Uses of Language

At the Hoover Institution website is an article about George Orwell, his use of language, and why the preservation and use of the English language is important. The article is titled "Orwell's Instructive Errors" and was written by Liam Julian.

The article discusses what Orwell had to say in his essays about the use of language and also how Orwell himself used language in some of his writings. One of the essays referred to is "Politics and the English Language".

These two pieces are of interest for political reasons, but also for the use of both readers and writers.

I don't agree with everything Liam Julian said. For example, in the following paragraph he seems to think right-wing extremists are the same as conservatives, which is assuredly not true.

It is, certainly, not only denizens of the left who theorize and euphemize their way out of inconvenient situations. The staunchest apologists for the worst elements of British Empire were conservatives, and now, as in Orwell’s time, it is conservatives who lean most heavily on theory to explain away indigence and squalor as inevitable in a free society and thereby rid themselves of responsibility to alleviate the burdens of the impoverished. Certainly America’s foremost racists are found on the right, and they have all sorts of theories. And yet such justifications — whether of racism, imperialism, neglect of the poor, or even creationism — currently have but parochial appeal. The left is in power now, and so it is that today’s most influential and worrisome euphemizing comes from the left.

Regarding racism in particular, it is people like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and, yes, Barack and Michelle Obama who keep racism most alive in America. They are not found on the right in America. Nonetheless, the article has some interesting things to say about the uses of language.

One Writer's View

In 1946 George Orwell published an essay called "Why I Write". In it, he discusses why writing is important for him and what it involves. I thought you might like to read the essay and see what you think. How does what he says differ from your own thoughts about why you write?

Arts & Letters

There is a website called Arts & Letters Daily that you might enjoy looking at. It's full of links to articles, book reviews, and essays. Down the left sidebar is a long list of various types of links, as well.

Some things you'll like and some you won't, but there's a lot of variety there. In the many links, you will probably discover some interesting websites that will appeal to you.

Enjoy!

Some Really Good Writing Tips

Would you like some really good writing tips? Ones with examples? I found some at Segullah, a Mormon women's literary journal.

On this page, you will find not only information about their essay contest and their poetry contest, but scroll down a bit and you will find "Writing Tips" with 7 blog posts giving some excellent tips for writing essays and poetry and for finding ideas. For example, in "Unleash Your Inner Poet!" you will find five examples of how not to write poetry. If you aren't sure what is meant by sing-songy verse, sentimental poetry, rhetorical poetry, didactic poetry, or obscure poetry, you will find examples of those here. In "The Beginning from the End", you will find examples of essay beginnings and endings that show you how you can improve those in your own writing. Read all 7 blog posts and see if you find tips that will help you with your writing, no matter where you intend to submit it.

While you're there, look around Segullah and do some reading. There's a lot of good writing there!

Essays and Articles

The Writing Show has a podcast called "Writing the Personal Essay" that you might enjoy. The guest is Sheila Bender and she talks about different aspects of writing personal essays.

While you are educating yourself on politics and economics with all the current crises, you might want to take the time to notice how the reporters and pundits structure their articles and essays and how they reference their sources. It will help you with your own writing.

An Essay on Writing That You Might Enjoy

I decided to Google "essay on writing" and see if I could find something that would be of interest to you. The very first link provided an essay about writing that I really think you will enjoy reading. It is "On Writing" by Peter Landry.

If you are like me, you enjoy reading about writing as much as reading about how to write or reading good writing of all types. The essay is liberally sprinkled with quotes from writers about writing.

I also ran across another essay titled "The Age of the Essay" by Paul Graham that discusses the essay itself.

I hope you will enjoy these.

A Method of Composition

I ran across an intriguing essay at Bartleby the other day. It's called "The Philosophy of Composition" and was written by Edgar Allen Poe. In this essay, Poe writes about his composing of "The Raven". I had always pictured him in a gloomy mood of an evening with, perhaps, a raven perched outside his window when he wrote the poem. Not so. Who knew?!

This is a fascinating look at the writing of a poem and it isn't done in the way that we think of poems being written, but it may well provide you with some insight and a different way to go about your writing, at least some of the time.

Some excerpts:

Nothing is more clear than that every plot, worth the name, must be elaborated to its dénouement before anything be attempted with the pen. It is only with the dénouement constantly in view that we can give a plot its indispensable air of consequence, or causation, by making the incidents, and especially the tone at all points, tend to the development of the intention.

There is a radical error, I think, in the usual mode of constructing a story. Either history affords a thesis—or one is suggested by an incident of the day—or, at best, the author sets himself to work in the combination of striking events to form merely the basis of his narrative—designing, generally, to fill in with description, dialogue, or autorial comment, whatever crevices of fact, or action, may, from page to page, render themselves apparent.

