VaszlavikLENS3

Brittany Vaszlavik Lens 3 - Response to Mary March 6, 2012 I deeply enjoyed our discussions on the differences between formal and informal writing. I would like to take our discourse and apply through the lens of “reader-as-writer”. I wonder if this text would influence you on wether to write formally or informally. One of the most important things that you brought up to the groups attention was that it was important for these children to understand a formal way of writing in order to increase their chances of succeeding in their future lives. But as we also discussed many other great writers have written in unconventional dialects and met great success such as Toni Morrison. So my question is how would this book influence your writing. Do you believe there should be this change when writing is in this venue? It is hard to tell what Salzman thinks on the subject because the content switches so drastically between the two. Although his writing contained discourse in the vernacular when it went to the journal entries they were incredibly formal. If he had taught the children to write in this fashion but his own differs to what we would consider to be informal is Salzman suggesting that the formal must be learned before someone is capable of utilizing an informal or different style? In many ways I agree with you that the formal must be taught and taught in a way that does degrade other forms of writing. In my personal writing and views on how it should be taught, I feel that it should be more open to other styles. I would have found the journal entries more genuine if they held the vernacular language. I would have felt closer to the character because I think when switching to the formal they lose part of their unique voice. Then again it is hard to step outside of that learning because I suppose even now I’m writing in the necessary formal in order to succeed, thus proving your point that the formal was needed.