Fancy Writing Terms #2

Polyptoton: A repetition of words derived from the same root.

Ex: Few are chosen because few choose to be chosen.

Again, a stylistic term.

Sounds like a title for a new ballet featuring "Dance of The Polyps"

Fancy Writing Terms #1

Asyndeton: Deliberate omission of conjunctions. (ex: I came, I saw, I conquered instead of the more grammatically correct I came, I saw, and I conquered.)

An asyndeton is used as a stylistic tool, and while I've noticed this phenomenon in writing before, I never knew it had such a fancy name.

This is not the most important thing I'll learn in the English class I'm taking this semester, but it is fun trivia, and you have to admit, "asyndeton" is a pretty snazzy word.

Write on. . . .

The Writer's Presence

A Pool of Readings, sixth edition
By Donald McQuade and Robert Atwan
Bedford/St. Martin's

2009

A luxurious collection of essays. Immerse yourself in this "Pool" with Sherman Alexie, Alice Walker, E.B. White and Langston Hughes. Not to mention Delillo, Carver, Lincoln, Woolf, Wolfe, Dillard, Obama, Orwell, Oates, O'Connor.

I can't do it any justice here, you'll have to sit down and read a few. I've been having that experience that comes from reading critically and immersively, which is the only way to read writers like these. the art is at once familiar and welcoming all around. How refreshing to take a swim in these words during cold February.

Enough babbling praise. ;-) I rarely beg anyone to read anything, but do read these if you can get them. I'm off to hit the pool again.