While reading Harmer's book, I like when the author starts with why learn to write. I think it is very important to establish the guideline in our classrooms before we teach. We need to understand students's purpose of why they choose writing. For example, the author mentioned there will be several processes when it comes to how people write. Some may do planning and drafting, whereas others might be doing editing and revising. I like when the author points us the two most noticeable dissimilarities between speaking and writing are the level of correctness and the issue of well-formedness. I was challenged by the idea of lexical density, which is about the proportion of content words to grammatical or function words used. In contrast, the proportion of content words is significantly smaller.
As a journalism student, I appreciate that the author talks about the danger of concentrating too much on the study and analysis of different genres. The author writes, "over-emphasis may lead us into the genre trap." I remember when I was working for campus newspaper, and staying up late for dead lines, it was very hard to think out of the box. Often times, I am limited by what other people have already written. For example, each year we need to write a story of junior/senior formal party. For me, I just need to search for the old blog post and use that as a template. Or sometimes, I think people around me are all good journalists and that limited how good I can perform as well. Just like what the author shares, "Our efforts may end up being prescriptive rather than descriptive." From my perspective, writing should never be like that. It should be creative and innovative.
As a journalism student, I appreciate that the author talks about the danger of concentrating too much on the study and analysis of different genres. The author writes, "over-emphasis may lead us into the genre trap." I remember when I was working for campus newspaper, and staying up late for dead lines, it was very hard to think out of the box. Often times, I am limited by what other people have already written. For example, each year we need to write a story of junior/senior formal party. For me, I just need to search for the old blog post and use that as a template. Or sometimes, I think people around me are all good journalists and that limited how good I can perform as well. Just like what the author shares, "Our efforts may end up being prescriptive rather than descriptive." From my perspective, writing should never be like that. It should be creative and innovative.