Advanced Techniques and Special Effects

As I read this week's assigned chapters from Noden, I couldn't help but question how the advanced techniques, as described in chapter 5, could be taught to younger and more inexperienced writers. Should they be taught to inexperienced writers? Of run-ons, Noden writes, "Like fragments, run-ons are powerful structures when used skillfully by professional writers." Does this mean that it is impossible for students of the English language to efficiently use run-ons and fragments meaningfully? I do not believe that this is the concept that Noden is intending to express, or that he is trying to create any sort of debate. However, I do think that there is value in sharing these types of creative techniques with students. Though these techniques do not meet the grammatical standards typically held in a secondary classroom, there is definitely importance in demonstrating that writing does not have to be a boring task of following rules. In teaching this kind of material, teachers must be careful, making it clear that run-ons and fragments must be used for reasons, rather than utilized constantly.

In chapter 6, Noden discusses the way in which writers can use grammar to create special effects in their writing. This reminded me of chapter 3, when Noden discussed using rhythm to make writing musical. I felt that this chapter was similar in that the writer is able to breathe life into a text by rearranging or changing punctuation to create a noticeable effect.

I really appreciated Noden's discussion of Dawkin's Punctuation Hierarchy. This is the first time that I have every encountered this and feel that it makes sense of exactly how to use punctuation for special effects, such as a pause. I think that the chart provided in the book could be something that would work well as a handout. Students could use the hierarchy as a tool to assess what type of effect they are going for, and choose their punctuation accordingly. It also works to familiarize students with some punctuation that they may be somewhat less comfortable using, such as the semicolon and the colon.

Some of the other ideas in the chapter that I found to be very appealing were shape poetry and "tantalizing" title use. These topics connect in that they help readers to develop a first impression of a text before they begin reading it. The shape poetry section of this chapter was very interesting to me, and I think that having students study shape poetry and create their own would be a great project for a poetry unit. The title pattern suggestions would make another great handout, as it could help students write titles for any documents that they have to write for school and in the future. Titles should be catchy and meaningful, but they are often difficult to generate. Therefore, giving students these templates could help them to generate ideas and create effective and exciting titles for their papers. I also really appreciated the strategy that followed along with the tantalizing titles theme, using Amazon.com to find examples of how authors use grammatical structures in their titles.

Rhythmic Writing

This week, we read about (and I will be presenting on) using parallelism to create rhythm in writing. I like this topic because I believe that in writing, we often fail to really think about the rhythm of our sentences and paragraphs. Or maybe that is just me. Either way, in considering my own habits as a writer, I tend to read over my work to make sure that it flows well, but I rarely focus on rhythms or parallelism. Perhaps rhythms are automatic for some writers. However, I think that if we practiced going back into what we've written and vary sentence structure, we will find amazing and subtle new ways to freshen our writing style. For example, I typically use comma heavy, long sentences. It is usually beneficial for me to break some of my sentences apart when I am revising work. 

For younger writers, I think that teaching parallel structures for agreement could be a very important lesson. As Noden states, "choppy rhythms distort perceptions and interrupt the consistent flow of ideas" (63). Again, rhythm is an aspect of writing that is not often dwelt on, but a list lacking parallelism can be very distracting to a reader. 

In order to encourage students to think about and become aware of parallelism in their own writing, I think that it would be very important to incorporate auditory elements to these lessons. Students should be able to listen for parallelism and discuss how its presence enhances the writing and what effect it has on them. 

My favorite part of this chapter is that, like all of the Noden reading, it discusses writing as an art form. As a person who is very interested in both music and writing, I really felt an appreciation for the examples provided in the text. For me, this chapter provided a great example of how important grammar is to the writing process and further reminded me that, as a teacher, the best way that I can help students to improve is by teaching grammar in context.