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authorHolden Rohrer <hdawg7797@yahoo.com>2019-08-07 00:00:13 -0400
committerHolden Rohrer <hdawg7797@yahoo.com>2019-08-07 00:40:49 -0400
commit918a6a10df455bb7df97757741acb5e52ab53569 (patch)
tree29ee536fe2c9406ad2aca0b52f808f7c02c5157d
parent3edb7825b7ade6acbc12901e301c1a6cf2521405 (diff)
finished annotation
-rw-r--r--README.md16
-rw-r--r--jones-la/zinsser-annotate.tex (renamed from jones-la/zinsser.tex)53
2 files changed, 58 insertions, 11 deletions
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index b5bd98a..1d1741c 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -3,12 +3,12 @@
This repository is designed to organize and make portable all of Holden Rohrer's school work from the 2019-20 school year.
```
-- README.md % the file you're reading right now
-- mla8.tex % a general mla formatter for typical written assignments
-- citations.tex % a citation generator and aggregator for MLA 8th Edition
-- .gitignore % exactly what you expect
-- sort.py % a Python script which sorts sort.tex when called
-- example.tex % an example of the capability of mla8.tex
-| jones-la % all work for AP Lang, taught by Ms Jones
-| - zinsser.tex % annotations of "On Writing Well" by William Zinnser
+- README.md % the file you're reading right now
+- mla8.tex % a general mla formatter for typical written assignments
+- citations.tex % a citation generator and aggregator for MLA 8th Edition
+- .gitignore % exactly what you expect
+- sort.py % a Python script which sorts sort.tex when called
+- example.tex % an example of the capability of mla8.tex
+| jones-la % all work for AP Lang, taught by Ms Jones
+| - zinsser-annotation.tex % annotations of "On Writing Well" by William Zinnser
```
diff --git a/jones-la/zinsser.tex b/jones-la/zinsser-annotate.tex
index d345775..9681962 100644
--- a/jones-la/zinsser.tex
+++ b/jones-la/zinsser-annotate.tex
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
\def\word#1#2{{\twelveit #1:\/} #2}
-\long\def\reflection#1{\smallskip\hrule\smallskip#1\smallskip\hrule\smallskip}
+\long\def\reflection#1{#1\smallskip\hrule\smallskip}
\def\note#1{Note: #1}
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@
\chapter{The Audience}
-\word{Garrulous}{excessively talkative, especially on trivial matters}, \word{Vaudeville}{a type of entertainment popular chiefily in the US in the artly 20th century, featuring a mixture of specialty acts such as burlesque comedy and song and dance}, \word{Infidel}{adhering to a religion other than one's own}, \word{Consecrated}{(of a church or land) having been made or declared sacred}, \word{Reread Monkey Trial passage!!!}{43}, \word{Mountebank}{a person who deceives others, especially in order to trick them out of their money}, \word{Mirthful}{merry or amusing} \word{Kowtow}{act in an excessively subservient manner}, \word{Curry}{??}, \word{Tendentious}{expressing or intending to promote a particular cause or point of view, especially a controversial one}
+\word{Garrulous}{excessively talkative, especially on trivial matters}, \word{Vaudeville}{a type of entertainment popular chiefily in the US in the artly 20th century, featuring a mixture of specialty acts such as burlesque comedy and song and dance}, \word{Infidel}{adhering to a religion other than one's own}, \word{Consecrated}{(of a church or land) having been made or declared sacred}, \word{Reread Monkey Trial passage!!!}{43}, \word{Mountebank}{a person who deceives others, especially in order to trick them out of their money}, \word{Mirthful}{merry or amusing} \word{Kowtow}{act in an excessively subservient manner}, \word{Curry}{(``Curry Favor'') ingratiate oneself with someone through obsequious behavior}, \word{Tendentious}{expressing or intending to promote a particular cause or point of view, especially a controversial one}
\quote{You are writing primarily to please yourself, and if you go about it with enjoyment you will also entertain the readers who are worth writing for}{24}
@@ -136,8 +136,9 @@
\part{Forms}
-OMITTED
+\reflection{OMITTED}
+\chapnum=19
\part{Attitudes}, \chapter{The Sound of Your Voice}
\quote{Don't alter your voice to fit your subject. Develop one voice that readers will recognize}{231}
@@ -154,5 +155,51 @@ OMITTED
\word{Blithe}{showing a casual and cheerful indifference considered to be callous or improper}, \word{Portentous}{Done in a pompously or overly solemn manner so as to impress}
+\quote{I'm often dismayed by the sludge I see appearing on my screen if I approach writing as a task---the day's work---and not with some enjoyment.}{243}
+
+\word{Dour}{relentlessly severe, stern, or gloomy in manner or appearance}
+
+\reflection{Writing is an act of ego and thus an act of emotion. Managing one's emotions while writing is, then, useful to make the process of writing easier. This comes in the form of choosing what to write on carefully, and self-reassurance over writing outside of one's expertise. I think that I enjoy writing most of the time, but I do fear having written something poorly or incompletely. I suppose that both my writing and my confidence improve with rewriting, so I'll continue to take Zinsser's advice and rewrite heavily and well.}
+
+\chapter{The Tyranny of the Final Product}
+
+\quote{The fixation on the finished article causes writers a lot of trouble, deflecting them from all the earlier decisions that have to be made to determine its shape and voice and content}{253}.
