Writer's Workbench

I felt that the writer’s workbench was a great resource to assist with learning writing skills. I felt that the topics were directed more towards journalistic writing rather than creative writing. There were a few examples of creative writing. However the majority of the tips were easier for me to apply to journalism than creative writing. 

A few of the tips I found interesting were Polish Your Jewels, this section talked about the importance of the words you use in short stories. The author talked about “writing with video images and natural sound.” An example of this was the sentence, “They were shipped to market in rail car after rail car after rail car.” This sentence gives the reader the image of a rail car because it actually kind of looks like a rail car. This idea piqued my interest I have always enjoyed reading a good book, especially one written by an author that can draw a picture in your mind with words. It really helps to connect the reader to the writing.

Other tips that I really thought could help my writing were the ones on verbs including using passive and active verbs. Or using active verbs instead of passive verbs I suppose.  I learned that verbs can be used in both present and past tense and still be active. The author also compared verb qualifiers to barnacles that slow down your prose like they can slow down a vessel. He says that these should all be removed during the editing process. I also enjoyed the section on sentences I am always worried whether my sentences are long enough. However I also worry that my sentences get too long. I learned that sentence length is not as important as the structure of the sentence. Sometimes a long sentence can be useful in your writing.