Creative Criticism
The book I'm a Stranger Here Myself, written by Bill Bryson, is based on a collection of written articles. Bryson writes about everyday events and shows their negative qualities through whining or creative criticism. He attracts the readers' attention by writing ideas that relate to a normal persons life. His methods are very powerful because it attracts his main audience of common people through his simple vocabulary use and everyday middleclass situations. Also between his "complaining" he throws in little jokes that make his stories entertaining. This makes the reader continue reading because it constantly grabs their attention. Another reason of why Bryson's style of writing is very effective is because all of his stories have a main theme that gives a strong and important message to the reader. Some of these messages may be a little controversial to some readers but are very thought out and well explained.
Bryson main style of writing is criticism through complaining. His topics are what many people believe or agree with and have complained once or twice about. Bryson's style of writing makes him very effective in grabbing the reader's attention because many readers relate to his complaining. In the book Bryson complains about the rules and regulations and how sometimes they are overdone. One instance of breaking a rule was when he seated himself in an empty restaurant even though it had a "Please Wait to Be Seated" sign. In this chapter he states "There was no other customer within fifty feet, but that wasn't the point. The point was that I had disregarded a posted notice and would have to serve a small sentence in purgatory in consequence." (Pg21) Many readers would sympathize with the customer and agree with his actions, however if the exact situation would happen to us, we would probably "Wait to Be Seated." This is one of his many mentioned rules that the readers don't agree with and question, but never act against them. Bryson stories are interesting because he challenges and conquers these rules. Another instance of his rule breaking was when he wasn't allowed to fly on the plane because he did not have a picture ID. He also thought this rule was pointless and went against it by showing the flight clerk his picture on the back of his book.
Americans have embraced debate since before we were a country. The idea that we would provide reasoned support for any position that we took is what made us different from the English king. Our love of debate came from the old country, and embedded itself in our culture as a defining value. Thus, it should not come as a surprise that the affinity for debate is still strong, and finds itself as a regular feature of the mainstream media. However, if Deborah Tannen of the New York Times is correct, our understanding of what it means to argue may be very different from what it once was; a “culture of critique” has developed within our media, and it relies on the exclusive opposition of two conflicting positions (Tannen). In her 1994 editorial, titled “The Triumph of the Yell”, Tannen claims that journalists, politicians and academics treat public discourse as an argument. Furthermore, she attempts to persuade her readers that this posturing of argument as a conflict leads to a battle, not a debate, and that we would be able to communicate the truth if this culture were not interfering. This paper will discuss the rhetorical strategies that Tannen utilizes, outline the support given in her editorial, and why her argument is less convincing than it should be.
Although the greater picture is that reading is fundamental, the two authors have a few different messages that they seek to communicate to their audiences. “The Joy of Reading and Writing” depicts how reading serves as a mechanism to escape the preconceived notions that constrain several groups of people from establishing themselves and achieving success in their lifetimes. “Reading to Write,” on the other hand, offers a valuable advice to aspiring writers. The author suggests that one has to read, read, and read before he or she can become a writer. Moreover, he holds an interesting opinion concerning mediocre writing. He says, “Every book you pick has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones” (p.221). Although these two essays differ in their contents and messages, the authors use the same rhetorical mode to write their essays. Both are process analyses, meaning that they develop their main argument and provide justification for it step by step. By employing this technique, the two authors create essays that are thoughtful, well supported, and easy to understand. In addition, Alexie and King both add a little personal touch to their writings as they include personal anecdotes. This has the effect of providing support for their arguments. Although the two essays have fairly different messages, the authors make use of anecdotes and structure their writing in a somewhat similar
As a student of Creative Media Practice, I have come to appreciate the concept of practice as research, people set about research for a diversity of reasons, but the major goals for academics is to address a problem, find things out or establish new heights. According to Robin Nelson in his book, Practice as Research in the Arts: “The term ‘Arts Practice as Research’ would probably not have been coined had artists not gotten involved with modern higher education systems in respect to programmes of learning” (2013: 3). Creative writing has been a source of exploration for me but during this project, I struggled with what constituted as knowledge in creative writing research. Nelson also writes: “Artists engaging in inquiry
I am Yutong Li, or go by Coco. I am a senior at Oregon State University and majoring in business information system and business administrative. My educational background and experience give me solid understanding and strong working knowledge; however, I still have gaps between my current skills and employer expectations. It is important to understanding your advantages and gaps. This memo is to discuss my current skill inventory, employer expectations, and my gaps and different ways I plan to fill them.
The days of the Cold War scenario are long gone when we understood our enemy tactics. We often hear our seniors harken back to a time when we knew our enemy, their order of battle and perdict their actions based on their formation or equipment. Today’s fight is a thinking man’s game, a chess match requiring constant thought and analysis to match wits with our ever-evolving opponent. Critical and creative thinking skills are an essential set of skills that every leader must employ and eventually master to succeed in today’s modern operating environment.
