Readers and fans love to explore the wordplay and puns in his work, as much as he loved to play with words.
What’s in a name? or a word? A lot, and Edward Gorey certainly thought so. In the meantime, I invite you to consider these words from my recent reading. So, I leave it to you to read Strunk and White or the Penguin Writer’s Manual. In the case of my writing group, when a critique is specific, I learn what works and what does not. Be precise, examine word choice, discuss sentences and passages, and sometimes the connections become clear, the author’s intent, the contribution to story. In reading groups and writing groups, I’ve recognized this simple truth Francine Prose has shared so eloquently in her book for readers and writers. How’s that for close reading and close study? Think of it, 3 to 4 pages in a 2 hour class! In this way they “would get through as much of the text as possible - sometimes three or four, sometimes as many as ten, pages - in a two-hour class.” (Prose, p.
Considering how this enhanced and contributed to the story as a whole. Lingering over every word, every phrase, every image. Instead, she “organized classes around more pedestrian, halting method.” No more attempts to describe the experience navigating the fantastic worlds they created. No more attempts to talk about how it felt to read Borges or Poe. No more general discussion of this character or that plot turn. A teacher of literature and writing for over 20 years, Prose learned something about her classes: her students overlooked the language, paying little attention to the author’s choice of words. On Close ReadingĬlose reading means to pay attention to language, sentences, word choice, that is, to consider the text word by word. Francine Prose examines the concept of close reading, and then she discusses writing from its most basic components: words, then sentences, and paragraphs. Learning from literature is the positive model, and it is also the classical model, studying the greats and understanding what makes them great. ( Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want to Write Them, Francine Prose, p.44) In that way, manuals of style are a little like writing workshops, and have the same disadvantage - a pedagogy that involves warnings about what might be broken and directions on how to fix it - as opposed to learning from literature, which teaches by positive model. One essential and telling difference between learning from a style manual and learning from literature is that any how-to book will, almost by definition, tell you how not to write. If you want to write well, study literature.įrancine Prose shares this about writing.
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