ENGL 131L
“Good writing” Discussion
Agenda
“Good writing”
When you hear the words “good writing,” what comes to mind? What do you personally think constitutes good writing? A novel, literary essay, business memo, or all of the above?
Click the doc below and take 2-4 minutes to write your thoughts about the prompt before we talk about it more in class.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mU5LRJWw2bU9H0bmwJAY-rKlmOQFvLe9RiEwL7ob-TI/edit?usp=sharing
“Good writing”
Ex:
Hi my name is Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way and I have long ebony black hair (that’s how I got my name) with purple streaks and red tips that reaches my mid-back and icy blue eyes like limpid tears and a lot of people tell me I look like Amy Lee (AN: if u don’t know who she is get da hell out of here!). I’m not related to Gerard Way but I wish I was because he’s a major fucking hottie. I’m a vampire but my teeth are straight and white. I have pale white skin. I’m also a witch, and I go to a magic school called Hogwarts in England where I’m in the seventh year (I’m seventeen). I’m a goth (in case you couldn’t tell) and I wear mostly black. I love Hot Topic and I buy all my clothes from there. For example today I was wearing a black corset with matching lace around it and a black leather miniskirt, pink fishnets and black combat boots. I was wearing black lipstick, white foundation, black eyeliner and red eye shadow. I was walking outside Hogwarts. It was snowing and raining so there was no sun, which I was very happy about. A lot of preps stared at me. I put up my middle finger at them.
“Good Writing”
Context for the example above:
Sure, it’s pretty bad. It’s funny, but also makes you question the author’s choice and if it’s good or not.
But what if you look at it as a satire? Does this “bad” piece of writing suddenly become “good”?
“Good Writing”
Ex:
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.
“Good Writing”
Context for the example above:
It’s literary in presentation, and very much meant to be take seriously.
Compare this to the previous example, what would you then classify as “good” vs. “bad?” And more importantly, how much does context have to do with what we view as good or bad?
Does “good” or “bad” writing even exist?
Context, meaning, and how we shape language
Much of how we view writing is, at its core, very reliant on language, context, and how we make meaning from “new” words. While we may think that language is formed through dictionaries and official texts, slang also plays a big part in how we communicate, and by extension, write.
So, let’s have some fun with it: