The document discusses various aspects of writing including its physical nature, early written works like the Abu Salbikh Tablet and Rosetta Stone, materials used historically like papyrus and parchment, innovations like movable type and the printing press, and perspectives on the writing process from authors like Hemingway, Kerouac, Moore, and Collins. It also provides tips for good writing from Strunk & White's Elements of Style.

1. Advanced Writing II Spring 2010 Tuesdays, 3:30-5:20pm

2. What is writing?

3. a physical act.

4. set in stone

5. set in stone The Abu Salbikh Tablet Circa 2500 BCE A Sumerian “wisdom” text in cuneiform. The oldest known copy of “Instructions of Shuruppak.” Found in southern Iraq, at the site of an small Sumerian city. Stored in the Iraq Museum, Baghdad. Stolen during the Second Iraq War by looters.

6. The Rosetta Stone

7. Found in August, 1799 by Bouchard, near Rosetta, on the western mouth of the Nile River. Black basalt Deciphered by Jean-Francois Champollion in 1822 Greek, Demotic, and Heiroglyphics A gift to Ptolemy V, the Greek ruler of Egypt in the 2 nd century BCE, for favors he had given to Egyptian priests.

10. Papyrus

11. Papyrus A material prepared in ancient Egypt from the pithy stem of a water plant, used in sheets throughout the ancient Mediterranean world for writing or painting on and also for making rope, sandals, and Boats.

12. Homer

13. Herodotus

14. Thucydides

15. parchment

16. parchment = animal skin

17. 1041 CE Movable Clay Type

18. Geoffrey Chaucer 1342-1400

19. THE PRINTING PRESS

20. Johannes Gutenberg 1400-1468 CE c. 1455, produced 200 copies of the Gutenberg Bible

21. Johannes Gutenberg a revolution in authority

22. putting pen to paper

24. “ The Battler” — Ernest Hemingway

26. — Naguib Mahfouz

28. “ Wild Sheep Chase” — Haruki Murakami

30. “ Dharma” — Billy Collins

32. “ The Brothers Rico” — Georges Simenon

34. “ Whose War” — John Edgar Wideman

36. “ Frank Sinatra Has a Cold” — Gay Talese

39. The Typewriter William Faulkner’s Portable Typewriter

41. Jack Kerouac “ Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for yr own joy.”

42. Jack Kerouac “ Write excitedly, swiftly, with writing- or-typing-cramps, in accordance… with the laws of orgasm.”

43. Jack Kerouac ON THE ROAD : 1 SINGLE TYPEWRITTEN PARAGRAPH, 120 FEET LONG

45. — T.C. Boyle

47. — Hunter S. Thompson

48. What else is writing?

49. communication

51. When & how does writing happen?

69. Writing is entwined with society.

72. by Dai Sijie Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

74. WHAT MAKES GOOD WRITING?

75. Strunk & White The Elements of Style

76. 1. Place yourself in the background

77. 2. Write in a way that comes naturally

78. 3. Work from a suitable design

79. 4. Write with nouns and verbs

80. 5. Revise and rewrite

81. 6. Do not overwrite

82. 7. Do not overstate

83. 8. Avoid the use of qualifiers

84. 9. Do not affect a breezy manner

85. 10. Use orthodox spelling

86. 11. Do not explain too much

87. 12. Do not construct awkward adverbs

88. 13. Make sure the reader knows who is speaking

89. 14. Avoid fancy words

90. 15. Do not use dialect unless your ear is good

91. 16. Be clear

92. 17. Do not inject opinion

93. 18. Use figures of speech sparingly

94. 19. Do not take shortcuts at the cost of clarity

95. 20. Avoid foreign languages

96. 21. Prefer the standard to the offbeat

97. E.B. WHITE 1899-1985