what makes one writer formal important talented and cultured and another
pretentious this is a tale of two writers Devin and Jessica Devin is an
aspiring novelist he has this epic fantasy novel in his head and has spent
many evenings and weekends outlining and drafting he's an enthusiast of all
things mythology and considers himself a primo expert in medieval weapons but he
knows something is holding him back gatekeepers he simply needs to meet the
right people and get them to read his work jessica is an accountant and has
never thought of herself as much of a writer it was only when her grandmother
started feeling ill that she even considered picking up a pen after
visiting her grandma one afternoon and hearing the stories about her childhood
in Vietnam she decided that it was a story worth recording Devin and Jessica
although had different intentions for the writing found themselves both
applying for a spot in the local universities creative writing program
one of the requirements for a mission was to supply a 300 word essay
explaining their writing goals and what they hope to achieve from the courses
read is an administration associate at the University and it's his job to
review the applications and create a shortlist of applicants first he read
Devon's and it went like this as I commenced my journey to ascertain
knowledge to optimally communicate my story with the citizens of tomorrow
I aim to transcend the lives of those I have yet to meet as the literary legends
I applauded had accomplished for me Reid looked up from Devin's essay opened
and closed his eyes to clear his vision and then look down at it again Reid
didn't say it out loud or announced to his colleagues he didn't pass the essay
around so it could be ridiculed but something was glaringly obvious about
Devin's writing it was pretentious but how well Reid avoided over analyzing the
essay in the moment there were a few aspects of Devin's writing that couldn't
be ignored one lack of clarity big stuffy words made the writing hard to
read although long complex words can often accentuate a piece of writing like
a pinch of salt can bring out the flavor of food overdoing it can leave the meal
in edible the same goes with writing - attempting to be impressive as opposed
to expressive all the writing choices made were in an effort to impress Reid
Devin was clearly flexing his vocabulary muscles perhaps writing with a thesaurus
beside him and in doing so failed to express himself in a genuine way it
comes across as inauthentic as though the essay had been written by a robot
programmed for optimum results as opposed to a human aimed to connect 3 no
awareness of the reader perhaps Devin had misinterpreted what the essay wanted
Reid was not looking to be blown away but rather he simply wanted to
understand the person behind the submission he wanted to get an
impression of who Devin was and perhaps he did Devin is someone who despite his
insecurity as a writer deemed himself to be an intellectual specimen however by
using words no one would use when speaking Devin doesn't appear smarter
but rather confused pretentious writing is unpleasant to
read it's often composed with the attempt to stump the reader giving the
writer a feeling of superiority like a specialist um
Kanak a lawyer or a politician who uses jargon all it achieves is a failure in
communication pretentious writing stems from lack of confidence where writers
feel as though their ideas are not strong enough so they need to juice it
up with words or concepts that don't serve the story in order to give the
material bulk read plays Devin's essay to the side and picked up Jessica's
here's a passage from it when my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer I
thought I was gonna lose her right away but while some misfortunes take loved
ones away quickly my grandmother stayed strong and remained long enough for her
to tell the story of how she emigrated to Canada through this heart-wrenching
process I realized that I was given a second chance to know the woman that was
my hero now understanding the story she had in her I feel it is my duty to
capture them and share them with the world one word popped up and reads head
after he put Jessica's essay down vulnerability it was not brilliantly
written but it captured why Jessica had decided to take on the grueling task of
writing where Devyn was insecure using his words as a shield to protect himself
Jessica was emotionally exposed on paper for read to see that's the essence of
pretentious writing a piece that strives to impress but fails to connect what do
you think is there a piece of work that you find pretentious let me know in the
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