Writers, Authors, and Genres

Corben’s blog post: Similar ideas, but he didn’t agree that if someone didn’t write at all they were a writer, instead he said everyone has the “opportunity” to be an author.

Riley’s: She agreed with everything I said and more, going into more depth about how not only everyone is an author, but communicating is vital to being a part of our species.

Writers:	Authors:
People who write	A published writer
A sub-group of authors	An umbrella term, including writers
Anyone who can write	Anyone who’s writing is public
Someone who writes their communication	Someone who communicates
Communication on a smaller scale	Communication on a bigger scale

Chloe Corben Riley (this idea was Riley’s)

Types of Writing:	Why you like/dislike it:
Plays	Communicates a whole story through dialogue (like)
Song Lyrics	Use rhythm and rhyme to enhance music (like)
Manuals	Always makes me feel stupid for still not knowing how to put it together (dislike)
Novels	Depends on the genre, like the escape from reality (like)
Research Papers	Interesting facts about one topic in an organized way (like)

List (Note/Reminder): go to party city for party hats, buy ingredients for a cake, buy presents, and get invitations and address them to send to invitees.

Chloe’s note: The note was simple but with today’s technology not the most efficient way of communication.

Corben’s text: Efficient and fast, very informal.

Riley’s email: Allowed for more formal or relaxed diction, but had to fit the email format.

Is everyone an author?

Before reading the chapter, I would have said no to the idea that everyone is a writer. Just like the stereotype mentioned, I thought writers were limited to Shakespeare and James Patterson: people who brainstorm ideas to write about, but only truly became writers because and when they were published. As an aspiring writer myself, I was curious to see why the book said everyone is a writer. And they made some good points: it is still about getting published, but the published piece doesn't have to be in print. With sites such as Wattpad and various places to blog, all of a person's writing is saved to their name. One click of a button, and anyone's writing is accessible to billions of people. Along with the invention of e-readers, you can now publish your books for free to Amazon and Barnes and Nobles’s separate online books sections. The internet is such a quick place to get information to and from, there is no way to logically prove a person is not a writer if they post on the internet.

Another specific point they made that I found myself interested in was that even if you never had the intention of becoming a writer and posting anything that was published, it could still happen. The example they used in the textbook was the writer born in Afghanistan, Tamim Ansary. He wrote an email about the awful stereotypes surrounding his people after 9/11, and with everyone forwarding the email to their friends, it went global in days. Not only is everyone a writer, but I don’t think it’s optional anymore. People write to communicate, and anything you write can be published.

What is writing? Writing is the recorded communication for most languages. Some such as ASL, do not have a written form, but they have other ways to communicate. In English however, it is used for many things. The most common in schools is note taking, the basic necessity to record information for later use. Other forms of this informative writing that I personally enjoy writing is research notes about random things I am curious about and topics for papers at school. More fictional writing I enjoy is short micro-fictions, novellas, and I am personally working on a novel I hope to get edited and published. On occasion I write slam poetry when I am feeling more emotional, I use it like a diary to explain my feelings.

My persona changes depending on what I’m writing, most grammar is lost when I’m writing for myself or I’m writing poetry of any kind, including just a long rant of my feelings. However my diction improves instantly when I need to write a more formal paper such as a critique of a previously done piece of writing, a research paper, or a speech. If I am writing to a teenage audience or a class of my peers usually I simplify the language, but for teachers and other authorities I like to use the thesaurus to find just the right word to convey what I mean.