Thlog 8

     Something I learned this week that I really enjoyed was the writing like a photographer analogy.  This is a good analogy because it uses aspects of photography to explain what I should be doing in my writing.  For example, framing.  If the photographer wants to capture a certain picture, they are going to frame it so they only capture the thing they are trying to take a picture of without adding anything unimportant or extra.  Also, they don't cut out the focus by zooming in too small.  Another photography to writing analogy that I thought was cool/helpful is the concept of foreground and background.  The background is important because surrounds the focus of the picture, but it isn't what the picture is about.  The foreground is what the picture is focused on.  It is highlighted and usually closer to the viewers perspective.  If the background gains too much focus, the foreground gets lost among it.  This is an important concept to understand as a writer because we must include some background information so the focus doesn't stand alone, but zoom in so we focus on the intended topic and cut out anything extra. 
     Another useful tool that I can use to improve my writing is summarization.  Summarizing something is very simple, but I never thought about summarizing my own writing.  I think making summaries of my paragraphs or of my article as a whole can help me determine if all the information I provided is needed or not, and if my article or paragraph does what it is supposed to do, whether its persuading, speculating, or informing.
     Something else I learned that will be very helpful in my writing project 3 is the concept of putting on the artist's shoes.  When we put on the artist's shoes, we are looking at something from their perspective.  We are trying to see what they see, why they did something.  This translates to writing when I am trying to transform information into a new genre because I put on the writer's shoes, and see what they did.  Most importantly I analyze the rhetorical devices they used and try to see why they did it, and then apply it myself.  This is not only am important writing skill but also an important life skill.  Stepping into someone's shoes to see why they did something is useful in determining motives and seeing if something is justified.