1000 Word Critical Reflection

1000 word Critical Reflection Essay Sample 1 Good writing must be both detailed and economical. Discuss how published writers manage these two seemingly contradictory techniques. Demonstrate how you have employed detail and economy in both your ICRW portfolios. As my former copy editing professor loves to tell his students, ‘Every word must earn its keep.’ I believe his motto neatly summarizes how to reconcile the apparent contradiction between detail and economy in good writing. As I considered the relationship between them, they became intertwined; any strategy that truly improves detail will also increase economy. Better detail does not mean more, just as economy does not always mean less. Instead, express select details cleanly and honestly. In my portfolio, I sought to convey one or two clear ideas in each piece. This led me to include cliché situations or ambiguity, which can be tricky, but each instance is thoughtful and intentional. With the limited space of a flash fiction piece, Tony Williams says, ‘the key … is to identify the right details’ (318). In my short story, “Execution,” I initially wanted readers to feel discomforted at the idea of counting down to the moment of death; a criminal execution victim narrates her final ten seconds with vivid descriptions of the painful experience. While editing, I realized that the larger argument of whether a countdown is barbaric was not the point of this narrator’s story. The story is her agony, brief but elongated in her own mind. To address that point, I took Roy Peter Clark’s advice in How to Write Short to avoid ‘nickeling-and-diming a text’ and instead started removing chunks that were not serving the story. Originally, another paragraph and a count of ‘zero’ followed the now-final line. Cutting the ending shorter lets readers focus more on the narrator’s last torturous moment. As little actual action happens in the story, the narrator — her character and experience — had to fill that void. The point is that she dies, so a final, wistful thought from her does not evoke enough finality as simply, ‘One.’ Additionally, writers must also pick the right word. With the right words, fewer are required. As Christopher Johnson says in Microstyle, we must ‘pay careful attention to the type of situation that that word conjures up in your mind, and the kinds of inferences it points you toward’ (65). Word choice became especially important as I worked on my haiku, particularly the one about a bird bath: bird bath floods still rain falls My challenge was to find a replacement for ‘overflows,’ the original verb in the first line, that did not cross the line of figurative language. I wanted to evoke the feeling of either peace or boredom that arises after a long rain. Anything like ‘weeps’ was figurative and too sad; ‘drips’ was not rainy enough. I settled on ‘floods,’ because it brings to mind lakes overtaking their banks or streets filling with water after days of rain. The weather in this picture is not destructive, but heavy enough that birds won’t be visiting. If details require proper selection and word choice is essential to economy, then techniques such as cliché and ambiguity incorporate both. Johnson says that it is vital ‘to distinguish between a cliché that’s truly tired — one that’s motivated by laziness rather than a desire to communicate — and idioms that do real work by communicating in a shorthand way’ (191). The same principle applies to literary and cultural tropes. In a late edit of “Execution,” I added the line, ‘Female serial killers aren’t so common,’ in the first paragraph of narration. It serves partly to indicate the gender and situation of the narrator, but it also brings to mind many assumptions and stereotypes. I intended the line to reinforce the psychopathy that I was struggling to illustrate. Later, the narrator’s visions of ‘witch burnings’ frame her experience of death as a spectacle for those who condemn her. Both general categorizations serve to characterize her quickly but specifically. My screenplay, “Reading,” uses clichés more heavily to create a relatable experience. The snapshots of the warrior are general enough that they don’t call a particular story to mind, but anyone who has read a fantasy novel recognizes them. We also all recognize the stock character of a little girl who loves to read — the Matildas of our world. And just as in Roald Dahl’s iconic story, my ten-year-old girl is not plain or powerless just because she wears glasses and isn’t a fantasy hero. The message is not ground-breaking, but I framed it in the everyday scene of a little girl reading in order to point out how natural an assumption it should be. In several situations, I opted for ambiguity, and I believe it worked best in one of my haiku. Johnson cautions: ‘For ambiguity to be really good, both interpretations have to be spot-on. If one interpretation doesn’t really fit … the message falls flat’ (106). The haiku reads: leaves crunch doe pauses trigger When I settled on this final draft, I intended it to startle, and possibly sadden readers. But as I revisited it, another interpretation emerged: success. Someone who hunts, by necessity or for recreation, could easily imagine