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True communication involves the understanding of thoughts and feelings, whether this is between two people directly, or one person talking to another (or many others) through the written word. This idea is expressed in different ways through six short stories: Benjamin Franklin’s "Learning to Write", George Orwell’s "Politics And The English Language", Garrison Keillor’s "How To Write A Letter", Stephen King’s "On Writing", Frederick Douglass’ "Learning To Read", and Edgar Burroughs’ "Tarzan Of The Apes" (Chapter 7). Each of the short stories differs in their approach to achieving this goal of understanding, but in the end, the same goal is achieved.
In Benjamin Franklin’s “Learning To Write”, Mr. Franklin describes his process to develop his writing after reading a volume of The Spectator, a very well-written English periodical. He re-wrote some of the stories into verse, waited some time so it wasn’t fresh in his mind, re-wrote his verse back into full sentences, and then compared his version to the original. This way, he could find his errors in writing in order to make it clearer (233). In addition to developing his writing, he also studied logic, which requires both clarity of thought and reasoning. This attention to clarity in his writing, thought, and logic was responsible for his superior debating skills (235).
This attention to detail and making an effort to write clearly is a similar theme in George Orwell’s essay, “Politics and the English Language”, a writer of almost 150 years later. In Mr. Orwell’s essay, he describes how the English language has become careless and meaningless due to muddled thoughts. One however, reinforces the other – muddled thoughts lead to careless language, which then leads to a continuation of muddled thoughts because the careless language had no clear meaning, and so on. This downward spiral of meaningless thoughts leading to meaningless language, however, is reversible. A little effort to clarify language can make meanings clear, which can lead to better understanding and clearer thoughts (260). Orwell actually presents a very thorough analysis on the changes in writing that has lead to a lack of clarity in writing. This includes using overused metaphors (262), using complicated verb phrases instead of using simple verbs (262), and using words that may only provoke a feeling but has no specific meaning (263). Other ways that writing has become unclear is the use of long complicated words that have unclear meanings (264). Using a passive voice instead of an active voice also diminishes the impact of a meaning. The way to correct this is for people to put effort into what they are trying to write to make it clear and understandable.
Keillor’s essay, “How To Write A Letter”, takes a completely different approach. In order to write a good letter, one should think about the person as if they were sitting in the same room, and just to talk clearly with them, putting the words of a conversation on paper. Instead of writing in a structured way, not thinking about grammar and style, one should write with emotion and say what comes to mind, but still with the goal of having that person getting to know you and to understand you (254).
In the story by Stephen King, “On Writing”, Mr. King talks about how he (reluctantly) joined the local weekly newspaper while he was a high school student as a way to channel his raw talents, rather than potentially getting into trouble (257). Mr. King talks about how his editor, John Gould, edited his first pieces as a sports writer and reporter. When one first writes, one should just write and tell the story (similar to writing a letter). In the re-write, one should take out everything that is not in the story – the unnecessary extras. This one incident taught him more about writing than any of his classes in high school and college. Writing is a journey of telling a story, but that story also requires clarity for understanding (258).
The remaining stories by Douglass and Burrough, talk about a road to discovery of understanding through learning to read. In the story by Fredrick Douglass, “Learning To Read”, Mr. Douglass begins his road to discovery and understanding at first, from his owner, who began the instruction. She then stopped instructing him because of her husband and societal pressures as a whole who opposed it – education and slavery were not compatible ideas (191). In order to maintain the institution of slavery, enlightenment and the pursuit of knowledge could not occur, which starts with knowing how to read and write. Mr. Douglass continued the difficult journey of learning to read (and understanding) on his own. At least now being armed with the basic building blocks to reading (and understanding), with strong determination, he was able to do so, usually by starting conversations with white school boys who unknowingly became his teachers (192). Learning to read opened up his knowledge of what was going on in the world and helped him to be able to give structure to his thoughts. Understanding came slowly in degrees but opened up to him the injustice of slavery.
In Burrough’s “Tarzan”, Chapter 7 (aptly titled “The Light of Knowledge”), Tarzan starts on a similar journey of understanding as Douglass did by learning to read. Upon discovering a cabin and investigating its contents, Tarzan finds strange items – books. Some of them contained pictures, which he could recognize what they were and by seeing the repetition of the strange markings below the pictures, over years, make a connection between the pictures and the markings. Through this process of learning the significance of the markings, letters, he began to understand the differences between himself, a man, and the rest of his tribe, apes, and he became no longer ashamed of the differences. With this basis and logical reasoning, he was able to increasingly understand the markings, the connection to his world, and his knowledge overall. Ultimately, his knowledge improved his ability to overcome his enemies within the tribe and ruler of the apes.
These stories, although very different in their approaches, have the same goal - developing clear communication. The approach of achieving that goal is different in each case; it could be mechanical, logical, or emotional. Ultimately though, a connection is made, whether to connect to another person or to connect to an idea that could be pursued that would not otherwise have been. Another common thread to all of these stories is that to approach clear writing and understandable communication, one should keep a focused and persistent effort, no matter the specific approach that is used.
Works Cited
Burroughs, Edgar Rice "Tarzan Of The Apes" Chapter 7: The Light of Knowledge. Liturature.org. Web. Accessed 02 July 2012.
Douglass, Frederick "Learning to Read". The Norton Reader: An Anthology of Nonfiction. Shorter 13th Edition. Eds. Linda H. Peterson and John C. Brereton. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 2012. 191-95. Print.
Franklin, Benjamin. "Learning to Write." The Norton Reader: An Anthology of Nonfiction. Shorter 12th Edition. Eds. Linda H. Peterson and John C. Brereton. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 2008. 233-36. Print.
Keillor, Garrison " How To Write A Letter." The Norton Reader: An Anthology of Nonfiction. Shorter 13th Edition. Eds. Linda H. Peterson and John C. Brereton. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 2012. 253-55. Print.
King, Stephen "On Writing." The Norton Reader: An Anthology of Nonfiction. Shorter 13th Edition. Eds. Linda H. Peterson and John C. Brereton. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 2012. 257-59. Print.
Orwell, George "Politics and the English Language." The Norton Reader: An Anthology of Nonfiction. Shorter 13th Edition. Eds. Linda H. Peterson and John C. Brereton. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 2012. 260-69. Print.
