Sunday, December 15, 2013

A quote by Gary Provost

First of all, I found this quote pretty recently and thought you would all enjoy it. Gary Provost was a famous writing instructor who lived from 1944-1995.
"This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important."

Next time we write in class I am going to try and use this with my writing, and I think it may help with keeping everything interesting. Hope the rest of you liked this quote too. 

2 comments:

  1. This was a very well picked quote. In my opinion it talks about the actions that us humans do everyday. The five basic characteristics; but these are the ones that many people don't think are very important. They are very important because each of these five words can take you places. Listening is very important because when you listen well the outcome will most likely be in your favor. What I also think this quote is trying to say is that music is something you should take into consideration. Listen to the lyrics carefully and try to learn what they are saying. This was a very well thought out quote and hope to see something like this next semester.

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