the same situation with satisfaction or accomplishment. Someone who opposes hunting, especially for sport, would likely read the poem as I originally meant it. Each interpretation is equally valid, and I believe that the ambiguity speaks to the idea that ‘the whole point is to be suggestive — to avoid overt statement or claims that can be pinned down’ (Marshall 118). Sometimes haiku point to a clear, specific moment, but through ambiguity, they can include more than a single experience. In conclusion, detail and economy, though apparently contradictory, work together by virtue of the fact that improving one generally improves the other. When I stopped trying to imply psychopathy in “Execution” through subtle hints and simply stated it, the work was cleaner and tighter, and any detail afterwards built on that foundation rather than trying to start from the ground. Johnson summarizes this idea of, essentially, clarity: ‘The words shouldn’t get in the way; they’re valuable to the extent that we don’t notice them’ (42). Rarely does an audience read or an author write for the sake of the words themselves. The emotions, arguments, and narratives beyond the words are the real focus. Although I’m not convinced that this skill can be fully perfected, I am more confident in my self-editing abilities, especially when it comes to trimming away excess and making clearer the messages I deem important. 1000 word Critical Reflection Essay Sample 2 How has learning to use ‘form’ and making choices (setting ‘constraints’) affected your own creative writing? Make reference to at least two of your own creative portfolio pieces written this term. Over the course of the ICRW 2 module, I was introduced to increasingly specific and constrained forms of writing which allowed me to further refine my writing virtues. I focused heavily on flash fiction, screenwriting and haikus. The latter two expanded my appreciation of constraint even further because of how minimalistic and tight they are. At the beginning of the term, I did not see how such short forms could hold any merit or present any challenge when flash fiction was already a suitable introduction to the concept of limiting yourself, but I came to realise that they are both very precise in what they demand and that I could learn a lot from adhering to their restrictions. The haiku’s set of rules struck me as quite pedantic at first; I saw the seemingly arbitrary limitations as an attempt to present the form as challenging because the length of it meant that anyone could write a good one in seconds. After attempting to write some myself and comparing them to professionally-written ones, as well as learning more about the purpose of the form, I realised that a good haiku is like a well-taken photograph - the differences between good and bad are small, but very apparent. Haikus need to be a snapshot; an evocative moment. In the introduction to Purple Lights, Leone Ross summarises the essence of haiku as the intent to “express concrete ideas rather than abstract notions”. To me, this made clear the fact that I was supposed to present the snapshot as is, without any commentary from myself. This was a haiku written before I realised these facts: a log sleeps moved by curious hands denizens scatter In addition to my tutor noting that “denizens” was an overly artificial and formal word, which disrupted the moment, I also realised that “curious” indicated that I knew what the owner of the hands was thinking, which would be wrong. In this brief moment, the only things that were certain were the things that could be seen. Hence, I modified the haiku into this final form: a log standing moved by small hands bugs scattering The “sleeps” also felt too figurative, so I removed it. In the final draft of the haiku, I also took care to focus on the structure, showing the juxtaposition between “standing” in the first line and “scattering” in the final. Focusing on this particular haiku helped me to appreciate the meticulous structural choices involved in their creation. I decided to replace some of my less impressive haiku with new ones where I would attempt to play with the language a bit more. One of the results was this: pouring down slip and slide off the tiles I tried to emphasise enjambment above all else in this haiku, with the shortness and speed of the reading being reflective of how the rain quickly runs down the roof. Thanks to my careful study of the finer details of haiku, I realised how the use of precision could turn a haiku into a very evocative and artistic depiction of nature. Studying the form’s extremely short length has equipped me for the future by encouraging me to look at writing on a sentence level. In On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Nonfiction, William Zinsser says that “very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time” (9). This struck me as a testament to the fact that a good haiku takes effort and that you are unlikely to chance upon a good one just by writing them mindlessly. Writing a microfilm turned out to be similar to writing a short story, expect there was even less room for pointless details because every second out of fifteen needed to be meaningful. This also meant that all