Description
Since the publication of his groundbreaking books Writing Without Teachers and Writing with Power, Peter Elbow has revolutionized how people think about writing. Now, in Vernacular Eloquence, he makes a vital new contribution to both practice and theory. The core idea is simple: we can enlist
virtues from the language activity most people find easiest-speaking-for the language activity most people find hardest-writing. Speech, with its spontaneity, naturalness of expression, and fluidity of thought, has many overlooked linguistic and rhetorical merits. Through several easy to employ
techniques, writers can marshal this wisdom of the tongue to produce stronger, clearer, more natural writing. This simple idea, it turns out, has deep repercussions. Our culture of literacy, Elbow argues, functions as though it were a plot against the spoken voice, the human body, vernacular language, and those without privilege-making it harder than necessary to write with comfort or power. Giving speech
a central role in writing overturns many empty preconceptions. It causes readers to think critically about the relationship between speech, writing, and our notion of literacy. Developing the political implications behind Elbow's previous books, Vernacular Eloquence makes a compelling case that
strengthening writing and democratizing it go hand in hand.
Author: Peter Elbow
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 01/13/2012
Pages: 456
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 1.30d
ISBN13: 9780199782512
ISBN10: 0199782512
BISAC Categories:
- Language Arts & Disciplines | Rhetoric
- Language Arts & Disciplines | Writing | Composition
- Language Arts & Disciplines | Speech & Pronunciation
virtues from the language activity most people find easiest-speaking-for the language activity most people find hardest-writing. Speech, with its spontaneity, naturalness of expression, and fluidity of thought, has many overlooked linguistic and rhetorical merits. Through several easy to employ
techniques, writers can marshal this wisdom of the tongue to produce stronger, clearer, more natural writing. This simple idea, it turns out, has deep repercussions. Our culture of literacy, Elbow argues, functions as though it were a plot against the spoken voice, the human body, vernacular language, and those without privilege-making it harder than necessary to write with comfort or power. Giving speech
a central role in writing overturns many empty preconceptions. It causes readers to think critically about the relationship between speech, writing, and our notion of literacy. Developing the political implications behind Elbow's previous books, Vernacular Eloquence makes a compelling case that
strengthening writing and democratizing it go hand in hand.
Author: Peter Elbow
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 01/13/2012
Pages: 456
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 1.30d
ISBN13: 9780199782512
ISBN10: 0199782512
BISAC Categories:
- Language Arts & Disciplines | Rhetoric
- Language Arts & Disciplines | Writing | Composition
- Language Arts & Disciplines | Speech & Pronunciation
About the Author
Peter Elbow is Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and former director of its Writing Program. He is the author of Writing Without Teachers, Writing With Power, Embracing Contraries, and Everyone Can Write.