I prefer commencing with the consideration of an effect. Keeping originality always in view—for he is false to himself who ventures to dispense with so obvious and so easily attainable a source of interest—I say to myself, in the first place, “Of the innumerable effects, or impressions, of which the heart, the intellect, or (more generally) the soul is susceptible, what one shall I, on the present occasion, select?” Having chosen a novel, first, and secondly a vivid effect, I consider whether it can be best wrought by incident or tone—whether by ordinary incidents and peculiar tone, or the converse, or by peculiarity both of incident and tone—afterward looking about me (or rather within) for such combinations of event, or tone, as shall best aid me in the construction of the effect.

And:

For my own part, I have neither sympathy with the repugnance alluded to, nor, at any time, the least difficulty in recalling to mind the progressive steps of any of my compositions; and, since the interest of an analysis, or reconstruction, such as I have considered a desideratum, is quite independent of any real or fancied interest in the thing analyzed, it will not be regarded as a breach of decorum on my part to show the modus operandi by which some one of my own works was put together. I select “The Raven,” as the most generally known. It is my design to render it manifest that no one point in its composition is referable either to accident or intuition—that the work proceeded, step by step, to its completion with the precision and rigid consequence of a mathematical problem.

And:

Holding in view these considerations, as well as that degree of excitement which I deemed not above the popular, while not below the critical, taste, I reached at once what I conceived the proper length for my intended poem—a length of about one hundred lines. It is, in fact, a hundred and eight.

And:

These points being settled, I next bethought me of the nature of my refrain. Since its application was to be repeatedly varied, it was clear that the refrain itself must be brief, for there would have been an insurmountable difficulty in frequent variations of application in any sentence of length. In proportion to the brevity of the sentence, would, of course, be the facility of the variation. This led me at once to a single word as the best refrain.
The question now arose as to the character of the word. Having made up my mind to a refrain, the division of the poem into stanzas was, of course, a corollary: the refrain forming the close to each stanza. That such a close, to have force, must be sonorous and susceptible of protracted emphasis, admitted no doubt: and these considerations inevitably led me to the long o as the most sonorous vowel, in connection with r as the most producible consonant.

I will leave it to you to read the rest of the essay, but I assure you it is quite fascinating to read of the rather mechanical way in which Poe composed "The Raven." And yet, it is very effective. Perhaps you will find some useful ideas here.

Literary Science and Nature Writing

I have been thinking lately about literary science and nature writing--how enjoyable it is to read and the possibility of writing in that genre. My inspiration was these posts by Patricia Karamesines at A Motley Vision blog.

I have found an online essay by Barry Lopez in which he discusses what nature writing is and something about its evolution. He mentions many books and authors, so his essay will also give you plenty of material to try out at the library. I don't necessarily agree with some of his statements, but overall it is a good essay and a thought-provoking one. His opening paragraph reads:

In recent years, partly because of a tendency in market-based economies to niche all information, but also in response to a relatively sudden awareness of the social and political impact environmental legislation and thought have had on American society, people have come to speak of nature writing as a distinct, even emergent genre. It is more accurate, most critics assert, to say we are witnessing a resurgence in the genre; and, setting it alongside other genres, it is arguably more helpful to see it as that strain of American literature that, more than others now, is pursuing the ancient discourse on human fate.

A later paragraph says:

The philosophical roots of this work, obviously, lie with Thoreau and Emerson, and the genre includes elements of misanthropy (often, in my view, exaggerated) in people like Edward Abbey, Robinson Jeffers, and Loren Eiseley. But, again, it is hazardous to try to maintain strict bounds. Certain writers frequently cited as nature writers bring with them an additional emphasis -- Wallace Stegner's citizenship, say, or Gary Nabhan's ethnobotany. John Muir, though central to any definition of nature writing, is also considered a focal political figure; Aldo Leopold, another pivotal figure, is not literary enough for some, while Thomas Merton is often regarded as peripheral because his writing is too "spiritual." (I would argue that Merton, more than any other contemporary prose writer, maintained the tradition of spirituality in American writing now thought to be integral to nature writing.) And, in any given critical article, we may learn that, say, Mary Austin, author of The Land of Little Rain (1903), like Susan Fenimore Cooper, author of Rural Hours (1850), has just been "rediscovered" as a nature writer.

It's an interesting essay for those who would like to learn a bit more about nature writing and have some examples of authors to explore.

Henry David Thoreau is probably the nature writer who leaps to everyone's mind when considering this category--I know I enjoy reading his writings. I haven't read a great deal of science and nature writing, but I did read some selections in my anthology classes in literature.

