Assignment #9

CHAPTER 8.

Chapter 8 from the Writing and Rhetoric book was very lenghty, but extremely important. It showed us how to write with flow, conciseness, clarity, just to name a few. "Letting the Light Shine Through" is very appropriate, since the book conveys the delivery of our essays to make it interesting for our readers.
For one, "style results more from what a person is than from what he knows". They mean that each essay is different and each has their own voice. This is because each essay is written by a different person, with their own views, voice, and writing style. Our writing is the new and unique light that shines through.
They say clarity triumphs everything. "If our readers don't understand what we are saying, then it's a given that they also won't be persuaded to our point of view". We can't overcome our readers with words that don't help our point and it won't help our readers be convinced. Keith Hjortshoj compares our essays as an adventure for our readers. Our introduction is the departure point, where we introduce what we are writing and building them up to take flight. The body is the journey itself. The conclusion is the destination, where when the reader is done they learned a little bit more than where they started in the introduction. I thought this "adventure" regarding our essay was very influential. It will help me to make my essay more interesting since I know I will be a tour guide for my readers on their quest.
Lastly, the book explains about transitions and conciseness. We all already know how to use transitions, but in the book it gives me examples of which transitions are stronger and can be used in replace of weak words. Conciseness is having the most power from the least amount of words. "We should get rid of deadwood, those useless, floating pieces of language that clog up our sentences and add no meaning". Words like really, very, rather, and so are petty and trivial, so why would I use them? I need to get my message over to the reader fast, before they get bored with words like that and become disinterested. That in turn will not convince my reader to agree with my issue. So I need to be concise so I can give my ideas more power.
Using my voice is also very important, I cannot be too formal because then it wouldn't sound exactly like me. The book says "we shouldn't put aside who we are when we pick up a pen to write". I agree a lot with this because if we didn't use our voice, the readers would be bored reading the same type of paper, just with different views. Chapter 8 was very influential.