Biographers write an account of another person's life. Richard Ellmann — , for example, was an eminent and award-winning biographer whose work focused on the Irish writers James Joyce , William Butler Yeats , and Oscar Wilde. For the Wilde biography, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography. Critics consider and assess the extent to which a work succeeds in its purpose. The work under consideration may be literary, theatrical, musical, artistic, or architectural. In assessing the success of a work, the critic takes account of why it was done — for example, why a text was written, for whom, in what style, and under what circumstances.
After making such an assessment, critics write and publish their evaluation, adding the value of their scholarship and thinking to substantiate any opinion. The theory of criticism is an area of study in itself: For example, they might be novelists or essayists. Some critics are poor writers and produce only superficial or unsubstantiated work. Hence, while anyone can be an uninformed critic, the notable characteristics of a good critic are understanding, insight, and an ability to write well. We can claim with at least as much accuracy as a well-known writer claims of his little books, that no newspaper would dare print what we have to say.
Are we going to be very cruel and abusive, then? We have no friends — that is a great thing — and no enemies. Charles Baudelaire , introducing his Review of the Paris Salon of [17]. An editor prepares literary material for publication. The material may be the editor's own original work but more commonly, an editor works with the material of one or more other people. There are different types of editor. On the other hand, an editor may suggest or undertake significant changes to a text to improve its readability, sense or structure.
This latter type of editor can go so far as to excise some parts of the text, add new parts, or restructure the whole. The work of editors of ancient texts or manuscripts or collections of works results in differing editions. For example, there are many editions of Shakespeare 's plays by notable editors who also contribute original introductions to the resulting publication. Encyclopaedists create organised bodies of knowledge.
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Essayists write essays, which are original pieces of writing of moderate length in which the author makes a case in support of an opinion. They are usually in prose , but some writers have used poetry to present their argument. A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Professional historians typically work in colleges and universities, archival centers, government agencies, museums, and as freelance writers and consultants.
Writers who create dictionaries are called lexicographers. One of the most famous is Samuel Johnson — , whose Dictionary of the English Language was regarded not only as a great personal scholarly achievement but was also dictionary of such pre-eminence, that would have been referred to by such writers as Jane Austen. Researchers and scholars who write about their discoveries and ideas sometimes have profound effects on society.
Scientists and philosophers are good examples because their new ideas can revolutionise the way people think and how they behave. Three of the best known examples of such a revolutionary effect are Nicolaus Copernicus , who wrote De revolutionibus orbium coelestium ; Charles Darwin , who wrote On the Origin of Species ; and Sigmund Freud , who wrote The Interpretation of Dreams These three highly influential, and initially very controversial, works changed the way people understood their place in the world.
Copernicus's heliocentric view of the cosmos displaced humans from their previously accepted place at the centre of the universe; Darwin's evolutionary theory placed humans firmly within, as opposed to above, the order of nature; and Freud's ideas about the power of the unconscious mind overcame the belief that humans were consciously in control of all their own actions. Translators have the task of finding some equivalence in another language to a writer's meaning, intention and style. Difficulties with translation are exacerbated when words or phrases incorporate rhymes, rhythms, or puns ; or when they have connotations in one language that are non-existent in another.
For example, the title of Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier is supposedly untranslatable because "no English adjective will convey all the shades of meaning that can be read into the simple [French] word 'grand' which takes on overtones as the story progresses. It is highly critical for the translator to deliver the right information as a drastic impact could be caused if any error occurred.
Even if translation is impossible — we have no choice but to do it: The translator's task is to make us either forget or else enjoy the difference. Robert Dessaix , translator, author [23]. Writers of blogs, which have appeared on the World Wide Web since the s, need no authorisation to be published. The contents of these short opinion pieces or "posts" form a commentary on issues of specific interest to readers who can use the same technology to interact with the author, with an immediacy hitherto impossible. The ability to link to other sites means that some blog writers — and their writing — may become suddenly and unpredictably popular.
Malala Yousafzai , a young Pakistani education activist, rose to prominence because of her blog for BBC. A blog writer is using the technology to create a message that is in some ways like a newsletter and in other ways, like a personal letter. Columnists write regular pieces for newspapers and other periodicals, usually containing a lively and entertaining expression of opinion.
