The Paris Review: Gay Talese Interview

Gore Vidal, Gay Talese, Susan Sontag, and Norman Mailer

The Paris Review’s Summer 2009 issue contains an interesting interview with Gay Talese, an acclaimed author and journalist. Even if you have not read Mr. Talese before or are not familiar with him, I do suggest giving the interview a read if you are interested in journalism or writing nonfiction.

Gay Talese has written eleven books and has led a fabulously interesting life. He had his first taste of journalism in high school and continued on to become a reporter for the New York Times. Since then, he has written for such esteemed publications as the Times, Esquire, The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, and others.

The interview mentions his groundbreaking article “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” which was named the “best story Esquire ever published,” and has a link to Mr. Talese’s outline of the story.

Most notably, Tom Wolfe credited Mr. Talese with the creation of an inventive form of nonfiction writing called “The New Journalism.” There is an interesting perspective on why this label may not fit Mr. Talese so well by Robert S. Boynton in The New New Journalism, along with a comprehensive list of Talese’s articles, interviews, and reviews.

Soon to be published by Knopf, Mr. Talese’s newest work in progress, tentatively scheduled for release in 2011, is a book based on his 50-year, sometimes tumultous marriage.

Editing and Writing Service: Resumes, Cover letters, Theses, Dissertations, and So Much More

As a professional freelance editor, proofreader, and writer, I believe there is nothing more important than expressing your thoughts clearly. If you’re in need of an editor or writer, you can contact me at expert.editing.service@gmail.com and I’ll happily provide you with the expert editing or writing you deserve. From MA theses, PhD dissertations, and undergraduate compositions to essays for admittance (college and grad level) and creative or business projects, I have the experience to take it from good to stellar and from not so good to fabulous.

During my career, I have had the opportunity to work for a number of incredible institutions, both freelance and as a full-time staff member. Among them are So To Speak, a small literary journal advocating feminist art and writing; Heldref Publications, a nonprofit publisher of scholarly journals and magazines in Washington, DC; and Sage Publications, one of the largest publishers of scholarly journals. I have a BA in Liberal Arts (Literature) from Penn State University and an MA in Literature from George Mason University. In addition, I’ve studied at Cambridge University, England, as part of my degree from GMU.

Through these opportunities, I’ve had extensive independant research and academic writing and editing experience in MLA, APA, and Chicago styles. I have considerable interest and academic work in cultural studies, women’s studies, postcolonial literature, and editing. Outside of my personal interests, I have edited many types of articles, theses, and dissertations(e.g., scientific, humanities, and law) as well as books, Web content, guides, newsletters, catalog copy, advertisements, and more. My writing experience includes guides, Web content (including blog posts, reviews, and travel writing), academic research papers, catalog copy, and more.

If you’re interested in my services and/or would like more infomation about my background or would like to see my CV, please feel free to email me, Melanie, at expert.editing.service@gmail.com

I offer extremely competitive rates and lightening-fast turnaround (depending on your needs, of course). I also have experience working with particularly sensitive documents, so you can rest assured that your documents will remain completely confidential.

Writing Composition: Matthew Arnold

In the past, I’ve written on the importance of good writing skills, as well as posted some tips to improve writing skills. This post is an extension of those previous entries and might act as an example of good writing in action. Because I mentioned Matthew Arnold and his belief in the English language and its literature as the basis of a good education in my post about the importance of good writing skills, I felt it would be appropriate to use him as the example. Thinking about this while tooling around on the Internet, I came across an opinion essay called “Discourse Integration by Manipulation: Matthew Arnold” by Avon Crismore, written for the Center for the Study of Reading in which Crismore examines Arnold’s writing style. The full text of the article is available through ERIC (or Education Resources Information Center) and a summary of the abstract can be found in the following:

In the writing of Matthew Arnold, integration, one great impression rather than many great individual lines, is the most important goal. In his essay, “The Function of Criticism at the Present Time,” the “blocs” of his thoughts occur in sets of two, three, or even four sentences: in effect, he writes much like a poet, in couplets, triplets, and quatrains. He also uses a variety of devices to combine his blocs into larger discourse units. His high level of redundancy helps readers integrate and process his difficult text. He manipulates structure to attain parallelism and characteristically puts the most important information in subordinate clauses and phrases. On the semantic level, he does not use many synonyms, preferring repetition of key words to achieve cohesion. This repetition slows the presentation of new information and leads to greater ease of processing. Arnold’s discourse blocs, surface form manipulations, foregrounding, and redundancy all serve to help him develop his ideas while keeping his sentences intermeshed and his prose coherent.

