Good Readers and Good Writers Analysis: Post #8

My reaction to this essay is logical. I learned some new aspects and methods about reading and writing. This will improve my intellect when writing and reading. At first I did not like the author's tone. I thought he was arrogant and a know-it-all. However, I read it a few more times and knew that the author was just trying to educate the audience. I think this essay was complicated, too.There were also moments when I was reading the essay when I did not understand what the author was saying. However, once again, I re-read it like Nabokov suggested and understood it more. I am not a huge fan of this essay because it lacks personal connection. It was not emotional, so I though it was pretty boring. If I liked more informative essays it would be better and easier to read for me. I did not have an emotional reaction to this essay because it did not have any personal connections to me. I felt as if it was an essay strictly about improving audience education. There is nothing wrong with that, but it is not my favorite thing to read for recreation. However, it is a good essay to read when in school.

Bibliography! :
Nabokov, Vladimir. "Good Readers and Good Writers." Lectures on Literature. New York: Plurabelle Books, 1946

Good Readers and Good Writers Analysis: Post #7

The authority of an author is the decisions he or she makes. The author can decide things like the plot, the setting, the characters, and other elements of the paper. Nabokov chose things like the point of view and the thesis. Nabokov decided to make this essay a first person point of view. He could use words like I, my, and mine. He shared his personal opinions from his point of view. I bet he chose first person view so he could make his points stronger by personally stating them. He had authority and decided to make his essay slightly more personal by making the point of view first person. He had authority over the thesis as well. He decided to make the thesis about reading and writing. Not only is the thesis about reading and writing, but it gets more specific by being about improving on reading and writing. The thesis also goes into another big decision. The plot is probably the most important decision the author makes. Nabokov made the decision to compose an essay about instructing people on good reading and writing. Nabokov had authority on all aspects of his paper and he made good decisions for the most part.

Bibliography! :
Nabokov, Vladimir. "Good Readers and Good Writers." Lectures on Literature. New York: Plurabelle Books, 1946

Good Readers and Good Writers Analysis: Post #6

There are plenty of ways to organize an introduction. In "Good Readers and Good Writers" the way Vladimir Nabokov organized his introduction was by the commonly used Quotation method. However it was not that common the way he used it. In the small introduction paragraph Nabokov constructed he used three sets of quotations. One quotation, however, stands out. "What a scholar one might be if one knew well only some half a dozen books." He uses this quote to explain the more you know, the better off you will be. This quote was made by a European man, Flaubert, to his mistress. This quote opens up the discussion of being a good scholar, thus being good at reading and writing. I believe that this is the only organization method used in the introduction.

The conclusion is characterized in a not so conventional way. The long conclusion focused more on good writing instead of wrapping up the important thesis. I did not see good reading skill mentioned that strongly or even at all! The main part of the lengthy conclusion is the three key points about writing. I think that it is not characterized very well because a conclusion is supposed to tie the loose ends of the essay together. Instead, it just wraps up the section of good writing in the essay.

Bibliography! :
Nabokov, Vladimir. "Good Readers and Good Writers." Lectures on Literature. New York: Plurabelle Books, 1946

Good Readers and Good Writers Analysis: Post #5

Organization is crucial to a good essay. Good writers organize their essays to flow strongly and make the message of the essay easy to understand. There are a lot of good ways to organize essays. There is chronological, functional, spatial, and logical. For this essay, I thought it could be logical because he is making somewhat of an argument, but I decided on spatial organization since the essay gives directions about improving on reading and writing to the audiences. Nabokov begins by explaining how to be a good reader. He gives directions on how to do so. One example of his directions on becoming a good reader is on the second page of the essay. There is a list in which he picks out four key things to being a good reader. These are somewhat directions to follow to becoming a good reader. He then progresses into talking about being a good writer. His directions on becoming a good writer are similar to the directions on reading. He talks about some key things about writing. These sound like guidelines or directions about becoming better at writing. Therefore, the organization is well done on this essay because the two subjects relate to each other and the thesis. I also concluded the spatial organization because it gives directions to the readers.

Bibliography! :
Nabokov, Vladimir. "Good Readers and Good Writers." Lectures on Literature. New York: Plurabelle Books, 1946

Good Readers and Good Writers Analysis: Post #4

My reaction to the essay at first was that Vladimir Nabokov was arrogant and he thought he was better then others. However, I changed my mind because he is writing an essay about improving on reading and writing. He is not being arrogant, he is sharing his beliefs in a very persuasive way. One of my favorite parts of the essay is the list you pick four things from about a good reader. I picked emotional identification, imagination, memory, and artistic sense. I chose three out of four good reader attributes that Nabokov indicated. The one attribute I did not choose correctly was the emotional identification. The right attribute was a reader should have a dictionary. I was not surprised that much about that answer because if you do not understand what words you are reading then there is no point to read about the unknown words. I though this was an interesting idea of Nabokov's because it spent time choosing from the list and learning what is important about each attribute. I also liked that he explained which ones were right. Another interesting part about the list was that he knew students would pick emotion connection, which I chose. Therefore, after reading the essay a few times, my reaction went from negative to positive!

Bibliography! :
Nabokov, Vladimir. "Good Readers and Good Writers." Lectures on Literature. New York: Plurabelle Books, 1946

Good Readers and Good Writers Analysis: Post #3

The definition of rhetoric is the art or study of using language effectively and persuasively. Therefore an author uses rhetorical devices to help create a better literary effect on readers. One rhetorical devices used in this essay that I noticed right away was tautology, repetition of an idea in a different word, phrase, or sentence. Nabokov constantly mentioned noticing details. Tautology basically stresses the importance of using details effectively. He expressed this by saying "fondle details", "information about time and places of a novel", and "can enjoy it's details". Obviously he uses the rhetorical device tautology to show the importance of using details. I also saw another common rhetorical device called a metaphor used in the essay. A metaphor is comparing or contrast two things not using the words like or as. In this case, the two things were contrasted from each other. "The mist is a mountain" is the used metaphor in the essay. This is used when explaining a journey that a reader makes that starts as something conquerable like mist, that turns into something hard to conquer like a mountain. Those are just some of the rhetorical devices I saw Vladimir Nabokov in the essay "Good Readers and Good Writers".

Bibliography! :
Nabokov, Vladimir. "Good Readers and Good Writers." Lectures on Literature. New York: Plurabelle Books, 1946

Good Readers and Good Writers Analysis: Post #2

Nabokov's tone in "Good Readers and Good Writers" makes him seem like he is superior to others and peers should listen to his writing techniques. A small sentence from the essay "Can anyone be so naive as to think he or she can learn anything about the past from those buxom best-sellers that are hawked around by book clubs under the heading or historical novels?" makes Nabokov look like he is better then the "best-selling authors". This makes him seem arrogant in some ways. He sounds like he likes to be in charge and control others beliefs. Nabokov's tone also strikes me as passionate because of his forceful way he is trying to get his techniques across to the reader. He really cares about how people grasp the concepts he makes about reading and writing. Nabokov states, "If, however a would be reader is utterly devoid of passion and patience-of an artist's passion and a scientist's patience- he will hardly enjoy great literature." This is obviously one of his views on how important it is to be passionate about reading to enjoy it. From that statement readers can tell that he has passion when he reads and in his tone when he writes.

Bibliography! :
Nabokov, Vladimir. "Good Readers and Good Writers." Lectures on Literature. New York: Plurabelle Books, 1946