There are any number of ways to go about producing literary science and nature writing. One can emphasize facts or one can emphasize personal observation. One can write poetry, essays, or fiction. Some travel writing could fall into this category, as well. The genre interests me, though, so I will be sampling some various authors and styles and perhaps tackle some writing myself. Also, see my post here at Scholar and here at By Study and Also by Faith, my other blogs, for more on this topic.

Messages in Your Writing

Should you use your writing to promote pet causes? Probably not. However, if you're writing posts on a blog, that is likely the whole point of your writing--to promote certain ideas or to teach something or spread the word about a viewpoint. Essays also might be written for the express purpose of showing why a specific idea is good and to provide supporting evidence for it.

When it comes to fiction and poetry, though, you probably will do well to not overtly promote a cause, although your worldview will probably spill into your writing somewhat. At least it wouldn't be lecturing or preaching that hits the reader over the head or bores the reader silly.

Your writing will have a theme or themes, and that might very well be considered something of a promotion of a cause. There will be some sort of conflict (Man vs. Himself, Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature) and the way that is resolved may illustrate your views of one thing or another. Perhaps the best we writers can hope for is to be reasonably subtle and to tell a darn good story to illustrate our view.

The more I think about it, the more I think that in everything from theme to word choice, a writer likely gives away at least some of his opinions on things, but again, if it is subtle and there is a good story over all, it won't be a problem. Writing should capture the reader's attention and interest, not annoy the reader. Let any ideas or opinions or viewpoints flow naturally from the characters and the story, and you should be able to do it all.

"What Is a Classic?"

As long as I am recommending old essays from Bartleby.com, I must recommend, to readers and to writers both, the essay "What Is a Classic?" by Charles Augustin Sainte-Beauve.

This essay is Sainte-Beauve's attempt to define classic literature, or at least to provide some sort of guide or definition so that we may find our own classics. He begins by saying:

A DELICATE question, to which somewhat diverse solutions might be given according to times and seasons. An intelligent man suggests it to me, and I intend to try, if not to solve it, at least to examine and discuss it face to face with my readers, were it only to persuade them to answer it for themselves, and, if I can, to make their opinion and mine on the point clear.

He then discusses various definitions and various writers. What makes them classic, or are they really classics at all?

In paragraph 7, Sainte-Beauve gives us what he would like to see as the definition of a classic:

A true classic, as I should like to hear it defined, is an author who has enriched the human mind, increased its treasure, and caused it to advance a step; who has discovered some moral and not equivocal truth, or revealed some eternal passion in that heart where all seemed known and discovered; who has expressed his thought, observation, or invention, in no matter what form, only provided it be broad and great, refined and sensible, sane and beautiful in itself; who has spoken to all in his own peculiar style, a style which is found to be also that of the whole world, a style new without neologism, new and old, easily contemporary with all time.

Then in paragraph 24, he has this to say:

Such are our classics; each individual imagination may finish the sketch and choose the group preferred. For it is necessary to make a choice, and the first condition of taste, after obtaining knowledge of all, lies not in continual travel, but in rest and cessation from wandering. Nothing blunts and destroys taste so much as endless journeyings; the poetic spirit is not the Wandering Jew. However, when I speak of resting and making choice, my meaning is not that we are to imitate those who charm us most among our masters in the past. Let us be content to know them, to penetrate them, to admire them; but let us, the late-comers, endeavour to be ourselves. Let us have the sincerity and naturalness of our own thoughts, of our own feelings; so much is always possible. To that let us add what is more difficult, elevation, an aim, if possible, towards an exalted goal; and while speaking our own language, and submitting to the conditions of the times in which we live, whence we derive our strength and our defects, let us ask from time to time, our brows lifted towards the heights and our eyes fixed on the group of honoured mortals: what would they say of us?

I found this an interesting essay, and there were portions that inspired me in both my reading and my writing. I hope you will find it inspiring and interesting, as well.

Night Reading

I found, at Bartleby.com, a delightful little essay on reading late at night. It is an old-fashioned essay written in the early years of the twentieth century. The essay is "Bed-Books and Night-Lights" by H. M. Tomlinson.

Mr. Tomlinson writes about the delights of reading late at night by a single candle. He also writes about which books are not good to read at that time and in that situation and which are.

He begins:

THE RAIN flashed across the midnight window with a myriad feet. There was a groan in outer darkness, the voice of all nameless dreads. The nervous candle-flame shuddered by my bedside. The groaning rose to a shriek, and the little flame jumped in a panic, and nearly left its white column. Out of the corners of the room swarmed the released shadows. Black specters danced in ecstasy over my bed. I love fresh air, but I cannot allow it to slay the shining and delicate body of my little friend the candle-flame, the comrade who ventures with me into the solitudes beyond midnight. I shut the window.

