Zadie Smith’s Essay Writing Framework
How can a simple visual model improve one's writing?
I thought of a particular English teacher friend (and my college essay-writing daughter) while reading Zadie Smith's piece in The New Yorker magazine on “The Art of Writing the Impersonal Essay.“
In writing, she describes a six-pointed rectangle. I couldn't figure out what she meant, so I sketched it out (of course)!
Here is Smith's description:
An English teacher took me aside and drew a rectangle on a piece of paper, placed a shooting arrow on each corner of the rectangle, plus one halfway along the horizontal top line, and a final arrow, in the same position, down below. “Six points,” this teacher said. “Going clockwise, first arrow is the introduction, last arrow is the conclusion. Got that?” I got that. He continued, “Second arrow is you basically developing whatever you said in the intro. Third arrow is you either developing the point further or playing devil’s advocate. Fourth arrow, you’re starting to see the finish line, so start winding down, start summarizing. Fifth arrow, you’re one step closer to finished, so repeat the earlier stuff but with variations. Sixth arrow, you’re on the home straight: you’ve reached the conclusion. Bob’s your uncle. That’s really all there is to it.” I had the sense I was being let into this overworked teacher’s inner sanctum, that he had drawn this little six-arrowed rectangle himself, upon his own exam papers, long ago. “Oh, and remember to put the title of the essay in that box. That’ll keep you focussed.”
NOTE: Apologies to the illustrator Pierre Buttin for my sloppy copy of his brilliant illustration!
I've started cataloging local Houston lectures and meetings here.
A blog post on my notebook “system” is here.
NOTE: #sketchnotes is a term originally coined by designer Mike Rohde.
