Monday, December 12, 2016
A long time ago I
taught Primo Levi's short story called "Small Changes" in an intro to
lit class. Many years later my oldest
son went on a youth exchange to Rome where he attended high school at the Liceo
Primo Levi. About this time I bought and
read Levi's The Reawakening (memoirs of
his long journey to repatriation after being liberated from a Nazi camp) and
remembered ever after the detail about how he liked traveling through Romania
and seeing language more like his own.
Some years after
that my second oldest daughter went on a youth exchange to Romania. Last night I gave her a copy of The Reawakening to show her the part about
Levi's travels through Romania, excited that I recognized the name of the city
of Iasi in one of the chapter titles; here my daughter went to church while in
Romania. She read for a bit and noted
with interest that Levi had passed through Barlad--the city where she lived--in
his travels.
The intersection of
the literary and the real, a writer's life and my family's life, gives me a
sense of wonder and kinship. Would it be sign seeking to anticipate that another of my children will cross paths with Primo Levi in the future?
Saturday, December 10, 2016
If a tree falls in a forest and . . .
If
a writer writes a text and no one is there to read it, then what?
Friday, December 09, 2016
Don't take anything I say to seriously.
This
phrase, or one very much like it, appeared in preface to a written
proposal (as in, a written proposal of marriage) by my now husband in
early 1992.
What's wrong with this writing? Yes, it should be too seriously.
What's right with this writing? It and the proposal in which it appeared served the purpose and pleased the audience.
While we
should strive to make our writing as error free as possible, the power
of a text lies in the right message that connects well with our readers.
Thursday, December 08, 2016
Do you know good and well?
N: I write good.
Y: I write well.
Note also that doing well and doing
good are both happy things, and they mean differently.
"I'm doing
well" means I'm feeling physically well, being adequately successful at
whatever, and so on. Other
examples: "She's doing well in
chemistry." "My auntie is out
of the hospital now and doing well."
"I'm doing good" means I'm
performing positive actions. Other
examples: "Rotary does much good
with its water and sanitation projects." "My grandma did good for
many people."
And for fun, look at
the Good and Well Duo, here:
Wednesday, December 07, 2016
This Day I Shall Live in Empathy
I knew a woman in
the early 2000s in Purvis, Mississippi.
Her father was at Pearl Harbor, not on a ship but on the land
nearby. I actually knew her father
casually as well. I had another friend
in Purvis whose husband was at D-Day--not on the beaches, but out on a
ship. When he showed an old picture of a
naval vessel to my then very young son and talked about "the boys"
(=soldiers), my son had some look of surprise, because I think he was thinking
these were children. I could add that my Great Uncle Louis shook MacArthur's
hand.
What do these
brushes with history mean? Well, for one
thing that I'm an older person who was born to older parents and who has known older people.
My advice to you,
then, is to grow old and as you do to talk to older people. Every being is deep with being and stories,
some for share and others not, and when people talk, listen and remember.
Tuesday, December 06, 2016
You Reap What You So to Speak
Metaphorical
expressions can cause trouble (Hillary Price, Rhymes
with Orange).
Metaphorical speech
is part of our reality. We talk about
"hitting the nail on the head," "things going wrong on a
dime," "things can go south in a hurry," and more subtly
"taking a step back" or "cooling off." These are stock
phrases, and they aren't necessarily bad things to use in casual speech. In formal writing, you may wish to avoid
them, or at least use them with very careful consideration, and for sure don't
ever say or write something just because the cool people are saying it.
P.S.: Fun fact. I
have heard that if your technical writing might go into translation, you will
for probably want to avoid metaphorical expression to prevent issues for
translators.
Monday, December 05, 2016
Poohing Poohing and Praising Paraphrasing
You
have probably heard some rule that no more than X% of your paper should
be quoted. You've probably heard that readers often skip long
quotations--or you've done it yourself.
But paraphrasing just so
you're not quoting doesn't seem to serve much useful purpose for your
audience. In fact, a less-than-precise and strained paraphrase can even
obscure the original meaning. That's just from the reader's
perspective. As a writer, if you're like me, you find paraphrasing
difficult to do well, so paraphrasing better be worth your time.
Summaries,
however, are really useful. I have a relative who works for NASA and
is familiar with science and engineering writing. He says the ability
to summarize well is really a gift. I agree!
I think
the best audience-oriented use for paraphrase is to build
understanding. I don't mean "dumb it down"; I mean talk with or write
to your audience in a way that matches the need. You paraphrase in
speech frequently, I'll bet. For instance, this morning my
six-year-old was looking for his jacket. I said to check the entryway
closet. There was a pause, followed by a question like, "What's
that?" I had to think of how to describe the entryway. I thought of
its location to other rooms. I thought of the color of the lighting.
Then I hit on a feature I was sure he would know: the double doors on
the front of the house. He got it then.
What do you think of paraphrasing? Is it painful, to be pitied, to be prized, or what?
Away with Delusions of Inconsequentiality!
I have heard that while it is hypocritical to appear better than you are, it is also hypocritical to appear worse than you are.
The big question is, does my writing matter? Does your writing matter?
A few
thoughts there. The summer between the two years of my MA program, I
was reading poetry and wanting to be a poet. My mum wrote me a letter
praising the power of good writing. I was setting myself up to hear her
say I was a great writer, but the letter continued how my mum treasured
her own mother's constant stream of letters over the year. Oh. There
was a lesson there, the biggest being that my grandmother's letters were
faithful and frequent, but not amazing in the sense of being published
and praised. That said, their intended audience was pleased and
strengthened. Since then I have had the opportunity to write things
that have done some good, for which I am grateful.
Why do you write? For whom do you write? Where would you like your writing to go?
Regardless of your writing aspirations, please consider having some honest aspirations and acting on them.