Introduction to the text or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the book

The summarization

The introduction to the textbook is "Writing Matters". This of course is a very strong title/statement that only the most ignorant of people would disagree with. That aside, the actual introduction begins by explaining the relationship between seeing and writing (so coincidental that the book is titled (no underline feature available so I shall use quotation marks) "Seeing and Writing 3". Moving on. The the authors suggest that writing is a skill, and that skills take time and practice to perfect. The textbook advises making detailed observations about things that the writer encounters. From these observations, the writer can make inferences about what is happening and then make conclusions. The textbook also goes into detail about the importance of drafting and revising the drafts. Halfway through the introduction, the reader is given a set of compositional tools that will help the reader better to understand parts of the writing process. These tools include structure, audience, point of view, tone, metaphor, and context. These are all great things, the textbook advises that a writer should know his/her audience before creating a piece. The textbook also defines what a metaphor is and how they can be much more fun and interesting than just simple observations.

The big difference between the textbook and LaMott's essay is that the previous is a textbook. The text does a better job of describing certain aspects of the writing process, as well as ways to make the thing you write more enjoyable to yourself, and your audience. LaMott's essay is the children's summary (with one or two expletives) of the introduction of the text.


Now lyrics from Destroyer's Song "This Night"

They led us on, they said "It would be your's"
Take down the border, stop patrolling the shores "Let us in"
We wrote a winter song. "C'mon, C'mon, C'mon, C'mon, C'mon"
Don't shelve the opera, you've been working this long on it.
Twelve years on the eastside, and still so...... house proud


I observe that the songwriter is feeling mistreated. I feel that he is not the only one that feels this way.

I can make many observations about these beginning lyrics of an incredible song, but I know that it would take me thirty years to finally understand the message Bejar is trying to get across. But that is ok with me. I probably never will know what he is talking about, but that doesn't bother me one bit.