A&B Concepts

Over the past few days we have done a lot of reading in the A&B Guide to Writing, and there are quite a few interesting concepts i came across. I would have to say the most interesting concept to me is the difference between closed and open prose. I was not even aware there were multiple forms of prose before reading this, and when i read the differences my mind was just about blown! I thought that every paper ever written had a thesis, and boy was I wrong. In open forms of prose there usually isn't a thesis, but rather an implicit theme instead. Closed forms of prose are more instructional and all tie back to the thesis, whereas open forms are chronological and usually are used to deepen a problem, or show its human significance. Another interesting concept is that good writing isn't usually about following the rules, but instead its about thinking critically and asking good questions. Some critical thinking skills crucial to good writing that professors love to see are; The ability to pose problematic questions, the ability to imagine alternative solutions to the problem, and the ability to write an effective argument. All through high school i had been taught that writing was a pretty straight forward process and in order to be successful one must follow the rules. In reality however, that is far from the truth. One must still follow some rules, such as grammar, formatting, punctuation and all that fun stuff, but at the same time you can branch out and be creative. A big part of a successful piece of writing is the writers angle of vision and the question the writer is attempting to ask, or the message the writer is trying to send. A writers stance on certain issues is also very crucial to a paper, and that stance can be decided by former life experiences. So not only can you be creative and branch out while writing but you can actually use experiences from your past to help you become a great writer. I was shocked to learn all of these new concepts about writing!