Jose Vera

Instructor Robert McDonald

English 1010
30 June 2015
Writing
The art of writing can be a very strong form of expressing emotions. It can set free even
the most hidden of thoughts and serve to uncover unknown ones, but like all other variations of
art, it is difficult to master. For it to be effective and reach its full potential, it requires
knowledge, and most of all, a reason to write. This can be to relay information and entertain a
certain audience, to immortalize memories, or to dig through the mind and discover its mysteries.
While writing is usually thought of as a simple and straightforward task, in the following
literature review, eight different articles on writing will be contrasted to present the complexity,
and most of all, the utility of writing.
Each author takes a different angle on writing. While some give advice on how to write
efficiently, others talk about how writing can emancipate and serve as a median to enter the
metaphysical realm. Nevertheless, it is common for many people to think of writing as a burden
and, consequently, all inhibition on writing must first be lost.
Most people in their early academic life have had bad experiences with writing due to
their teachers inappropriate teaching manner, resulting in a distaste, and sometimes hatred,
towards writing. In the article The Importance of Writing Badly, Bruce Ballenger disputes that
the vast majority of us have had some sort of figure in our life who has tormented us due to bad

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writing. It, in some cases, convinces people to praise the error-free sentence, while in others it
makes them lose faith in writing and dread classes that demand much of it. The author goes
about presenting this idea by introducing the character in his life who influenced his ideas, Mrs.
ONeil.
This is the unforgettable figure that everyone has had in their life inexcusably demanding
good writing and error free sentences. Mrs. ONeil has made everyone think that writing is
more about how you present it, perfect grammar and structure, rather than about the ideas meant
to be expressed. It restraints a students mind by giving exaggerated attention to making the first
sentence perfect instead of letting the ideas flow onto the page. The author hypothesizes that
when a teacher permits his students to write badly, they are free to express themselves how they
please. While this may sound simple, even writing the first assignment can be an exhaustingly
difficult goal to achieve for someone who has been haunted by such a figure.
Though well-structured writing does matter, the author believes that when students
prioritize it over what theyre trying to communicate in the first place, the quality of the content
suffers. Writing is an opportunity for students to discover even what they didnt know they knew,
its an opportunity for self-exploration. While the authors intent is not to excuse bad grammar, it
is an incentive for students to prioritize the ideas they want to transmit. The end result is more
important than the process, however awkwardly words might seem to appear on the page in the
beginning (Ballenger 28).
When a writer is solely focused on grammar, it becomes impossible for words to flow
onto the page, and in return, many of the authors thoughts are lost in the attempt. Ballenger
disputes that words should be able to flow from the mind onto the page for the writing to be the
best it can be. In Writers on Writing: Family Ghosts Hoard Secrets That Bewitch the Living

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by Amy Tan, a clear example of how this flow happens can be found. The story revolves around
the complicated and confusing life of the narrators mother as she writes her obituary. The
narrator, whose name is never revealed, accompanies her while she on the brink of life and death.
Following the discovery of some of her mysteries and her later passing, the narrator was inspired
to revise the novel she had been working on. Her editor advised her to reassemble the whole
thing and to find the heart of the story. Thanks to what she uncovered and by the epiphanies
experienced in the process, she decides to scrap everything she had written, and to write about
what she uncovered freely. (Tan)
For writing to be meaningful, a meaningful message needs to be expressed, and when this
message is filtered excessively, thoughts are inevitably lost. Writing should be a continuous flow
of ideas, at least in the beginning, for it to actually be significant, but it doesnt stop there. After
the general idea or message of the story is identified, other measures to ensure that what is being
written is original, comprehensible, and entertaining for the respective audience.
There are many steps that can be taken to accomplish this, and in the article How to
write with style, Kurt Vonnegut proposes a few to help writers be more effective. He states there
are revelations or qualities usually unique to a single writer used by the reader to infer what type
of writer the author is. This unique style is what will differentiate your compositions from theirs,
but they should be used in the appropriate manner to avoid losing your readers interest.
Primarily an author must choose the correct subject. This personal interest on the matter
will, by nature, make your writing interesting and compelling, though you must be careful not to
ramble. The language utilized should also be kept simple. It might be tempting to use detailed
explanations in a sentence for it to sound perfect, but renowned authors from the past have
affirmed that simple sentences can often times sound much better.

