Bad Ideas About Writing, by the authors Cheryl E. Ball and Drew M. Loewe, illustrate a group of literature format that is considered, not necessarily bad, but quite pointless and as adjunct methods. These “bad ideas” are the five-paragraph essays, computerized essay scoring (gamification), and genre, which the authors described as the “most maligned” used by writers. These ideas are considered bad because they are blocking progress in the current understandings of writing.
I selected the Bad Ideas About What Good Writing Is because as an English student I would like to significantly increase my methods and techniques in my writing. I love to use rhetoric in my writing and learn more about it. A quote from the text I strongly like describing rhetoric is, “A person can speak the truth simply by using words that refer to true things in the world. If she chooses not to use sentences filled with words that refer to true things in the world, then she is engaged in rhetoric. Rhetoric, in this view, is something you add on to sentences (such as metaphor) that decorates and obscures communication.”. This quote describes rhetoric as being an art (in my opinion) because it is the ability to describe things in your writing in-depth and with deeper connecting with the content. Rhetoric is like a way of persuading the public with “wise” words which can make a difference in a debate. Just like the text says, “It’s harder to lie in plain language, or that lies are more obvious when the language is less complicated. Therefore, we can trust plain language and should treat complicated language with suspicion.”
I good idea to counter this bad idea is to just let people write what comes from their heart. For example, not everyone is good at expressing their ideas and it is very difficult for them to have a “poetic” way of writing. I believe the most effective way of writing is from what comes from your heart instead of what comes from the task or “correct” format of writing because you can’t change what is in a person’s heart on how they express. I believe everyone has their own unique way of communicating. They just need practice.