That paragraph makes me want to be cozy inside with a candle and a good book! More about reading by candlelight:

As the bed-book itself should be a sort of night-light, to assist its illumination, coarse lamps are useless. They would douse the book. The light for such a book must accord with it. It must be, like the book, a limited, personal, mellow, and companionable glow; the solitary taper beside the only worshiper in a sanctuary. That is why nothing can compare with the intimacy of candle-light for a bed-book. It is a living heart, bright and warm in central night, burning for us alone, holding the gaunt and towering shadows at bay. There the monstrous specters stand in our mid-night room, the advance guard of the darkness of the world, held off by our valiant little glim, but ready to flood instantly and founder us in original gloom.

The wind moans without; ancient evils are at large and wandering in torment. The rain shrieks across the window. For a moment, for just a moment, the sentinel candle is shaken, and burns blue with terror. The shadows leap out instantly. The little flame recovers, and merely looks at its foe the darkness, and back to its own place goes the old enemy of light and man. The candle for me, tiny, mortal, warm, and brave, a golden lily on a silver stem!

Mr. Tomlinson goes on to discuss various types of books that will or won't do for late night reading, then concludes this way:

But best of all books for midnight are travel books. Once I was lost every night for months with Doughty In the “Arabia Deserta.” He is a craggy author. A long course of the ordinary facile stuff, such as one gets in the Press every day, thinking it is English, sends one thoughtless and headlong among the bitter herbs and stark boulders of Doughty’s burning and spacious expanse; only to get bewildered, and the shins broken, and a great fatigue at first, in a strange land of fierce sun, hunger, glittering spar, ancient plutonic rock, and very Adam himself. But once you are acclimatized, and know the language—it takes time—there is no more London after dark, till, a wanderer returned from a forgotten hand, you emerge from the interior of Arabia on the Red Sea coast again, feeling as though you had lost touch with the world you used to know. And if that doesn’t mean good writing I know of no other test.

Because once there was a father whose habit it was to read with boys nightly some chapters of the Bible—and cordially they hated that habit of his—I have that Book too; though I fear I have it for no reason that he, the rigid old faithful, would be pleased to hear about. He thought of the future when he read the Bible; I read it for the past. The familiar names, the familiar rhythm of its words, its wonderful well-remembered stories of things long past—like that of Esther, one of the best in English—the eloquent anger of the prophets for the people then who looked as though they were alive, but were really dead at heart, all is solace and home to me. And now I think of it, it is our home and solace that we want in a bed-book.

I recommend the entire essay--it's not very long, but it has a certain charm for those who like to read.

Biographical Essays

A couple of posts ago, my friend, Barb, commented that she likes to write autobiographical and biographical pieces. These are usually essays, but might be written somewhat like a short story with description and dialogue and so forth. I looked through my writing links and didn't find anything that particularly addressed this type of writing, although sites about essay writing should be helpful.

I did a search on "writing biographical essays" and came up with California Writing Project, which is geared to teachers of junior high and high school students, but still provides some information and how-to's on writing what one might call character sketches. It's a 23-page pdf file, so you could save it to your computer with Adobe if you like it.

This paper has quite a bit of information and some fill-in-the-blank forms to help you gather information. It even talks about how to write an autobiographical or biographical poem, which would be an interesting project. There are a number of books and websites listed at the end that would be helpful, too.

I hope that Barb and the rest of you will find it useful and helpful. Sometimes even just one or two bits of new information can spark ideas in your mind to use in your writing.

Getting Started with Essays

Essays are more or less what we post on our blogs. We write a lot of them in school, at whatever educational level we are. There are many websites that can offer help, usually affiliated with universities, but sometimes not.

One site I've run across is Essay Info. It offers Basics of Essay Writing, Writing Guides, Essay Types, Citation Styles, Presentation Writing, and Business Writing (see the left sidebar on the site). It should give you some help in starting to write essays, or in polishing the essays you already write.

Guide to Grammar and Writing also offers you some help with essays and with grammar. Click on "Index" in the middle of the page for a list of what they offer.

An example of a university affiliated writing website is O.W.L (Online Writing Lab) from Purdue University. Click on "The Owl at Purdue" at the top of the screen and look at the list in the right sidebar for the topics that interest you. You can also do a little searching and find such writing helps from your favorite university. For example, see "Other Online Writing Centers" here.

These types of sites can give you some quick grammar advice and some basic essay writing advice that will help you polish your own writing. If you are like me, you write without any very formal method and, while that is fine most of the time, there will be times when a subject is important to you, or you know there will be arguments against your view, and you want to put more effort into writing a finely tuned essay.

Most of us are good at Googling by now, but I like to highlight sites that I think may prove useful to you. Still, if you aren't satisfied with these suggestions, you could run a search of your own. Enjoy!