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Vonnegut also believes that the tone of the style should resemble who you are, and what
type of speech infused your childhood. These variations in surroundings and semantics are what
differentiate each writer and make the act of reading interesting across all authors. Of course,
these should not become an obstacle as in to forbid efficient expression. And, most importantly,
authors should be able to write in way so that their readers can actually understand them. Any
topic can be chosen as a subject, but an author must be considerate of their audience, making
sure that the way everything is said can be easily interpreted. Readers are imperfect, and the
author must acknowledge this and write accordingly (Vonnegut).
These steps will ensure that what is written is original, and most of all, enjoyable for the
reader. Authors tend to follow their role models too closely that it can sometimes make the writer
lose originality and resemble a copy of someone else even though all writers are different.
Everyone has too much of a different background to be writing like someone else. Each person
should embrace his/her own life and use it as influence on their writing. Though Vonnegut takes
on very important factors of writing efficiently, he is still missing one very important one: clutter.
William Zinsser defines it in his article Clutter as the act of using a sophisticated phrase
to elongate a word that means the exact same thing. There many prepositions that have become
such an integrate part of our language that we have come to think of them as normal. Stand up,
free up, or even her personal physician are just a few that most people can definitely relate to
without a problem. The adjective, personal, will often times be conjugated with a noun for no
reason. His personal friend is a phrase that, like many of the others in our vocabulary, are
simply causing clutter. In this case the word his is clearly implying that the friend belongs to
the person; the word personal is serving a purpose that has already been fulfilled.

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Zinsser claims that there are prepositions conjugated with a direct verb that are not
contributing to the meaning of the phrase at all, they are simply being redundant. They have the
capacity of turning a short phrase into an elaborate and unnecessary longer version of it.
Politicians are well known for this, they tend to be masters at this craft. For them a layoff can be
phrased as involuntary methodologies, a rocket that has crashed is said to have impacted with
the ground prematurely, and a company going bankrupt is having a negative cash-flow
position. It is the language that the government uses to avoid an explicit explanation and to
confuse their audience; they are vague and simply unnecessary.
One of the worst words used for clutter, according to Zinsser, is experiencing. In a
common conversation a person might ask are you experiencing pain, rather than does this
hurt to sound more intelligent or sophisticated. If that same person was talking to a child or
someone of little significance, he would use normal wording. This is an example of how people
tend to use this sort of wording to feel more important, especially for their vocabulary to give a
more power and professional hue. Though it can be noted across all professions, it also happens
involuntarily now to most people.
While at times there is a place for them, the author recommends that we should avoid
this type of technique in general. Assistance, numerous, facilitate, and individual should be
used with caution because they all have a shorter word that has the same definition. Aside from
these, there are words that fit into the fad group. These words are popular at the moment, but
they dont really bring any significance to the overall conversation. According to him, 50% of the
first draft of a paper is clutter that, if all of it was to be eliminated, the writing wouldnt lose any
meaning. Every new word put forth on paper should serve a purpose that the previous one

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doesnt, while at the same time making sure that it isnt pretentious or simply too much (Zinsser
13-17).
Zinsser claims that clutter should be avoided and, though these steps are easy to read and
considerate, applying them is much more difficult. Writing without grammatical filters on the
first run is straightforward, but at which point in time do the previous recommendations have to
be implemented? Ballengers idea seems to contrast the ideas of Vonnegut and Zinsser, but in
reality theyre all part of the writing process, just implemented on different parts of it. Susan
Sontag takes on the writing process in her article Directions: Write, Read, Rewrite. Repeat
Steps 2 and 3 as Needed. She argues that while reading is thought of as a straightforward
activity, writing can be a very complex one.
First of all, Writing can actually be a form of practicing writing. Everything that gets
transferred to the page is read various times to ensure its pleasant to read. The author goes
through the same sentences many times to ensure that what is being written is actually enjoyable.
Nevertheless, many writers can get a very good sentence or paragraph on the first try, even
though it may not be the enjoyable experience that the author seems to enjoy. Rereading and
rewriting are even referred to by the author as the most enjoyable part of writing.
Sometimes it can be a complete mess. After trying to write more, to go deeper into the
story, and to make it sound better, it is still a mess. Sometimes its the other way around. After
establishing a train of thought, words flow onto the paper and even though it is still not enough,
it has already become an enjoyable read.
To write in the most efficient way, they writer has to find what works best for himself.
There has to be a point of equilibrium between rigidness and eloquence. Writing freely without

