I've Got Them Moves Like a Writer

            Everybody has a “go-to” plan or a systematic scheme when they are in a particular situation. Whether these actions are planned or unplanned, the comfort of reacting a certain way becomes autonomic for most people. Once they got the hang of things, they tend to repeat their actions again because of the success they had with their prior experiences. It is these “moves” that distinguish one apart from one another and adds a certain “flavor” to the character of an individual.

What is the first thing you think of, when you hear the word, “moves?” Do you think of the legendary Michael Jackson’s moonwalk? Or, do you think of a suave man or desirable woman enticing someone smoothly? All of these are examples of actions one commonly takes to achieve some kind of goal. For instance, even this open paragraph to this entry of my blog is my typical “move” I tend to make every time I begin a writing piece. Instead of jumping straight into the topic, I like to give some background to slowly introduce my readers with what I would like to say.

In order to get a better understanding of the different “moves” a writer makes, I would like to make some comparisons with some of the authors of the articles I have read so far. Today, we are going to compare Peter Elbow’s, “Teaching Two Kinds of Thinking by Teaching Writing,” and Janet Boyd’s, “Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking).”

In Peter Elbow’s piece, I observed that he had begun with a personable narrative of his perspective of thinking and writing. Elbow meanders his way around and he slowly seeps in the main point of his essay. He also tends to introduce new ideas, describe them for a bit, and then adds a personal comment. Every once in a while, he would emphasize certain words and phrases by italicizing or by placing quotes. For instance, “Revising is when I use the ‘X-ray’ or ‘skeleton’ exercise…” (Elbow 59). At the end of his work, he sets off a couple of his paragraphs with titles; separating these paragraphs from the rest to prepare the reader for a more specific ideas about what he would like to say. This gives a sense that he is a very descriptive and organized writer when he is analyzing the difference between first and second order thinking.

As for Boyd’s piece, she also started off her work with a personal story that gives her credibility of her background as a college professor. She also organized her article with several different section with their own unique titles. Boyd seems to like to utilize parenthesis to insert her personal thoughts within her points. For example, “In writing up the case (whoops, I have given you a clue)…” (Boyd 88). Like Elbow, Boyd also used italics and quotation marks to emphasize certain words and phrases. Lastly, she had a couple of lists after colons and bullet points to further explain her thoughts.

After analyzing the two pieces, I have noticed that the two authors had the common tendency to write as if they can relate with the reader. The two introductions were both about their own experiences with the topic they wanted to get across. By adding a personal story, this allows the reader to feel as though the writers are opening themselves to the reader. Both were mainly in first person and by adding their personal experiences as examples have only made their points stronger. I felt that this “move” of not only adding personal background but examples of their ideas was one of the successful moves. This only backs up the validity of the author’s point and it also allows a good way to capture the attention of the reader when they read the introductory paragraph.

Another great “move” is the italics, quotation marks; anything that emphasizes a certain point across. After understanding the common punctuations in writing, a piece of writing can get pretty mundane. By understand the usage of italics, dashes, quotations, parenthesis, commas, and so forth, this adds flair to your work. Sure, some quotes here and there are just as good as other fancy punctuations, but by sprinkling the different usage of punctuations can definitely makes the writing more exciting to read.

            The only “move” I did not think was as effective is Boyd’s use of parenthesis to add little comments. I understand this trick may be useful in certain contexts, but for majority of the writing, I do not think it is necessary. If you really wanted to add comments, you might as well write them out in full sentences. I feel that it is unprofessional to use it in any way. Sure, one of the point of her paper is to “relate” with the reader, but in other circumstances I feel that this use of parenthesis can be rude.