English Notes
Newsletter of the LCC Literature Program
Writers on Writing and Reading Part II
In "Writers on Writing and Reading, Part I," I shared my conference notes from the annual National Council of Teachers of English 2001 meeting held in Baltimore. I would like to return to those notes and offer some ideas about writing and the teaching of literature as discussed by Russell Baker and Jane Cheripko.
Baker, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his memoir Growing Up, spoke about his history as a reader. Early in his life he was hooked by the sensationalism of the Hearst newspapers, not the required reading of books such as George Eliot's Silas Marner, still a favorite among high school English teachers. The art of newspaper writing, as defined by Baker, is "stringing together [a] seamless array of clichés." His attention was held by the newspaper writers' ability to bring their stories to life, and their artful use of language.
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