A Creativity Researcher For More Than 30 Years, ihaly Csikszentmihalyi Is A Professor Of Human Development And Education In The Department Of Psychology At The University Of Chicago. He Has Written 13 Books, Including The Best-Seller Flow: The Psychology Of Optimal Experience (Harper Collins, 1991). Here Are Highlights Of His Books “Creativity”. This Book Is About What Makes Life Worth Living. The Creative Excitement Of The Artist At Her Easel Or The Scientist In The Lab Comes As Close To The Ideal Fulfillment As We All Hope To, And So Rarely Do. Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Interviewed More Then Ninety Of Possibly The Most Interesting People In The World - People Like Actor Ed Asner, Authors Robertson Davies And Nadine Gordimer, Scientist Jonas Salk And Linus Pauling, Senator Eugene Mccarthy - Who Have Changed The Way People In Their Fields Think And Work To Find Out How Creativity Has Been A Force In Their Lives. The Author Defines Creativity In A Mode He Designates As “Capital C”, Distinct From Individual Creative Impulses Or Acts That Occur Without Initiating Significant Cultural Change. The Creativity With A Capital C That Is Of Interest To Csikszentmihalyi Is The Act Of Creativity By Which Culture And Cultural Evolution Are Seminally Altered. What Made Galileo And Einstein Think Otherwise And But Couldn’t It Be This? What If They Hadn’t? They Aren’t Around To Ask. But There Are Others Who Are. Creativity Provides A Groundbreaking Overview Of Those Characteristics Shared By Some Of The Most Extraordinary Visionaries Of Our Most Recent Century, Painstakingly Gleaned From Hundreds Of Hours Of Personal Interviews. Finally, It Proposes Ways In Which We Can Capitalize On These Commonalities In Order To Further Creativity In O...
It is my opinion that people, for the most part, could and very well should be more critical. This is especially true when referring to the consumption of information. Unfortunately, many people do not share this viewpoint and shy away from being critical, because criticism, by it’s own definitions, carries negative connotations. So, people avoid being critical, for fear of being labeled “nitpicky” or a “downer” amongst friends and colleagues. This is unfortunate because it promotes a lack of critical thinking that can be every harmful, even on a smaller, more personal scale. Too often people blindly accept what’s on television without ever having taken their own initiative and carried out their own personal research to get the bigger picture. It is
The authors statement regarding how creative and critical thinking can affect our lives is a very powerful one and it should be. Creative and critical thinking can have a very powerful impact on our lives. People that use these two aspects of thinking are more likely to achieve long and short term goals and make better life decisions, such as the type of career to pursue. They live by a moral code that is well thought out and created to fit the person that they are. They are also more likely to think for themselves and have beliefs that have been closely examined. These are just a few of the examples of what thinking creatively and critically can help a person achieve, but it is clear that they can help a person live a more enriched life and
Creativity is a hard phenomenon to be measured, for it is a complex concept that encompasses a lot of domains; it is not specific to a certain field, rather it is manifested in different ways. Throughout the years, researches have tried to come up with a variety of methods to assess the occurrence and the development of the creative abilities individuals possess, each depending on a different perspective. As mentioned in the previous sections, creativity was considered an exceptional gift only certain people are endowed with, the reason why, at that time, there was no need for assessment, for it was recognized through the exceptional achievement of those “exceptional individuals”; their outcome is sufficient to tell how creative they are. Barboot,
In his Anatomy of Criticism, Northrop Frye offers a complex theory that aspires to describe a unifying system for literary criticism. It can be argued, however, that in attempting to delineate such an all-inclusive structure, Frye's system eliminates identity in literature. The present essay takes up this argument and offers examples of how identity is precluded by Frye's system as outlined in Anatomy of Criticism. Structure Vs. Identity
Knowledge is generated through critical and creative thinking. Creative thinking is something new or original that is created with value. Critical thinking is a type of thinking that questions assumptions and validates or invalidates a current belief or something that is said to be previously true. Knowledge is created through the culmination of generally accepted assumptions and creativity. How do you separate general assumptions and creativity? These two types of thinking can be easily separated in regards to concrete or realistic ideas compared to abstract or original ideas however to generate new, acceptable knowledge critical and creative thinking must interact together. The questioning of established beliefs with the creation of unorthodox new ideas will expose the most beneficial knowledge for the world.
Wilde felt that poetry was superior to the graphic arts for what reasons? Evaluate his claims.
Critical and creative thinking are fundamental to human intellectual progress and artifacts thereof (Dewey, Elder, Csikszentmihalyi, Rosenman, & Gero, 2012). Critical and creative thinking are considered higher levels of thought because while it is believed that critical thinker primarily uses the left-brain and a creative thinker primarily uses the right-brain, both types of thinkers tend to think outside the box, but in different ways. There is no direct link between critical and creative thinking, but they each have different dimensions of thought that are used. Critical thinking is convergent thinking, creative thinking is divergent thinking.
Creativity, it’s a broad topic of just new things and ideas among people. The definition of creativity is the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work. PBS describes creativity as, “The new ideas and new connections between ideas, and ways to solve problems in any field or realm of our lives. The concept of creativity is often hard to grasp because creativity isn 't a tangible thing its just and idea. Also, because it’s hard to differ between a truly original idea and an idea that is just shaped from others. With all this being said, it can be hard to figure out where creativity comes from.
Taking a creative writing class was a good way for me to express my thoughts and feelings onto paper, as well as read my other classmates stories. Reading stories created by other people lead me into their mind brain to experience what type of writer they were, it was an overall exquisite class. I believe that every person has a way of expressing who they are through writing stories of their own, fiction is the best way to express your creative imagination. This class that I took for two years helped me become a better writer and helped me understand the types of writers we have.