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stopping to revise too often so that inspiration can flow, but at the same making sure to be
watching for mistakes.
Blind writers are a good example of how important revisions are for writing. Even though
most poets dont have to write things down because they can recall most of the words of their
poem, prose writers need to see what theyre writing to be able to control the sea of words they
tend to carry around. The author reinforces this by talking about her own experience and how
only writing, and not reading, her chapters affected her.
The inspiration or interest for writing tends to come from the love of reading. Regardless,
even though most writers love the distraction and the enjoyment reading can bring, some refer to
themselves exclusively as writers and not readers. Most people like to think that writing is a form
of self-expression. While autobiographical type writing can be interesting, the author concludes
that there should be writing about yourself as much as there is writing about others because they
can both be really fun, even though they might be different and considered strange for other
writers.
Ultimately, reading is a skill that, through practice, can be perfected when rather writing
is simply a task that brings in more stress and generates more confusion. These both can cause
headaches, but the author is convinced that it is all worthwhile in the end because of the great
journey they can be (Sontag).
It can be difficult to think of writing as more than simply a form of communication. On a
daily basis we read news articles, announcements, directions, menus, and many other forms of
written information that, as Sontag says, can lead us to think that writing is just putting words on
paper rather than saying them. Our society has limited our views on what this art is, and what can

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really be achieved through it. In the article If You Want to Write, Brenda Ueland asserts that it
is our qualities as children that, when set free, allow us to use the artistic side of writing at its
fullest.
The author states that some people are introverted and some are extremely outgoing, but
that we are theoretically original since the moment we are born, if we remain true to ourselves.
As humans, we are all different, and so are our emotions and thoughts. There is a constant drive
to want to express it, which is certainly more apparent in our early years.
The author indicates that as kids we can be very imaginative, and at times spend many
hours working on an idea we deem interesting. The creative power and potential we initially
have as kids is slowly beaten out of us by our friends, teachers, and most of all, our family in
many ways, with helpful criticism being close to the worst one. By giving in to this criticism,
in return, our joyful selves die at a very young age.
Teachers and critics tend to kill our inner poet by forcing us to focus mainly on the
structure and on the grammar used in our writings, while our family constantly kids around
and makes fun of the passion we might have towards something. This inhibits our emotions and,
according to the author, causes us to become perfectionist and anxious, timid, and contracted
of other people that might disapprove of our work.
Though some people are capable of ignoring such comments or expectations and,
therefore, are able to write with much more freedom, most people are extremely affected by such
comments. A starting writer can lose all confidence if their first book is rejected. As Ueland
states, the key to succeeding in this kind of ambient is to keep practicing with intelligence and

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love for the art. Now, why is this so important? Because what actually matters when you write
is that you feel happy, and most of all free.
The creative and imaginative impulse in us has to be taken care of more than anything
else. It can greatly be affected by external factor due to its ability to hear and even feel, in the
present. The author talks about three different remarkable children he has known that seemed to
have this ability further developed and prominent than most people, Francesca and Carl.
Francesca is a person focused on the now, all of her actions seemed to be prominently affected
by what is happening at that very moment; nothing she says is related to the past, everything is
clearly felt at that very moment. Carl is very similar, all he starts to feel is expressed freely in the
gentlest of manners. He was able, much like Shakespeare or Dante, to feel the present and enjoy
it at its fullest, a quality of man that most of us have had put to sleep.
According to Ueland, our culture is specifically guilty of not being able to freely live in
the present. We have engraved ourselves in our mind that we must not live in the moment, but
that we must rather spend our time focusing on the long term. There is a misconception that
living in the moment, or idling, is selfish, when in can actually be an opportunity to be
creative. Like listening to the music of a pianist or the impersonations of a clown, the more they
are in what they are doing, the more moved the audience is. This kind of immersion is what will
make your writing unique and original.
The author describes idling not as to stop thinking, but rather to stop
intellectualizing. Sometimes we are so affected by this that we cannot act upon our feelings;
we are imprisoned. To be set free, we must ignore and escape the limits prejudice and
misunderstanding in our society have caused, we must live in the moment (Ueland 3-9, 49-62).

