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Daniel Kies Department of English College of DuPage |
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| Composition 2
English 1102 |
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Kinds of Writing
There is nothing new in telling you that writing can exist in different forms. Most likely we have all composed both a grocery list and a love letter at some point in our lives already, so I needn't tell you the obvious. What I meant by the title however was that the writing we will do in this course progresses through different, interrelated levels of development and I would like to describe those to you here.
To write analytically, the writer must read analytically (see the discussion of levels of reading) and think about the relationship between the subject, the readers, and the writer. Analytical writing begins with an accurate summary of the piece. (In academic writing the summary is often in the form of an abstract.) Summary is the first level of analytical writing.
From there, the writer must take the subject "apart" by describing the component issues, ideas, background information, and important subsections in the work. Important is a relative term here, and the writer decides what is important by considering the subject itself and the readers' needs. Analysis of the background information and the ideas in a subject is the second level of the writing we will do in our course.
Finally, the writer must bring to bear his/her judgment about the work, the subject, and background readings or information s/he has. In making judgments, the writer is evaluating the merits of the ideas under discussion. Evaluation is the third level of analytical writing in our course.
Consider as an example Roger Ebert's review of the film Apocalypse Now Redux, a personal favorite, I must confess. In his review, Ebert accomplishes all the tasks of writing a solid analytical piece. He summarizes the background to the film in the early paragraphs, setting the stage for his evaluation by citing technical details about the film, reminding us of the parallels to Joseph Conrad's novel The Heart of Darkness. Then Ebert moves into the analysis in the middle of the essay, taking apart the film's ideas and images, comparing them to other films, comparing his ideas to those of other critics, and explaining why so many other critics misunderstood the film. Ebert concludes with his evaluation, an evaluation that is based on both his summary of the film's background and his analysis of the film's content.
Whether he gives a film thumbs up or down, Ebert always bases his evaluation on a careful summary and analysis of a film. We may not always agree with him, after all each of us will interpret things differently because we have different backgrounds, experiences, and ideas, but at least we know why Ebert evaluates films the way he does, and we credit him for that.
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