Best of Week: Short Sentences (9:15-19/08)

For the week of September 15th -19th, we went over TED presentations, Jane Eyre vocabulary, the Kite Runner, and Artful Sentences. I contemplated writing about the new secret I learned or the philosophies of Freud and Lacan, but in the end decided the concept of short sentences are more applicable to my life.

Previously, we have gone over short sentences, but I couldn't appreciate their value until Thursday's conversation. They were boring. I thought of teaching my 6 year old cousin how to write about the baseball game he went to: "I saw the cubs. I ate a hot dog. The cubs won. I had fun." When we were going over their purpose and seeing how they could be applied in Artful Sentences, it was then that I saw how their use in moderation amongst longer sentences in a paragraph is useful. It gives the reader a break. I believe the writer should keep an audience to tell their story to in mind; by providing a break it's almost as if the writer is taking care of them as well.

While reading the Kite Runner that night, I started noticing Hosseini's own use of short sentences. It not only broke up the paragraph into more legible sections, it added emphasis to points that needed to be comprehended. The power behind the writing became more of a voice, and grew its connection with the reader.

As I grow my own voice as a writer, I would like to try to incorporate this style and in a sense, artform. I imagine that it would add something different to my stories and as Mr. Allen stated, it could really enable me to add something different to my college essays down the road. I'll be unusual. Not a cut and paste student. From now on, I will try to incorporate this variety and make my papers more interesting.