Reading for Writing

I have never really learned parts of speech, figures of speech, or the different types of words. I've never really known the names for different writing terms. I've been taught grammar, but I've never used it or remembered it. In other words, I know how to write, but I don't know what I'm doing. I never was able to say, "Oh, that's an oxymoron," or "I think I'll use some emotive language here."

I now realize that I am able to recognize some of these things. I was looking through some essays that I wrote two years ago in November '06 and I quickly was able to identify some "rhetorical strategies."

"Who would step up and guide them?" I found that in a research paper about the French Revelutionary leader Robespierre. Rheterical question. I don't know if I knew that term then, but I know that I didn't use it because it was a writing strategy; I used it because it sounded good, because it fit, because I liked it.

Another section from that paper: "Instead of easing the French people of their burdens, he was crushing them. Instead of making their lives better, he was taking them away." I forget what that's called...umm...one second. Parallelism. It's parallelism. I know I didn't know that term when I wrote that.

In another paper, this one based on A Tale of Two Cities, I wrote, "It was his death that saved his wasted life." That is an oxymoron. Later on in the paper, "We can resurrect our dormant souls and find true life." Personification.

I was never taught these terms and strategies by any teacher. I knew them because I read. Ever since I was around seven/eight years old, I've read constantly. I read so much, that it wasn't uncommon for me to be reading five chapter books at a time. I honestly don't think you need to know the names of all this rhetorical stuff in order to be a good writer. I that that if you read, consistently and progressively, you will automatically learn them. You'll learn the effect that certain patterns and words have, you'll know what a good sentence is, you'll understand what great writing is.

No one taught me how to write well. Sure, over the years I've been taught different terms (prepositional phrases, clauses) and how to organize my writing (introduction, body, conclusion) and things like that, but I believe the reason writing comes easily to me is because I read. I don't know why I had and still have such a love of reading; I guess it's a gift. Thank you God, for giving me a passion for books.