Syvannah Boland
After reading "Navigating Genres," I noticed that the writing carried a very similar tone to "Shitty First Drafts." It was very casual and informal, to make the writing seem more personal to the reader to seem more relatable to the writer and what she is trying to convey. She even mentions this in her writing. Like Lamott's writing, I learned more about genre after reading this than I had ever learned before. She points out the genre that we use and subconsciously utilize in our every day lives, and even mentions The Onion, one of my favorite satirical sites, as its own genre - because they know how to target a specific audience and make them laugh. I thought this was really interesting because I would have never initially thought of these headlines as a part of a genre, but after each part of how the writers of The Onion come up with the titles was explained, I understood. I enjoyed reading this essay because Dirk was very conversational (which made it more interesting to read in my opinion) and taught me things that I am going to use in my future writings.
After reading "Navigating Genres," I noticed that the writing carried a very similar tone to "Shitty First Drafts." It was very casual and informal, to make the writing seem more personal to the reader to seem more relatable to the writer and what she is trying to convey. She even mentions this in her writing. Like Lamott's writing, I learned more about genre after reading this than I had ever learned before. She points out the genre that we use and subconsciously utilize in our every day lives, and even mentions The Onion, one of my favorite satirical sites, as its own genre - because they know how to target a specific audience and make them laugh. I thought this was really interesting because I would have never initially thought of these headlines as a part of a genre, but after each part of how the writers of The Onion come up with the titles was explained, I understood. I enjoyed reading this essay because Dirk was very conversational (which made it more interesting to read in my opinion) and taught me things that I am going to use in my future writings.
Syvannah, I agree that the tone in "Shitty First Drafts" seemed to almost be paralleled in "Navigating Genres" with it's informality making the writers seem much more relatable and understanding to their readers. This helps them also get their point across that writing should not be something that is cookie-cutter but rather a form of expression and discovery.
ReplyDeleteUsing the onion as an example helps give an idea to what Dirk was speaking on specifically in relation to genres. The informality of the piece also helped give an understanding to how the audience was targeted - and how positive that affect alone had on the reaction to the essay.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that "Shitty First Drafts" and "Navigating Genres" both have similar casual tones, which help ease the reader and make the text less boring. I also enjoyed the example about The Onion, as I enjoy their satire as well and the example helped me understand the topic more in-depth.
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