fifteen seconds needed to be coherent and fit into a whole, as I learned from my tutor. My first microfilm was about a spy trapped by a villain. In a parody of James Bond, the villain said that he wouldn’t understimate the spy by monologuing and allowing him to escape when he could just kill him instead, but decides to monologue anyway. In A Guide to Screenwriting Success, Stephen V. Duncan suggests that screenwriters should “create an unexpected situation...a twist beyond what was expected...by the audience” (35). My microfilm set out to do this but neglected to give a proper reason why the villain would have such a lapse in judgement. I was unable to explain it in the fifteen seconds given, prompting me to opt for a different story. My final microfilm, Angry Ape, ended up making more sense, presenting a short moment with a twist at the end. The boisterous “taller brother” is the one who “roars” and “flexes” at the irate gorilla while the “shorter brother” looks terrified with “eyes wide open” and his body “still”. The brief interaction ends with the reveal that the taller brother has a “brown stain” on his trousers while the shorter one just found it “kinda funny” in the end. This subversion, combined with the relatability of the film, works better than my initial idea. The initial attempt improved my general writing skill as it reminded me to always create logical reasons for events and maintain coherence, which can obviously slip one’s mind when writing a lot of words. The constraint of the form allowed me to see my error easily because it was essentially the only major mistake. The study of haiku and microfilm provided me with skills which can be transferred to longer forms of writing. They taught me that small details matter; sentences and small moments could be the most powerful conduits of storytelling. Roy Peter Clark thinks that it is effective to “surprise with brevity” (137) and “keep the message short” (141), which is exemplified by these two forms and translates to others rather well; it’s possible to say the most by using the fewest words. In the future, I will keep the constraints of short forms in mind as it will encourage me to focus on the smaller details and strengthen my virtues of writing. 1000 word Critical Reflection essay Sample 3 For a writer to have responsibility towards the rest of the world, could be seen as challenging. However both ‘responsibility’ and ‘the rest of the world’ could be defined slightly different than it’s exact literal definition. Responsibility doesn't only mean ‘to have control over someone and to be blamed for.’ Responsibility also could be defined as an act of respect - ‘a moral obligation to behave correctly towards something or someone’. Also, a writer could define ‘the rest of the world’ as only his intended readers (social, sexuality, political, genre related..) rather than feeling responsible towards ‘the rest of the world’ globally, considering every person on Earth, regardless if he would read his books or not. This course has allowed me to discover what type of writer I am, positioning myself as a stimulative, representative writer. This instantly forms an assumption that I intend to deal with socio-political, moral issues and represent ‘people.’ Chinua Achebe emphasises the responsibility of writers to be moral in stories that hey craft and said: “I’ve never seen a really good story that is immoral, and I think there is something in us which impels us towards good stories.”(Popova 2015) I could relate my voice as a writer to the passion I have for journalism - delivering the truth. I have always followed the words of E.B White “ a writer has the duty to be good, not lousy; true, not false; lively, not dull; accurate, not full of error.”(Popova 2016) Non-fiction writers need to depend on different writing strategies than a fiction writer, having a truthful foreground for their writing. This sheds the light on a writers responsibility to be honest towards the world and convey their platform morally. Being a truthful writer, depends on the use of various ways to craft a piece of writing with “sentences that will be grounded in solid principles, and your chances of losing the reader will be smaller.”(Zinsser 26) Zinsser’s statement raises the question that ‘do authors write morally just to receive a huge number of readers?’ Carl Tighe considers that constructing a piece of writing, isn't like ‘constructing a little candy house that should please anybody, and everyone can take a piece of.’