I write like ...

[boulderjohn]

But none of those people could write anyway.

Years ago, when I was teaching 9th grade, our school district had an annual writing assessment. Students were given a prompt, and they could submit fiction in response. We had to put the names of the students on with the official stickers the district sent us. Of course, by the time we got them, many of the students had moved, so we had extra stickers.

One year I took those extra stickers and submitted about 10 entries that were taken from some of the greatest writers in history. I made no spelling or punctuation errors--I simply hand wrote sections of their short stories or novels out exactly as they had written them.

A portion of Ernest Hemingway's "Big Two Hearted River" got a marginal passing grade (for a 9th grader).

All the others got failing scores.

So none of them was apparently up to snuff at the 9th grade level, so learning that you write like them is no compliment.

 

[Jax]

But none of those people could write anyway.

Years ago, when I was teaching 9th grade, our school district had an annual writing assessment. Students were given a prompt, and they could submit fiction in response. We had to put the names of the students on with the official stickers the district sent us. Of course, by the time we got them, many of the students had moved, so we had extra stickers.

One year I took those extra stickers and submitted about 10 entries that were taken from some of the greatest writers in history. I made no spelling or punctuation errors--I simply hand wrote sections of their short stories or novels out exactly as they had written them.

A portion of Ernest Hemingway's "Big Two Hearted River" got a marginal passing grade (for a 9th grader).

All the others got failing scores.

So none of them was apparently up to snuff at the 9th grade level, so learning that you write like them is no compliment.

That is a sad reflection on our educational system.

 

[boulderjohn]

That is a sad reflection on our educational system.

Why? If we are expecting 9th graders to be better than classic writers, then it should show we have very high standards.

It is a sad reflection of our assessment system, when the people scoring the writing tests can't tell the difference between great writing and mediocre writing.

Interestingly enough, when I got the papers back, one of my former students, now a senior, dropped by. I showed her one of the ones that got a particularly poor score, a section of Beckett's Malloy. She did not know why I had given it to her to read, but she immediately thought it was brilliant. She, a high school student, saw how well written it was, but the professionals who scored it missed it completely.

(BTW, I let the district know what I had done, and from then on they did not allow fiction for writing assessments. Apparently they realized they had no ability to judge it.)

 

[mikerault]

David Foster Wallace, whoever the frac that is...and H.P. Lovecraft...

 

[fairybasslet]

David Foster Wallace, whoever the frac that is...and H.P. Lovecraft...

He was a contemporary American novelist whose book Infinite Jest was included in Time magazine's list of its All-Time 100 Greatest Novels covering the period 1923-2006.

 

[fisheyeview]

When I submitted sections from the first chapter of a book I am working on it said Stephen King. It did that for ever section of the 1st chapter.

When I put the whole 1st chapter in it said Jack London.

At least id didn't say ee cummings.

 

[Thalassamania]

But none of those people could write anyway.

Years ago, when I was teaching 9th grade, our school district had an annual writing assessment. Students were given a prompt, and they could submit fiction in response. We had to put the names of the students on with the official stickers the district sent us. Of course, by the time we got them, many of the students had moved, so we had extra stickers.

One year I took those extra stickers and submitted about 10 entries that were taken from some of the greatest writers in history. I made no spelling or punctuation errors--I simply hand wrote sections of their short stories or novels out exactly as they had written them.

A portion of Ernest Hemingway's "Big Two Hearted River" got a marginal passing grade (for a 9th grader).

All the others got failing scores.

So none of them was apparently up to snuff at the 9th grade level, so learning that you write like them is no compliment.

I write like
Arthur Conan Doyle

 

[irishsquid]

I submitted a post I made a while back about having a kidney stone.
I write like James Joyce. He must've had kidney stones also.

 

[Deefstes]

I write like
Arthur Conan Doyle

Not if your posts in this thread is anything to go by. According to the analysis of your earlier posts in this very thread, you write like James Joyce, Stephen King (times two) and Margaret Mitchell.

When analysing this entire thread it turns out that, in the collective, we all write like H. P. Lovecraft.

 

[TSandM]

I find the fact that Jim Lapenta writes like HP Lovecraft to be incredibly funny.

I submitted my writeup on my first cenote experience, and I write like Dan Brown . . . I'm not at all sure that I'm happy about that.