Learn to write by imitating good writing
Think for a minute about how you learned to speak. Sure, you babble goo-goo for a while, but when mom or dad kept saying the same words day after day, you started to mimic what you heard. You started saying “my my” or “da da.” Not a few teachers believe that we can also learn to write, or at least learn to improve our writing, doing the same, imitating good writing.
I for one think it’s worth a try, knowing that far too many students turn away at the first sign of the “G” word (Grammar, that is). Learning to write by imitation won’t teach you “foreign” terms like “pronominal,” “present participle,” or “non-restrictive appositive.” Such terms are legitimate in the vocabulary of people who are “into the grammar”. Unfortunately, too many students are not, and are hesitant to listen to teachers who frown on anyone who dares end a sentence with a preposition.
If many teachers think that we can learn to improve our writing through imitation, how does it work? Dr. Ann Longknife, a professor of English at San Mateo University, and KD Sullivan, owner of Creative Solutions Publishing, Inc., put their beliefs into their book, The Art of Styling Sentences, a collection of 20 sentence patterns that Students can learn not by diagramming sentences or dividing parts of speech, but by imitation. One of the underlying goals of the book is to help writing students find their voices, their writing voices.
another look at the voice
I agree with a goal like that because one way to find our voice is to write in ways that mimic the fluctuating nature of speech, the rising and falling of the voice, the instant feedback, the relaxed flow of casual conversation. Of course, academic writing usually requires writers to write in the third person and in a matter-of-fact way, but there are times when we can give our writing a more fluid personal touch. If you’re writing a memoir, for example, you can inject a few variations that will give your writing a touch of pizzazz, something with humor or satire. Keep in mind, though, that if you’re writing to be graded, most teachers don’t want to see writing that includes fragments, contractions, or sentences that start with a conjunction (for example, But or And).
Dr. Longknife begins her book’s introduction with: “…how do you write better sentences? The answer is simple. You learn to write better sentences as you learn almost every other skill: by imitating the examples of those who have that skill.” You’ve probably figured out by now that it’s easier to master anything—jumping obstacles, swan diving, or playing the guitar—if you imitate a model.” Dr. Longknife, along with Sullivan, then outlines the 20 patterns, starting with the simple and moving on to the more complex A helpful section provides examples of established writers displaying the patterns in their own writing.
Even the greats agree
Richard Nordquist, PhD and professor emeritus of rhetoric and English at Armstrong Atlantic State University, suggests we listen to Dr. Brock Haussamen, professor of English at Raritan Valley Community College in New Jersey:
“Inexperienced writers find it difficult to make changes to the sentences they have written. Expanding sentences, rearranging parts of a sentence, combining sentences—these skills do not come easily. Therefore, any exercise that helps students to There is value in gaining flexibility in sentences. Two methods have given good results. One is sentence combination: students start with simple exercises for inserting sentences and combining sentences and progress to exercises for embedding one clause in another. Another approach is for students to students imitate model sentences; when students read a model passage and then write their version, imitating its grammatical features, they integrate reading skill, writing practice, and grammatical comprehension.
In a recent issue of his newsletter, Dr. Nordquist quotes a revelation from Dr. Deborah Dean, associate professor of English at Brigham Young University: “…I began teaching imitation by naming the parts of sentences… (‘infinitive phrase,’ for example) and nearly destroyed my students’ interest before I learned that they could imitate without naming anything.
Finally, an excerpt from an article, “Government Gobbledygook: Dying a Slow, Painful Death,” by M. Alex Johnson, NBCNews.com, July 20, 2012. Note that in October 2011, the government passed a bill to Turn all the complicated and convoluted forms and documents into a simpler script that the average person can understand. The article shows that instructors at the Center for Plain Language chose imitation as the preferred way to teach employees how to write “clearly and simply.”
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Look for more fun ways to learn to write in the author’s book, “Finding King Onomatopoeia and Other Stories,” available at Booklocker(dot)com and Amazon.