Commentary: When I read the title of the article, the first thought that came to my head was that this was an article that would talk about viewing and reading passages in a different style than we normally do. The author Mike Bunn opens up the article with his experience working at a theater as a college graduate. He mentioned the commotion and the 3-hour musical that would be shown during his shift. He does this to show how hard it was to focus while reading at work. This caused him to read word by word and gave him a better understanding of how the author set the piece he was reading up. The main idea of the article is to help college students learn how to better analyze the writers techniques and thought process while writing the article that they are currently reading. Learning how to read like a writer will help you strengthen your skills as a reader and writer.
Making Connections: As someone who has always loved to read, this idea and process is something that I personally have implemented subconsciously. Learning from the way the writer sets up different ideas and arguments to strengthen them, or thinking about the way the writer could’ve done things differently helps you better understand the reasons why certain pieces are being used. I never was the biggest fan of writing at a young age, but my love for reading has always been special. Even though the goal while reading wasn’t to become a better writer myself, the content definitely had a positive effect on my growth as a writer. By implementing this strategy for reading like a writer, it’ll help the students in this course to not only better understand the piece that they are reading, but also improve on strategies on how to become better writers through analysis and taking what they have learned from different authors and using them to create better structured essays.
Summary: In the article, “How to Read Like a Writer”, written by Mike Bunn, he talks about his experience with reading after college and how he learned to read like a writer by questioning the passage and analyzing as if he were the author. As an English major and teacher, Mike Bunn wrote the article in hopes of helping college students improve their writing and reading skills by using this technique. He uses excerpts from different articles and pieces from his former students to help the reader better understand and relate to his message. By asking main questions and answering them before you read, it helps you form a better idea and understanding from the writers point of view. Also, understanding the genre and style before reading will help you see the direction of the piece.By taking the best parts to use for your own writing, it serves the point to improve as a writer.
Mustafa's summer english blog 