Response To King's Writing Style

“Put your vocabulary on the top shelf of your toolbox, and don’t make any conscious effort to improve it”(117).

King’s advice here is interesting to me because others—teachers and parents—-have instructed me to pick up a dictionary and skim through the words or study from a long list of vocabulary words. This approach is different because King expects that by reading challenging texts, and conversing with others, you will develop a substantial vocabulary. This main point here is not overwhelm yourself by memorizing and regurgitating a list of enormous vocabulary words. That is not the goal. The focus should be set towards learning words through reading, and engaging with others over a period of time. Through this, you are bound to develop

At the time, detail translated to strong use of adjectives and adverbs. However, I have come to learn that overusing these parts of speech can make your writing sloppy and unnatural. Once again, King refers to adverbs as a tool that the “timid writer” uses. The writing conveys that the writer was afraid to express himself or herself clearly, and did not get the point across. In this case, a stronger verb should be used to replace the weak verb and adverb attachment instead of being redundant.

“I insist that you use the adverb in dialogue attribution only in the rarest and most special of occasions … and not even then, if you can avoid it”(125).

This is an important statement that I should take heed to in my writing. King describes this as yet another attribute of a “fearful writer”. Like King explains, my fear when only using the term “said” is that the reader will not understand me. However, it is acceptable for the reader to have to ask questions and interpret your writing in his or her own way. If the context around the dialogue is well written, the reader should be able to grasp the message you want to get across. As King suggests, to write well you must let go of fear and affectation. When using dialogue attribution, don't “shoot it full of steroids”. Keep it simple and

This is an element of good writing that has been drilled into my mind. It is important to keep your writing structured and meticulous. Your thoughts should not appear to be scattered and unorganized. By staying on topic, your writer will be easier to understand and make sense to the reader. Wandering away from the topic is not acceptable when writing in a formal manner. It is essential to incorporate good writing techniques such as paragraph organization to optimize the quality of your