Good+Writing

__** Good Writing Page **__

Each Friday we will look at samples of good writing. You are to find a short passage from a book, play, essay or short story or a song lyric or poem that is well written. Copy the work and write up a one page analysis of what makes the writing good.

__Some Examples: (these are one paragraph sections - you may want to choose at least two)__ Excerpt from Alice Walker's "Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self" Text: //It is a bright summer day in 1947. My father, a fat, funny man with beautiful eyes and a subversive wit, is trying to decide which of his eight children he will take with him to the county fair.// //My mother, of course, will not go. She is knocked out from getting most of us ready: I hold my neck stiff against the pressure of her knuckles as she hastily completes the braiding and beribboning of my hair.//

I chose this excerpt from Alice Walker's personal essay "Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self" because I really like the message she conveys about the idea of beauty and self-confidence. Walker's writing style is straightforward and simple, yet she is descriptive and vivid in her diction. Her first sentence reveals the setting. Her second sentence describes her father, her family situation and the context for the first section of the piece. Walker has an affectionate tone here for her father describing him as "fat and funny with beautiful eyes". Walker also allows us to see that her family is very large - eight children - and that they live in a rural area because they are off to the "county fair." Walker next reveals much about her mother who "of course" will not go along because she is "knocked out" from getting the children ready. Her tone for her mother isn't as affectionate; her diction addresses her mother's actions, not her physical appearance. The mother "hastily" finishes the braid and is most likely tackling another chore once she is done. Walker's father is associated with fun (he has "subversive wit") and her mother is associated with work and hard work ("pressure of her knuckles"). Using only five sentences and simple yet vivid diction, Walker creates a clear picture of her family.

Another example is what I modeled in class from Annie Proulx's The Shipping News. The written analysis can be viewed here:

Or you may read about Dave Eggers' technique from his short story "After I Was Thrown in the River and Before I Drowned":