I thought this quote was interesting because it is so true. While writing, I always think about what specifically I would like the reader to know. In fact, I happened to change the title of my piece if writing for the writing workshop because I felt it gave the read too much information in the beginning. It is also crucial to consider the reader while writing for clarity. Sometimes, something might make perfect sense to the author because they wrote the text, but it may be unclear to those reading.
While teaching writing I think will make up a worksheet for my students to fill out before their writing process begins. The students will need to answer the questions "what do you want the readers to know?" and "how will you tell them this in your writing?"
It is so true that writing is very different than speaking. As writers, we get so much time to think of how and what we want to say. We also get time to take into consideration who our audience is. This is not so at all in conversations. We often fumble over words when we are nervous, but when we are writing, we have the opportunity to make everything flow nicely, or make it pleasant to the ears. I heard recently that good writers's mouths move when they write. This makes sense, because good writers want to know how their writing will sound to the ear. If it doesn't flow to the ear, it will not flow for the eye. I think this is a good rule for writing.
ReplyDeleteI seriously can't stress how big of an issue this is in my classroom. For my final assessment I had my student compose a very short narrative. I did an activity a week before it was due and had them draft up an in-class writing, just to see where they really were at with their ability to write. When I got them back, it honestly was as if they talked through a recorder, and it converted it to text. I had sentences that read "Dat man, he ain't playing dude, and ya she ain't either man fo real." When I talked to the class about this, one boy simply said, "That's how we talk, and that's how we write." Needless to say, your point is well taken and one that should be addressed in classrooms of any age.
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