In Writing In The 21st Century, Harvard academic Steven Pinker, emphasizes that:
The first step to being a good writer is to be a good reader: to read a lot, and to savor and reverse-engineer good prose wherever you find it. That is, to read a passage of writing and think to yourself, … "How did the writer achieve that effect? What was their trick?" And to read a good sentence with a consciousness of what makes it so much fun to glide through. (Pinker & Brockman, 2014)In this piece of work, Pinker also makes other points about how to write well, but the importance of reading a lot if you want to write well in any language is his major point, to which he adds the importance of enjoying what you read even as you read it critically.
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My response
I was initially going to do this response writing assignment to get us thinking about what we are doing in this class as a very short Classroom question, but when I tried to write my own very brief answer, I decided that was an impossible limitation, that it would be much better to invite you blog on the question for a few minutes. So, the questions to respond to are:
- What do you read for pleasure? What do you read because you want to read it?
- Is that in English or your native language?
- Do you agree with Pinker?
- If you agree with this famous cognitive psychologist with a strong interest in how language works in the brain, what does that suggest we should do in our class?
- If you disagree with him, why do you think he might be wrong? It is healthy and normal academic practice to disagree with the ideas of others, but we are expected to give reasons for disagreeing.
Your turn. In a new comment, respond to the above questions.
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Reference
The Edge article is actually a transcript of a presentation by Pinker, and the video version is also on the page cited if you would prefer to watch and listen.
In personally, I don't like to read a book. I like to watch television or YouTube rather than reading. However, if I need to read, I will choose books such as fairy tale to read. Because they are less serious than other kind of books.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Pinker that we should begin reading with something that we interested. Because it can make us eager to read, and practice new language at the same time. That's why I think that reading for pleasure is better than reading for tasting.
I also like reading novels, although fairy tales are not my usual choice. However, fairy tales are very often well-written because they have been worked on by generations of authors each making the story stronger and more exciting. They have to be interesting and strong to hold the attention of children whilst also teaching moral or other social lessons. But when i think about it, some fairy tales are pretty awful - Snow White, for example, is a pretty ugly story for children, but it's so well told that it's fun. A wicked step-mother plotting to kill her stepdaughter. A father agreeing to kill his own daughter. A sex-crazed soldier disobeying his king's orders ... and so the story goes, with blood and betrayal everywhere.
Deletei usually read my favourite stories again and again. In the case of Jane Austen's perfect Pride and Prejudice, I've read it so many times that I have a collection of four paper versions that are falling apart from use. And that was before I got a Kindle edition, which is not damaged by repeated readings.
I forgot to say that I think Homer's Iliad, the great poem at the foundation of Western civilization, was also made great by being worked on for centuries before it was ever written down in a definitive form.
DeleteIs this also true for the great classics of Thai literature?
I read books that I never read before for pleasure. Most of the time, it's not because I want to read it but because I have bought it. I just feel sad to aggravate global warming without utilize paper to their maximum capacity. I read in English, Thai and Chinese. I'm not sure what do I read the most. Perhaps Thai. but it also depends on the time we are talking about.
ReplyDeleteI'm agree with his view. How could anyone be a good writer without reading any books. I think that it's a a necessary condition but not the sufficiency condition. People reading a lot may not able to be good writers because some of restriction, say language barrier or knowledge necessarily for write a good work.
Because I do agree with his view, we should read more but also think more.
I like Den's comment about global warming. It wasn't something I had thought of, but I'm doing my bit. I never buy paper versions of books, magazines or newspapers any more. It's been a few years since I last bought something in the paper version, much preferring the convenience of Kindle or other electronic editions.
DeleteI also like that Den pick's up Pinker's point that when we read, it should be critically: what works well? Why does it work well? What is not so good? And so on.
I'm interested the reading in Business and psychology which is typically in my native language because I can read faster and get the main idea correctly. I sometimes, however, read the books in English since I want to practice my English skill but it was slow me down to get to whole idea of the books.
