Readings

The first reading had so much power to it telling you a story without boring you or talking too much. This man took in someone who had been through so much and listened to his story and put it so simply into a poem. Even though he told the story from his point of view it was really about the General’s experience in the Vietnam War. He was descriptive in making him stand out as an individual and believe that you would recognize him straight away if you met him in real life. He brought life to the words he used to explain the life of this man in only a short piece of work. The purpose of Dr. Harrington’s poem was to explain the life of General Apache and the process of writing it, through understanding the turmoil of his life, putting it all on paper and showing his true colors as he wishes to be seen as.

The writer William Zinsser makes a point of how today’s society uses to many words and “clutters” a piece of work and how simplicity is becoming less and less noticeable. He calls it a “disease” and how no one can understand what you’re trying to say. He believes in simplicity and compares it to how hard writing can be. He says “very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time… if you find writing is hard, it’s because it is hard.” He uses examples that we can relate with like pilots saying it’s going to rain in the most elaborate way possible. He doesn’t blame the reader for being stupid, just not careful enough to not paying attention to each word and how it relates to the piece of writing. Not only does he use examples, but he uses them from his own life experience and how he felt about them. Even though we didn’t have the same happening as we did we can relate to the overall message that he is trying to establish. People writing today make it much more complicated than need be.