For today's blog, please read the following and then share your thoughts on Lanzbaum's position.
On Writing
by Leon Lanzbaum
All writing is a form of prayer.
-- John Keats
Graduate school: "We must write for our audience," says my rhetoric-and-writing professor. "We do not write for ourselves," he says. On this point, he is adamant, a rock. And on this same point, an ineffable tumult stirs within me as I sense most writers in academe submit to this professor's prescription, a prescription I'm not ready to swallow. As a student of the self-satisfied writers--Faulkner, Didion, White etc.--I learned the writer comes first. Not that writers shouldn't visualize their readers, but when purpose yields to audience, words lose their innocence. The writer holds back, does not give his or her all, or even worse, gives too much, and that's dishonest writing.
So what do we do as academic writers? Should we write for ourselves or write for an audience? I'll admit, I played the game. During my rhetoric-and-writing stint, I gave my professor what he wanted. I wrote for him! And my essays were the most antiseptic, fallow pieces I have ever written. But such is the nature of academic writing. It marks scholarly territory, territory devoid of the first person singular, territory that, for the most part, forces the writer to kill, or at least, hide his or her identity.
As someone who cares about writing, I loathe the writing of most rhetoric-and-writing departments. I abhore passive sentences and colorless verbs and narcoleptic nouns. I'm allergic to textbook writing and the convoluted, meandering language of lawyers and literary theorists. Writing is communication, the inside of one person speaking to another person. Writing is not a contest in whose word is bigger! I say that if we satisfy ourselves, an audience will find us. Read the words of Henry David Thoreau or Ernest Hemingway or Sandra Cisneros and you'll find writers who write for themselves yet still speak to the world.
But let’s face it, whether you're in English 101 or you write for a national magazine, you do write for some sort of audience--maybe your editor, maybe your readers, maybe your rhetoric-and-writing professor.
The Key: Respect the man or woman at the upper end of the keyboard, you!
Don't lose who you are. Lose yourself and you lose a unique voice, a voice that will never pass this way again.
So let's see what you can do to keep your unique voice, to write for yourself, yet still write for an audience.
9 comments:
Well I think he is right about writing for your self and not necessary for your audiance. Some people write to express how they feel or just let things out that is a problem. The writing my not be for anyone to read. If your writing for an audience then think about what effect the writing will have on one's life.
I think that he is right about writing for yourself. some people express their thoughts and feelings easier on paper. This writing could be private such as a journal or public such as a biography. When people write for an audience they sometimes tend to hold back their thoughts and beliefs on things because of what the audience might think. Often when people read about other people's problems in life they can relate to the writing and take it into consideration on behalf of their own life.
I agree with the concept of writing for yourself. I beileve when you write for yourself you are more passionate about the topic you are writing. Writing for yourself is a way to express your thoughts and feelings. Some people when writing for an audience will leave information out because they are scared of what others will say or think about them. I think everyone should write as if they were writing for theirself.
I agree with him about writing for yourself...as I think most if not all people in this class do. People have a hard time saying whats on their mind, and can express themselves better on paper, through an email or a letter. I have dated a few women that had a hard time saying what was on their mind, but i tell you what, they didn't have any problems writing it down. As far as the audience, most people omit information because of what they may think, which is reasonable, but shouldn't delegate your writing. Writing for yourself is the only way to write.
I think he is right about writing things for yourself. When you write for yourself it is alot easier to express more than if you write for an audiance you would be to busy trying to figure out if it is good enough for the audiance and you try to put to much time into it. For when you write for yourself its more of you expressing yourself and everything that comes to mind you can put on paper.
I agree with his point of view on writing for an audience, but keeping one's voice active. When one keeps to his or her own voice, the writing sounds becomes easier to read and it is easier for the writer to write. If one writes for just an audience, then the writing can become too formal--even for an academic paper. And writing for ones' self only does not always work for some papers. One can apply this concept to any writing that he or she attempts.
"Writing is communication, the inside of one person speaking to another person. Writing is not a contest in whose word is bigger!" I found that quote very interesting. I do believe in all different kinds of writing. There is personal writing that only you can see. Also, you can be writing for an audience. You could be writing just for your instructor. I believe that all good things come from all writings.
Most of the time we spend writing is spent for others. Usually so that we can get done and move on to something else. Writing some thing you need to be passionate about, everyone has the spark some where, no matter how small are large. Writing for ones self should always be the goal, but it should be at least coherent enough for others to under stand what you’re trying to convey, a kind of happy medium really, so yes I concur.
i agree with him and his concept of writing for yourself and not an audience. When your writing a paper for yourself your putting down what you believe and its your own thoughts most people do not have a problem with writing their thoughts down if you know that its private or only if your professor is going to read it because thats usually the only person that reads it. When you are writing for an audience some people have a hard time expressing yourself also some people tend to leave their opinion out of it because they do not know how people will react to their thoughts and opinions.
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