ReplyDeleteI agree with his idea is that the important thing which need to do for the good writer is reading. When we read a lot, we will see the pattern of language. I strongly feel the when we want to best at something, the review is significant key. Similar to the reading, we review the pattern of language. I suggest we should reading in English, so we can improve our English writing skill.
I always think that business sounds really boring to read about, but then I keep coming across fascinating articles in Harvard Business Review (HBR) and elsewhere that I can apply in other areas, from teaching to personal life, so my own experience seems to contradict my prejudices.
DeleteIn fact, my FB page just directed me to what is probably the best analysis I've read yet for Trump's surprizing triumph over the US:
Delete"What So Many People Don’t Get About the U.S. Working Class"
Blood soup? I'm not sure that that sounds so awful. But it does remind us that in most societies it is alcohol, not heroin or yaa baa or marijuana or cocaine that is the real drug problem causing serious social harm.
DeleteIn the young age, I read novels and biography of famous people in the past for pleasure and they usually in my native language but as now I started to grow older and have ideas of writing my own books. So I thought that I should read more books that's not available in Thai language. As I started off to read a novel from movie I like and see the difference between them (I forgot to mention I also wanted to write a screenwriting and a movie script).
ReplyDeleteI also enjoy reading biography of famous people. There's a saying that we could gain experience merely by reading others' life. I think the idea of writing your own books is great. I used to have this idea in my mind but gave up in the end. I felt that I didn't have any idea what to write about and whether it would be something new.
DeleteWhat do you read for pleasure? I am interested in investment, finance and history, and so I love reading them. I am not a English native tongue, but I love reading books writing in English because countless good writers write valuable books in English.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that to rad a lot can help us to be a good writer because we will recognize the structure of beautiful sentences, learn new vocabulary and how to use the words in order to express our idea effectively. Therefore, We should read many different articles from many different writers in order to learn their writing styles to create our own styles
I like the idea that we should not only read a lot, but read a variety. This is something that the authors of Skillful would agree with, as we see from the varied texts they include.
DeleteAnd I'm thinking of something very different for our next class reading. (Yes, there will be more after Ariely.)
Great to know your technique of reading. I like the way you recommend that reading can help us remember the structure of beautiful sentences.
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ReplyDeleteSince I am 8th grade, I read academic textbook and non-fiction novel. The first reason, I want to know the extra-knowledge that do not appear in the class. I also fall in love the mathematics, so I read lots of theorem carefully to understand them. In the additional, I love science subjects such as physics, biology, and computer. There make me have many ideas and plenty of questions about them.
ReplyDeleteIn personally,I interest in graded reader,it is English language,it is about famous novel.That can help me to write easier than before I read.In the beginning, I did not want to read, one of my teacher advised me to read it.She said it can improve my writing skill. I agree with Steven Pinker because you should read a lot and then understand it.Finally,you should to try write it. we should read much if we can.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad your earlier teacher got you reading - I also use graded readers in my higher classes in AUA's regular program. Maybe I should start students on them sooner.
DeleteAre they available in digital editions?
I'm not sure that is this website call digital edition http://english-e-reader.net/
DeleteI can read full version of some book that I used to read it in graded reader from this website for free. Moreover, I can press star bottom (on the left hand side) to send it into my favourite list to read in the next time.
Most of book that I choose to read is fairytale because it make me relaxed than other kind of books.
DeleteIt may be a great idea to let students choose a book that they interested, and share it with each other after they finished reading it. As I remember, some teacher in AUA, who I can't remember his name just remember that he come from Silicon Valley, use this way to teach students and it work very well in regular class. The purpose is to make student like reading by beginning with something they interested.
However, in AEP class I think the purpose of reading may go beyond just reading for pleasure. ^^
Thanks Ae.
DeleteI had a look at the website, which looks promising. I'll go back for a closer look this afternoon. I'm just worried that it might be ... stealing. The site, which appears not to have been created or proofed by native English speakers does not say anything about holding copyright permissions or paying the authors of the works they are offering for free.
And this doubtful honesty raises the question: should we use a great resource if doing so makes us criminals? Or the slightly different question: should we use it if doing so is a form of dishonesty?