Studying What Works

[firehorse]

I posted a thread on the Writing Exercises board, but apparently nobody's looked at it (not a very compelling title: "Annotations"). I'm cross-posting here in the hopes that people will read and maybe respond.

I was in a low-residency MFA program in which one of the requirements was one annotation per week. The annotations were two-page essays that examined a particular aspect of a writer's style, or what language s/he used to convey a particular effect.

I'm hoping to find a few other people who either have already written annotations or are interested in creating an online study/discussion group in which we each share our analysis of a different novel.

It might not work unless everyone has read the book, but then again, it might; or it could work the other way around: if someone sees the way an author has used language to convey class, for example, the person might want to read that book.

-Sarah

[rich]

I'm not much on advanced writing. The only thing I'd like to comment on is the gender thing. I feel that if a male is writing he should use "he." If a female is writing she should use "she." This would eliminate he/she s/he, etc. If need be we could consider it a willing suspension of disbelief. It just bothers me that it takes so much away from the flow of writing.

I apologize for my aside, firehorse.

[arainsb123]

Cross-posting is a practice that's generally frowned upon. You should probably delete this or the other, since I and others hesitate on answering cross-posts.