BRILLIANT? Sorry, is my nerd showing? Blame my enthusiasm on caffeine. But WHY is it brilliant? Because it's deliciously ironic, that's why! Is this a paradox? I'm pretty sure it's a paradox. I don't know, my vocabulary is a little rusty this time of the year. DEATH is haunted by HUMANS. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around? It's genius even if you haven't read the book. But, of course, it's even more so when you have.
So what point am I trying to make here? I don't really think I am, actually. I just started geeking out about endings and thought I'd share it with you, Internet. I just love endings. All kinds of endings. Happy, ambiguous, melancholy. ALL THE ENDINGS. Also, endings are really difficult to write. Even when you're just writing an essay for English class, the hardest part is always the conclusion. How do you sum up everything you've already said without repeating what you've already said? It's hard! Endings just reveal the brilliance of the writer. Heck, I consider myself pretty good at this, and I still wrestle with endings for frakkin' blog posts. Like anybody actually cares that much. So let's just say that there is much to be appreciated in an ending, like there is much to be appreciated in the book as a whole.
...
The end.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
HI I'M ALIVE
So it's like almost 4 o' clock in the afternoon and I've only been up for like 4 hours and I've done zero productive things today. Heck, I'm still in my pajamas. Hence the post.
HELLO! I am not dead or in a coma or anything tragic like that, I'm just a lazy ass who watches too much Sherlock and Glee reruns and spends too much time on tumblr and twitter and youtube. This is why there has been no posting for a while. Summer! I have also not been home for three weeks total this summer, though not all in a row or anything ridiculous like that. I went to New York with my youth group in June and I went to camp in mid-July, but I realize neither of those hiatuses (hiati? That's not right.) are good excuses for not posting. I also realize that all the Tom Daley tags on tumblr in the world should be keeping me from blogging, but like I said, I'm lazy.
So I'm sitting here trying to figure out what I spend my days doing during the summer, and I can't actually think of anything interesting. It's basically an endless cycle of internet/TV/other brain rotting media that is no doubt awful for me. Occasionally I do fun things like actually leave my house to go watch movies, but that costs money. OH YEAH! I have a job. That's what I do. But that's only like two days a week. But it's kind of productive. As a matter of fact I'm going to work in like an hour. So I should probably get dressed or something.
Um. I've also been running. Cross country every morning now, woot! (?) I'm team captain this year! Well, team co-captain, but we don't have to go there.
I've been trying to get at least some AP homework done, but I have an internet connection so it isn't working out too well. I know a lot of people like hang out with their friends in the summer and stuff, but not a lot of my friends drive yet and sometimes I feel like summer is a nice break from friends, where you have an excuse to be like "Yeah I love you and all but I don't really feel like talking to you or hanging out with you now that I'm not required to see you every day". Obviously that sounds a lot more harsh than I mean it to be. Bottom line: if we're friends, we're friends, and as much as I love spending time with you, I also love not having to get dressed all day.
Anyways. I'm going to go take a shower and all that jazz so I can go to work without being completely disgusting, and I'll try to post again later this week if I happen to do/read/see something interesting.
HELLO! I am not dead or in a coma or anything tragic like that, I'm just a lazy ass who watches too much Sherlock and Glee reruns and spends too much time on tumblr and twitter and youtube. This is why there has been no posting for a while. Summer! I have also not been home for three weeks total this summer, though not all in a row or anything ridiculous like that. I went to New York with my youth group in June and I went to camp in mid-July, but I realize neither of those hiatuses (hiati? That's not right.) are good excuses for not posting. I also realize that all the Tom Daley tags on tumblr in the world should be keeping me from blogging, but like I said, I'm lazy.
So I'm sitting here trying to figure out what I spend my days doing during the summer, and I can't actually think of anything interesting. It's basically an endless cycle of internet/TV/other brain rotting media that is no doubt awful for me. Occasionally I do fun things like actually leave my house to go watch movies, but that costs money. OH YEAH! I have a job. That's what I do. But that's only like two days a week. But it's kind of productive. As a matter of fact I'm going to work in like an hour. So I should probably get dressed or something.
Um. I've also been running. Cross country every morning now, woot! (?) I'm team captain this year! Well, team co-captain, but we don't have to go there.
I've been trying to get at least some AP homework done, but I have an internet connection so it isn't working out too well. I know a lot of people like hang out with their friends in the summer and stuff, but not a lot of my friends drive yet and sometimes I feel like summer is a nice break from friends, where you have an excuse to be like "Yeah I love you and all but I don't really feel like talking to you or hanging out with you now that I'm not required to see you every day". Obviously that sounds a lot more harsh than I mean it to be. Bottom line: if we're friends, we're friends, and as much as I love spending time with you, I also love not having to get dressed all day.
Anyways. I'm going to go take a shower and all that jazz so I can go to work without being completely disgusting, and I'll try to post again later this week if I happen to do/read/see something interesting.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)