Non Fiction Writing

Another craft essay for my class. Figurative Language in Moneyball Michael Lewis’ book about the Oakland A’s, is so brilliantly told that readers who don’t care about baseball (readers like me for example) still enjoy the story. For those who like fairy tales, there’s the Cinderella story about how the A’s General Manager Billy Beane drafted players who were too fat, too short, or just not handsome enough for the other major league teams. Or for readers who enjoy a hero’s tale, there’s the one about how Beane, by looking at statistics in a new way, revolutionized the game of …

Here’s what I wrote about Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder for my profile class. Choice of Point of View The most engaging sections of Tracy Kidder’s profile of Paul Farmer occur when the author is on the page, offering his own reflections on the complexities of his subject. By using a first person narrative and inserting himself into the action, Kidder skillfully guides the readers on the journey of figuring out Paul Farmer and his obsessions. The first person point of view allows the author to expose the complexity of his own relationship with Farmer, which adds another dimension …

Wow! The time is just flying by as I try to stay on top of teaching, as well as, taking classes. It is painfully obvious that this new schedule is going to require some adjustment. I’m fairly sure that I’m going to have to choose between eating and sleeping because there’s not enough time to do both. I’m also not sure how much actual writing I’m going to get done. At the moment it seems like I’ll be doing a lot of writing about writing, reading about writing, and reading other people’s writing, but not so much of my own …

I just finished Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild and am trying to figure out why the book didn’t grab me as hard as it has some of my friends. I read the original story that Krakauer wrote for Outside Magazine back in 1993 (http://outside.away.com/outside/features/1993/1993_into_the_wild_1.html) and the letters from readers who accused the author of glorifying Chris McCandless when he was nothing but a another dumb kid from the lower 48’s that was unprepared for Alaska’s harsh conditions. At the time I didn’t have much of an opinion, but wondered why McCandless was worth so much attention. A few years later, …