Although Arnold wrote the text in question in 1895, I feel that a modern reader can still access it today with ease. Thanks to Google Books, a digitized version of Arnold’s complete work (“The Function of Criticism at the Present Time”) is available for your perusal by clicking on the link provided in the previous paragraph. I strongly recommend reading Crismore’s work or at least skimming it (at 29 pages this should not take very long) and then reading a good bit of Arnold’s piece, looking for those devices and techniques that Crismore mentions in her essay.

Publication Manual of the APA: Sixth Edition

APA Publication Manual: Sixth Edition

The American Psychological Association has a new edition of their Publication Manual available. This new edition is the sixth edition of the manual and details regarding it can be found on the APA Web site.

If you have not yet seen the sixth edition, it is worth taking a look at the site, which includes the option to “look inside” the new book at the table of contents and introduction. Also included are chapter descriptions for all eight chapters and a summary of what is new in the sixth edition.

Accompanying the sixth edition is a new tutorial designed for those with no prior knowledge of APA style.

I have to say, I love the new colors!

Gary Snyder: Straight-Creek–Great Burn

Straight-Creek–Great Burn

                                 for Tom and Martha Burch

Lightly, in the April mountains–
                             Straight Creek,
dry grass freed again of snow
& the chickadees are pecking
last fall’s seeds
               fluffing tail in chilly wind,

Avalanche piled up cross the creek
               and chunked-froze solid–
water sluicing under; spills out
               rock lip pool, bends over,
               braided, white, foaming,
returns to trembling
               deep-dark hole.

Creek boulders show the flow-wear lines
               in shapes the same
               as running blood
               carves in the heart’s main
                                 valve,

Early spring dry. Dry snow flurries;
               walk on crusty high snow slopes
–grand dead burn pine–
               chartreuse lichen as adornment
                            (a dye for wool)
angled tumbled talus rock
of geosyncline warm sea bottom
yes, so long ago.
“Once upon a time.”

Far light on the Bitteroots;
               scrabble down willow slide
changing clouds above,
shapes on glowing sun-ball
writing,            choosing
             reaching out against eternal 
                                           azure–

us resting on dry fern and
                            watching

Shining Heaven
change his feather garments
                overhead.

A whoosh of birds
swoops up and round
tilts back
almost always flying all apart
and yet hangs on!
together;

never a leader,
all of one swift

empty
dancing        mind.

They arc and loop & then
their flight is done.
they settle down.
end of poem.

–Gary Snyder
Copyright © 1969

I’ve been thinking about mythology (particularly Native American mythology), environmental awareness (with Obama’s recent speeches concerning global warming and humanity’s contribution to the problem), and activism (especially environmental activism) quite a bit recently, all of which has led me to today’s poetry selection. When I first read Gary Snyder’s Pulitzer Prize winning book Turtle Island back when I was a freshmen or sophomore in college, it had a profound effect on me and still does. He is one of those rare poets who manages to combine all of the aforementioned (mythology, environmental awareness, and political activism) into grand poetry that ranges from “the lucid, lyrical, almost mystical to the mythobiotic, while a few are frankly political,” according to the description on the back cover of the book; a description that is quite apt, I believe.

Gary Snyder

You will find some interesting criticism/explication of the poem on Modern American Poetry’s Web site, as well as a very informative biography. For other pieces of literary criticism on Snyder, you may want to check out LiteraryHistory.com, which favors online articles by known scholars, articles published in reviewed sources, and Web sites that adhere to MLA guidelines. Of course, one of my favorite sources for all things poetry is Poets.org, where you’ll find prose, poetry, biographical information, and related poets and links. Enjoy!

Latin Abbreviations in APA Style

When writing a scholarly article in APA style and using Latin abbreviations, there is one rule to be sure to follow and a few exceptions to remember. First, the rule:

Use Latin abbreviations in parenthetical text. In nonparenthetical text, use the English translation of the Latin term. 

Second, the exceptions:

Exception 1: In text citations and in references referring to court cases, always use the abbreviation for versus (v.).

Exception 2: In text and in the reference list, use the abbreviation et al., meaning “and others,” in parenthetical and nonparenthetical text.

If you have questions regarding when to shorten references in text and in the reference list to et al., see this earlier post for details.

Some commonly used Latin abbreviations and their English translations are:

cf. = compare
e.g., = for example,
, etc. = , and so forth
i.e., = that is,
viz., = namely,
vs. = versus, against

This information can be found on page 106, section 3.25 of the APA publication manual.

To A Stranger by Walt Whitman

To A Stranger

Passing stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you,
You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking, (it comes to me as of a dream,)
I have somewhere surely lived a life of joy with you,
All is recall’d as we flit by each other, fluid, affectionate, chaste, matured,
You grew up with me, were a boy with me or a girl with me,
I ate with you and slept with you, your body has become not yours only nor left my body mine only,
You give me the pleasure of your eyes, face, flesh, as we pass, you take of my beard, breast, hands, in return,
I am not to speak to you, I am to think of you when I sit alone or wake at night alone,
I am to wait, I do not doubt I am to meet you again,
I am to see to it that I do not lose you.

–Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman

This is one of my (many) favorite Whitman poems. It was included in Leaves of Grass, the first edition of which Whitman published in 1855 at his own expense and which only included twelve poems. By the 1860 edition, the book had tripled in size. It is a work that Whitman continued to revise and expand throughout his entire life. Before the age of thirty-six, there was no indication that Whitman would even be a minor literary figure. Yet, he has become one of America’s major poetic voices with highly celebratory poetry that ranges from somber to jubilant; from mystic to earthy.

5 Tips for Improving Writing Skills

The importance of good writing skills is evident no matter what your profession, as I noted in an earlier post. So how does one go about improving those skills? I’ve gathered some invaluable tips, which I learned through experience and which other professionals have taught me, with accompanying complementary links from around the Internet.

1. Read often and read everything. The more you read, the more you learn; the larger and stronger your vocabulary; the more you will begin to pick up on the basics of what good writing looks like as well as distinguish the good from the bad.

2. Revision, revision, revision. Whether you’re writing a business report, a work-related memo, a novel, or a poem, revision is your friend. Most great writers are great writers because they spend countless hours revising and continually improving their work.

3. Practice makes perfect. Just like anything else that you want to improve, you must practice writing. Establishing a daily writing routine is a great way to ensure that you will continually improve, especially if you enlist the help of a professional or friend who can critique your work and point out areas where you may need extra practice. In this respect…

4. Join a group or take a class. Online courses are more readily available than ever, so you may not even have to leave your house to learn to write better. You can also always check out the course schedule at your local community college.

5. Proofread. Before you sign off on anything, whether it is a paper for school, a job application, or a blog post, be sure to proofread. Even if you have already revised several times and you think the document is perfect, proofread. By this I mean, do more than just scan for obvious errors; look closely for correct spelling, word usage, and grammar. If possible, have someone who knows writing well proofread for you because even an excellent writer may not catch obvious mistakes because he or she is too close to (i.e., already spent too much time with) the work in question.

Of course, if you feel you already write well but have an all important piece that must be perfect, you can always hire a professional editor/proofreader!

Importance of Good Writing Skills

I know grammar can be confusing, but it is well worth learning. Knowing how to speak and write properly opens doors in any career and raises the esteem of your colleagues, no matter your profession. Matthew Arnold believed that education, through providing children with a “general liberal culture,” could overcome the divisions of social class. The basis of that education was “the common heritage of the English language and its literature.”

In grade school and in college, good writing skills and a solid vocabulary lead to better grades and therefore to better jobs. In fact, most executives cite writing as one of the most negelected skills in business; they desire better writers in the workplace as it is also one of the most valuable skills for increased productivity.

The National Commission on Writing recently released a press release called “Writing Skills Necessary for Employment, Says Big Business” that calls poorly written job applications a “figurative kiss of death” in the first line. The author of the release also notes that with the advances in technology, one might think that good, clear writing is less necessary in the workplace, but that the opposite is actually true. The advance in technology has instead made it more important for an employee to be able to write quickly and clearly to stay competitive. I highly recommend reading the entire release.

Ruth Stone: A Love Like Ours

I love so many things about this poem by Ruth Stone: the personification of a linden tree and a small crack in the avenue; the sense of wonder, joy, and buoyancy; the lightness and humor implicit as well as the genuine sentiment; the way the tone is set and the reader is invited into the fairy tale by beginning with the line “Once upon an;” most of all, the coyness.

A Love Like Ours

Once upon an avenue a small crack
smiled at a linden tree.
“I love your dappled shadow,” it thought;
but only to itself.
The small crack stretched with pleasure.
The pure meld of the sun boiled
at its fragmented edges.
“How I crumble,” the crack whispered,
“how the weight and the shock go through me.
I am a true MacAdam.”
The linden tree shook itself in the jet stream.
It hummed with wings.
Male and female, pollen and pistil; it hummed.
Toward the equinox the air was filled with
a riding of seeds. They went in pushing crowds,
kicking and falling. The prickled the street
with their adolescent bursting.
In the morning the street cleaner,
gushing water, rolled over them
with thousands of bristles.
It brushed them along in a stream to the gutter.
One shy young linden seed was swept into the crack.
The crack gave a sigh.
At last it knew that the linden tree had noticed.
“A love like ours,” said the crack,
“could split the street, could break up traffic!
Given time, it could even damage the sewer!”

Ruth Stone © 1995

This poem is featured in Stone’s book called Simplicity. Highly recommended.