+
+\note{Because of the way the school system is set up, and that I do the vast majority of my writing on behalf of an essay, I have the all-too-common American focus on success. Most of the time, this works well with small essays, but it makes the writing process dreadful. I'd love to take the relaxed, loose-timeline approach that Zinsser used in his class, but that's logistically impossible in my position. I wonder if there are any ways to fake the ``failure is O.K.''\ sentiment without having to resort to actually failing.}
+
+\quote{I was primarily interested in the process, not the product. At first that made them uneasy. This was America---they not only wanted validation; it was their national right}{257}.
+
+\quote{Figure out what you want to do and how you want to do it, and work your way with humanity and integrity to the completed article.}{260}
+
+\reflection{``The Tyranny of the Final Product'' is a very real struggle. All of my writing, as of yet, has been strictly a means to an end---the final product. None of the concepts like a compelling lead, stopping in a timely manner, or simplicity are conducive to this farsighted methodology. I'll try to be more fluid or human in my first drafts because rewriting is certainly not outside the realm of possibilities.}
+
+\chapter{A Writer's Decisions}
+
+\quote{Never be afraid to break a long sentence into two short ones, or even three}{262} is repeated verbatim from another chapter.
+
+\word{Forlorn}{pitifully sad and abandoned or lonely}, \word{Frieze}{heavy, coarse woolen cloth with a nap, usually on one side only}
+
+\reflection{This chapter repeats a large number of concepts from previous chapters, starting with ``The Lead and the Ending.'' It's a good review, and the extended example gives a good idea of how the writing process is a set of distinct problems solved by the writer to present information. Its instructions seems a little bit restrictive to the narrative structure, but he couldn't reasonably have included every structure analysed in this depth.}
+
+\chapter{Writing Family History and Memoir}
+
+\quote{Be yourself and your readers will follow you anywhere. Try to commit an act of writing and your readers will jump overboard to get away. Your product is {\twelveit you}}{283}.
+
+\word{Lassitude}{a state of physical or mental weariness; lack of energy}
+
+\quote{The strongest memoirs are the ones that preserve the unity of a remembered time and place such as $\ldots$ which recall what it was like to be a child or an adolescent in a world of adults contending with life's adversities.}{285}.
+
+\quote{My final reducing advice can be summed up in two words: Think small}{290}. \quote{Look for small self-contained incidents that are still vivid in your memory. If you still remember them it's because they contain a universal truth that your readers will recognize from their own life}. \note{This points back to the resonance concept repeated in ``A Writer's Decisions,'' where he used allusions to relate to the reader on a grander scale than he alone would've been able to (270-271).}
+
+\reflection{This is a specialized chapter for a specialized purpose, but the grand narrative structure of a memoir resonates. While organization of large pieces has never been a relevant problem to me, it seems useful if I need to write a longer work or the same concept can be applied at smaller scale---paragraphs instead of passages. Of course, this is already available in some form with the word processor. Reorganization is as easy as selection, Ctrl-X, Ctrl-V.}
+
+\chapter{Write as Well as You Can}
+
+\quote{A good editor likes nothing better than a piece of copy he hardly has to touch. A bad editor has a compulsion to tinker, proving with busywork that he hasn't forgotten the minutiae of grammar and usage. He is a literal fellow, catching cracks in the road but not enjoying the scenery}{300}.
+
+\quote{My favorite definition of a careful writer comes from Joe DiMaggio, though he didn't know that's what he was defining. DiMaggio was the greatest player I ever saw, and nobody looked more relaxed $\ldots$ he didn't appear to be exerting himself}{302--303}.
+
+\reflection{This part has taken a much more narrative tone than part I or II, which were much more instructionally-oriented. Also, a significant portion was dedicated to editors, which isn't particularly applicable to me now. However, the message of quality resonates with me. I'd like to write well, so I'll try to build my ``craftsman's ethic'' (297).}
+
\biblio
\bye