(Tighe 158) In response to Tighe’s statement, I have learnt to construct a piece of writing that people would want to take a piece of, and sense that they are part of it. Hence, if “writing a book is actually a very selfish thing,”(Tighe 158) and writers shouldn't take into consideration and be responsible of their readers, writers would of wrote books and trapped them in a treasure box without publishing them. Moreover, readers search for a voice. They search for a voice that is hidden between the lines of a writer. People are always eager for their own voices to be heard. Some consider themselves submissive, since they don't have the techniques to get their words heard by thousands. As a reader, I enjoy reading authors that express their social language clearly. It highlights how professional the author is, by allowing the public to interfere with his inner voice. Some writers consider that they have a duty to allow whispers to be raging loud throughout the lines they write. Writers should demonstrate their respect and responsibility towards readers. They could possibly only feel responsible of their specific genre readers, and people interested in topics that they tackle. Therefore, writers could narrow their responsibility by relating it to their positionality, specifically thinking of what their readers want to read. Writing about people involves interviews . Words coming from a person who has gone through experiences, assists the writer to deliver a truth through his voice. “Even if you are the most elegant stylist in the land,”(Zinsser 100) words of someone with real experiences would be better than yours. Adding a filter to the real life image or words, distorts it. Giving it fake features, which isn't what the readers want to read. They're tired of a deceived image received by the media portrayal. Some readers tend to read non fiction books to receive a story, through different perspectives, not through what everyone else narrates and sees. Because what everyone else knows and sees, isn't what the actual reality is. When i wrote a poem “Under the rubble” I depended on a phrase by Zinsser: “Choose, in short, someone who touches some corner of the reader's life.”(Zinsser 104) I chose to reflect the perspective of an innocent child in a war zone through my poem. Pre-writing, I watched videos of interviews with children at war zone and refugee camps. Their words and simply structured sentence influenced my writing process, to deliver voice of a child narrating his mum’s last breath under the rubble. “Desensitised.! They picked my face not yours mum,! Because a child suffering, is much more worth! being televised.” The collision of both a child perspective with adult reality is very important, when explaining the responsibility of an author in narrating true stories. I found myself responsible to tell a reality that is hidden by the media, and achieve a profound effect on the readers. In most cases and war reports, a child’s voice is normally silenced or marginalised. This alters the story to ‘what the author or reporter want to show the audience,’ without considering the whole truth and reality from different perspectives. Zinserr states that ‘typical kind of information is locked inside people’s heads, which a good nonfiction writer must unlock.’ (Zinsser 103) Therefore, non-fiction writers have a responsibility to behave correctly and morally, in certain situations where a reader would depend on a book to deliver untold real stories from different perspectives they haven't heard. Elaine Scarry develops this concepts by saying : “Perhaps because writers share the readers’ sense of working at someone else's direction, the heart of the story often resides with those who are receiving rather than issuing instructions.”(Scarry 245) Scarry explains the importance of the reader and how he interacts with the story that he receives from an author. Many people underestimate a writer’s passion and career. They expect it to be safe activity, that requires “sitting at your desk, lightly tapping a few keys, pushing your chair back, and pausing to see what marvellous tidbit of art your brain has brought forth to amuse you.” (Prose 249)However, being a writer requires much more mental effort than that. A writer should be brave and courageous, to be able to tackle social problems with responsibility and conscience. They may not do what people describe as terrifying things such as: ‘fight fires, defend rights, perform brain surgery, give birth…’ but they try to be responsible of writing breathtaking books about these people who perform terrifying things. Hence, writers are responsible to put words together to allow readers to visualise new stories behind people that could be seen in their eyes as ‘heroes.’ Writing requires a sharp mind to be detect situations that need a writer to be present. Also, as a writer I try to ‘stay awake,’ and acknowledge that I am responsible of every word I put on paper, similarly as I am responsible for what I say in person. This links to the previous point about social languages, and how writers should express their personal social language on the page. This would lead to an enhanced performance whilst writing, and a better response from the readers. Therefore, readers would receive a true story from a true-self individual. In conclusion, published writers should acknowledge their own responsibilities and where they should allocate themselves in the world. The role of a writer depends on which type of writer you are, and whose voices you decide to express. Responsibility notions differ between sectors of people, countries, races, sexuality, and the genre of writing. There is a strong relation between a writer and a reader, and both could not serve or please themselves without the assistance of the other. Each side should be loyal to the other. A loyal writer by delivering the truthful image through words , and a loyal reader by respecting the efforts of the writer.