I sent my previous message before reading Harry Noden's reply to Bill.

Judy



At 11:17 PM 1/13/00 -0400, you wrote:
>
>Hi Bill,
>
>        Thanks for your insightful comments on my book Image Grammar.
>Let me clarify a few items. With nonfiction, I did try to balance
>examples from novelists like Hemingway with those from nonfiction
>writers like Eiseley. In fact, I devoted an entire chapter to a
>nonfiction form used in magazine articles and attempted in another
>chapter to show how Pulitzer Prize Winner Jon Franklin used image
>clusters of grammatical structures to develop his news features. When
>I've taught these concepts to students, I've used chapters from the
>book Cosmos by Carl Sagan and PBS documentaries to show how image
>grammar applies in a variety of genres. But perhaps the nonfiction
>concepts need more clarification as you suggest.
>
>        As for a top down approach, in the chapter entitled "Toward a
>Grammar of Passages" I try to make a case for extending the
>definition of grammar to include what Mina Shaughnessy once described
>as "a grammar of passages." This was my rationale for including
>sections on the "shapes of fiction and nonfiction" and my comments on
>the classic Aristotelian forms of paragraph and theme development. In
>my view the writer like the artist, rarely makes decisions of form,
>style, content, and convention in isolation, but views words,
>sentences, paragraphs, and passages as whole, each indispensably
>interconnected.
>
>        Also, while my primary job for 30 years was teaching eighth
>grade English at a middle school, I also taught Freshman English and
>Technical Writing (for 20 years) at the University of Akron. So I
>have used these techniques with college students as well--- even
>though all the examples in the book are taken from my eighth graders.
>My thought with examples was to show how these techniques worked at
>the lowest level.
>
>        Anyway, I appreciated hearing your perspective.
>
>Thanks again,
>
>Harry Noden
>
>
>PS: Incidentally, I might add a comment to the discussion about the
>relationship between language and thought. The work of most general
>semanticists--- S.I. Hayakawa, Korzybski, Weinberg, Bois, etc.---
>supports the notion that the way we use language influences the way
>we think. The work of Benjamin Whorf, while disputed by some,
>provided evidence that the language of the Hopi Indians shaped
>perceptions of reality that differed from those outside their
>culture. Furthermore, the whole field of psychology called "rational
>emotive therapy," pioneered by Albert Ellis, is based on the notion
>that language influences thought. So I think Johanna was on target
>with her comments.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>        Dance like nobody is watching. Love like you'll never get hurt.
>
>Hi Bill,
>
>        Thanks for your insightful comments on my book Image Grammar. Let
me clarify a few items. With nonfiction, I did try to balance examples from
novelists like Hemingway with those from nonfiction writers like Eiseley. In
fact, I devoted an entire chapter to a nonfiction form used in magazine
articles and attempted in another chapter to show how Pulitzer Prize Winner
Jon Franklin used image clusters of grammatical structures to develop his
news features. When I've taught these concepts to students, I've used
chapters from the book Cosmos by Carl Sagan and PBS documentaries to show
how image grammar applies in a variety of genres. But perhaps the nonfiction
concepts need more clarification as you suggest.
>
>        As for a top down approach, in the chapter entitled "Toward a
Grammar of Passages" I try to make a case for extending the definition of
grammar to include what Mina Shaughnessy once described as "a grammar of
passages." This was my rationale for including sections on the "shapes of
fiction and nonfiction" and my comments on the classic Aristotelian forms of
paragraph and theme development. In my view the writer like the artist,
rarely makes decisions of form, style, content, and convention in isolation,
but views words, sentences, paragraphs, and passages as whole, each
indispensably interconnected.
>
>        Also, while my primary job for 30 years was teaching eighth grade
English at a middle school, I also taught Freshman English and Technical
Writing (for 20 years) at the University of Akron. So I have used these
techniques with college students as well--- even though all the examples in
the book are taken from my eighth graders. My thought with examples was to
show how these techniques worked at the lowest level.
>
>        Anyway, I appreciated hearing your perspective.
>
>Thanks again,
>
>Harry Noden
>
>
>PS: Incidentally, I might add a comment to the discussion about the
relationship between language and thought. The work of most general
semanticists--- S.I. Hayakawa, Korzybski, Weinberg, Bois, etc.--- supports
the notion that the way we use language influences the way we think. The
work of Benjamin Whorf, while disputed by some, provided evidence that the
language of the Hopi Indians shaped perceptions of reality that differed
from those outside their culture. Furthermore, the whole field of psychology
called "rational emotive therapy," pioneered by Albert Ellis, is based on
the notion that language influences thought. So I think Johanna was on
target with her comments.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>        Dance like nobody is watching. Love like you'll never get hurt.


Judith Diamondstone  (732) 932-7496  Ext. 352
Graduate School of Education
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
10 Seminary Place
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1183