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This seems as if it only applies to a particular type of writer of a certain type of genre, but
it truly applies to us all. Ueland thinks that our society has led us to stop prioritizing the present
and to focus all of our attention onto the past or future, limiting our happiness. Its not
necessarily directed only towards writers, because all of us humans have preoccupations that
consume the majority of our time. Most of us are caught up in problems that we forget to enjoy
the precious moments in life. In the book Reflections on Writing, Henry Miller offers a first
person point of view on how the transition from constantly preoccupied to free happened in his
life.
Miller describes himself as lost in the darkness. He does not consider himself a writer, but
rather just a man searching for what is not yet being looked for. Searching through the infinity of
life, through all different worlds, through all different dimensions for the mysteries that life may
hold. This is what makes art. There is no finishing point. There is no holy grail. This process
consist only of contributing to the world, instead of trying to make sense of all of it. A continuum
of self-discovery with no ends, just new beginnings.
He tries to make sense of it, but it is an unaccomplishable task. In the process, he gets lost
in the eternal search. He loses himself. He arrives to a place where nothing exist. Where there is
no hope, no matter, nothing. There is only failure. To start new and to get it all back, he had to let
go of everything. Of his memories, of his ideas, of his loved ones. Everything had to be cleansed
off of his mind for him to be able to find a new beginning and to start from scratch. This
beginning was actually more like a self-discovery. Only after letting go of everything can one
actually find out who he is and start over.
Miller feels new now. He feels untied to the reality of the world and now nothing is true.
He questions everything that is considered truth, and even more so when it seems too simple. A

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new set of skills have been developed. He can now analyze, sort, show, comprehend, and
conclude with the finality of accurate inference. This separation from the world has allowed him
to stop fearing it. He now longer worries about the many critics in the world of literature, but
only concentrates on the actual beauty of it, he can now write solely out of joy. It is all based on
the egocentrism of one self. It is no longer about others, it is about one self. About your own
spirit, your own ideas, your thoughts, your soul. He can now ignore all definitions and see the
world for what it really is. The only way to proceed is to look back at the past and to on from
that.
What happens now? He doesnt know. There isnt a clear path or protocol to be followed.
There isnt a recipe for writing, there is only chaos. There is writing, rewriting, lying,
exaggerating, elongating. He has the liberty to do what he wants with the words he writes. He
can change and delete them how he pleases, without having to worry about external factors.
There is no longer truth in hope, but rather in communication. They have been separated. The
words of a scholar or of a philosopher dont have meaning anymore, there is only meaning to the
language itself. Art is the manifestation of the truth, while words and definitions are only its
corrupt form.
After many epiphanies, the author thinks of how they will affect his new books, and ends
up thinking of the possibility of writing a new book based on the old ones. A new book based
solely on the explanation or the reasoning behind the many passages that he had written before.
He could explain the process thoroughly. Explain how he can start to write, finish a page, and
leave it to the next day. Pick it up without the slightest idea of where it was headed and cover it
up, much like how a thief covers up his tracks. How the entire story can change in one second if
the author chooses to do so. Nothing is ever finished. He can pick up on any part of the book and

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continue right where he left off. Much like life, there is always a continuation in many different
parts. He can branch off, present a new character, give a new ending, or do an infinite amount of
variations.
It can all be connected, just like life. Everything that is written is related to what the
author is feeling; its all a manifestation of the various events, emotions, ideas, and points of
views of the author. To every sentence that is written, there is always a connection to the life of
the author that is writing it and ultimately, this is endless. It is throwing yourself off of a cliff
hoping for the best, but in the words of Rene Crevel No dare is fatal. This is where an author
wants to go, to the undetermined perspective or position where there are many choices and many
different ways to pursue them. An author will be crafted by this uncertainty and what will be
expressed can be anything he/she decides (Miller 242-251).
By writing, Miller was capable of ridding himself from the chains society had attached on
him; he was free both physically and mentally. He could take any thought or any experience and
transfer it to the paper without worrying about prejudice or critics. He is free to write whatever
he pleases, with no longer having any inhibitions. This testifies on how complex writing can be
and what can be achieved once all of the respective steps are taken. It might lead people to think
that writing is too difficult for an average person to handle, but its actually accessible for
anyone, as long as there is a longing for it. In the story Coming to Awareness of Language,
Malcolm X shares his experience in jail and confirms that writing is possible for anyone as long
as there is interest in it
While the author was in prison, he would usually write letters to many of the people he
had known in the hustling world, such as Sammy the Pimp or John Hughes about Elijah

