Of Musicians and Authors...

After reading several excerpts from the writings of Copeland, Etheridge, and Kobain I have formed an opinion on styles of writing which should and should not be used to convey information.

I will start with Aaron Copeland. Mr. Copeland’s essay was in the form of a lecture. It was very well written, cohesive, and cogent. He began by introducing his topic and then systematically covered all that he had to say by bringing up various arguments in favor of his position to help his readers understand what he was teaching. I think this form of writing is a good way to present information to a reader. It is easy to follow and can be understood very easily. A downside to Mr. Copeland’s lecture is that he was very abstract and intellectual. What I mean by this is that he expects his readers to have a certain knowledge of his topic before he starts lecturing. I did not completely understand the intellectual processes behind everything in this essay, but did enjoy reading it as a whole. I believe a lecture style is a powerful and useful way of presenting information to an audience.

The second essay I read was by Melissa Etheridge. Ms. Etheridge’s essay was in the form of autobiography – she was telling the story of her life to, hopefully, teach her readers lessons she has learned. I believe this is a very effective way of communicating information. I try to be, as I believe everybody should be, an astute observer of the lives of others. I observe their successes and their failures, the things that bring them joy and the things that bring hurt, and how they have been wise or foolish. The way Ms. Etheridge wrote about her life was ripe with lessons to be learned. I believe life lessons can be learned much more easily if we can see an example of a success story or a failure rather than just being told that to do such-and-such is a mistake. Ms. Etheridge’s account of some of her life accomplishes this very well and thus, I believe, uses autobiography as an effective form of communication.

The third entry I read was by Curt Kobain. Mr. Kobain’s entry was not an essay, but rather a collection of excerpts from his journals. I must start by saying that I did not enjoy reading this collection of journal entries. They were very disjointed, not very well articulated, and sparsely punctuated. However, these dissatisfactions with Mr. Kobain’s journals aside, I believe reading journals are a great way of learning about a person. Just as autobiographies are a great source from which to observe lessons, journals may be even more so. An autobiography is a person writing about what they did, but a journal is a catalogue of thoughts, emotions, and ideas. We can learn, not only about one person, but maybe a lot about ourselves through reading the journals of others. They may have insights into feelings we are having or struggles we are facing that we haven’t had yet. People often write about their successes and failures in a very personal way in their journals. This is a source for learning that could be even better than autobiography.

I believe all three of these forms of communication (lecture, autobiography, and journals) can be very effective. Just like with anything else in life, some authors resonate more with some readers than others. We may enjoy reading some authors more than others but we should not discount those we don’t like because there are many lessons that can be learned from them.