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Muhammad. These letters were intended to express his idea that the white man is the devil.,
but they actually fueled his thirst for knowledge and education.
When writing the letters, he had noticed that no matter how hard he tried, he couldnt
convey his ideas precisely due to his very elementary education. He not only couldnt express his
ideas through words, he couldnt write a functional sentence in simple English.
In the desire to improve his situation, he decided to educate himself by reading books. He
later figured out that most sentences had many words he didnt understand, making the book
incomprehensible. The author was just about ready to give up his quest of self-education, but he
had just thought of the key thing he needed to succeed, a dictionary. With it, he could learn all of
the words he needed to while improving his penmanship considering that the words he could
write werent even clear. He requested a dictionary, a tablet, and some pencils from the school in
his prison and his mission started.
The author started copying everything that was inside the dictionary, every single page.
He copied all of the words on the dictionary, from A-Z, onto his tablet, without leaving a single
punctuation mark behind. After getting through it all, he noticed that he could recall the meaning
of most of the words. He had learned much about geography and historical events, expanding his
vocabulary and knowledge in general. When reading the same books again, he could finally
understand them. He was imprisoned and deprived of his liberty, but while reading, he felt freer
than he had ever been throughout his life (Malcolm X).
Most people now have the opportunity to learn how to read and write, but that hasnt
always been the case. Malcolm X demonstrates that, not matter what the circumstances are,

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writing is achievable. The aspiring writer needs of intrinsic motivation to overcome any of the
obstacles that a lack of accessible education may bring.
The complexity of writing can make new writers, as well as seasoned writers, have
difficulties when facing a blank page. Achieving an effective writing technique is difficult, but
most definitely possible. If one follows the advice of the authors in this review, a much higher
writing capability can be achieved. Ballenger suggests that the first exercise one can consider is
to write unfiltered-- to just let his/her thoughts flow onto the page much like Ueland recommends
or how the character in the story from Tan wrote her novel. Following Vonneguts format can
help create an individualized style by exploring the unique background that every person has
while making sure to avoid the clutter Zinsser points out. Once these steps have been confirmed
in the revision process suggested by Sontag, the writing process is finally complete. When a
writer has enough practice with this, as Miller and Malcolm X demonstrated, a whole new world
of thoughts can be uncovered, and no matter what the physical circumstances of the writer are,
freedom can be truly found.

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Works Cited
Ballenger, Bruce. "The Importance of Writing Badly." The Christian Science Monitor. n.p. 28
Mar. 1990. Web. 2 July 2015. <http://www.csmonitor.com/1990/0328/ubad.html>.
Miller, Henry, and Lawrence Durrell. "Reflections on Writing." The Henry Miller Reader. New
York: New Directions, 1959. 242-251. Print.
Sontag, Susan. "Directions: Write, Read, Rewrite. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 as Needed." The New
York Times. The New York Times Company. 18 Dec. 2000. Web. 2 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/18/books/writers-on-writing-directions-write-readrewrite-repeat-steps-2-and-3-as-needed.html>.
Tan, Amy. "Writers on Writing: Family Ghosts Hoard Secrets That Bewitch the Living." The
New York Times. The New York Times Company. 26 Feb. 2001. Web. 2 July 2015.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/26/books/writers-on-writing-family-ghosts-hoardsecrets-that-bewitch-the-living.html>.
Ueland, Brenda. If You Want to Write. 2nd ed. St. Paul: Graywolf, 1987. 3-9, 49-62. Print.
Vonnegut, Kurt. "How to Write with Style." Biblioklept. n.p. n.d. Web. 2 July 2015.
<http://biblioklept.org/2014/11/07/how-to-write-with-style-kurt-vonnegut/>.
X, Malcolm. "Coming to an Awareness of Language." Genius. Genius Media Group Inc. n.d.
Web. 2 July 2015. <http://genius.com/Malcolm-x-coming-to-an-awareness-of-languageannotated>.
Zinsser, William. "Clutter." On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction. 30th
Anniversary Ed., 7th ed. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. 13-17. Print.