Some columnists have had collections of their best work published as a collection in a book, so that readers can re-read what would otherwise be no longer available. Columns are quite short pieces of writing so columnists often write in other genres as well. An example is the columnist Elizabeth Farrelly , who besides being a columnist, is also an architecture critic and author of books.
Writers who record their experiences, thoughts or feelings in a sequential form over a period of time in a diary are known as diarists.
Their writings can provide valuable insights into historical periods, specific events or individual personalities. Examples include Samuel Pepys — , an English administrator and Member of Parliament, whose detailed private diary provides eyewitness accounts of events during the 17th century, most notably of the Great Fire of London. Anne Frank — was a year-old girl whose diary from to records both her experiences as a persecuted Jew in World War II and an adolescent dealing with intra-family relationships.
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Journalists write reports about current events after investigating them and gathering information. Some journalists write reports about predictable or scheduled events such as social or political meetings. Others are investigative journalists who need to undertake considerable research and analysis in order to write an explanation or account of something complex that was hitherto unknown or not understood.
Often investigative journalists are reporting criminal or corrupt activity which puts them at risk personally and means that what it is likely that attempts may be made to attack or suppress what they write. An example is Bob Woodward , a journalist who investigated and wrote about criminal activities by the US President. Writers of memoirs produce accounts from the memories of their own lives, which are deemed unusual, important, or scandalous enough to be of interest to general readers.
Although intended to be factual, readers are alerted to the likelihood of some inaccuracies or bias towards an idiosyncratic perception by the choice of genre. A memoir, for example, is allowed to have a much more selective set of experiences than an autobiography which is expected to be more complete and make a greater attempt at balance. Ghostwriters write for, or in the style of, someone else so the credit goes to the person on whose behalf the writing is done.
Writers of letters use a reliable form of transmission of messages between individuals, and surviving sets of letters provide insight into the motivations, cultural contexts, and events in the lives of their writers.
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The letters or epistles of Paul the Apostle were so influential that over the years of Christian history, Paul became "second only to Jesus in influence and the amount of discussion and interpretation generated". Report writers are people who gather information, organise and document it so that it can be presented to some person or authority in a position to use it as the basis of a decision. Well-written reports influence policies as well as decisions. For example, Florence Nightingale — wrote reports that were intended to effect administrative reform in matters concerning health in the army.
She documented her experience in the Crimean War and showed her determination to see improvements: This extraordinary composition, filling more than eight hundred closely printed pages, laying down vast principles of far-reaching reform, discussing the minutest detail of a multitude of controversial subjects, containing an enormous mass of information of the most varied kinds — military, statistical, sanitary, architectural" became for a long time, the "leading authority on the medical administration of armies".
A scribe writes ideas and information on behalf of another, sometimes copying from another document, sometimes from oral instruction on behalf of an illiterate person, sometimes transcribing from another medium such as a tape recording , shorthand , or personal notes. Being able to write was a rare achievement for over years in Western Europe so monks who copied texts were scribes responsible for saving many texts from classical times.
The monasteries, where monks who knew how to read and write lived, provided an environment stable enough for writing. Irish monks, for example, came to Europe in about and "found manuscripts in places like Tours and Toulouse " which they copied. A technical writer prepares instructions or manuals, such as user guides or owner's manuals for users of equipment to follow. Technical writers also write various procedures for business, professional or domestic use. Since the purpose of technical writing is practical rather than creative, its most important quality is clarity.
The technical writer, unlike the creative writer, is required to adhere to the relevant style guide. There is a range of approaches that writers take to the task of writing. Each writer needs to find their own process and most describe it as more or less a struggle. Before the invention of photocopiers and electronic text storage, a writer's work had to be stored on paper, which meant it was very susceptible to fire in particular. In very early times, writers used vellum and clay which were more robust materials. Writers whose work was destroyed before completion include L.
Zamenhof , the inventor of Esperanto , whose years of work were thrown into the fire by his father because he was afraid that "his son would be thought a spy working code". A History when it was mistakenly thrown into the fire by a maid. He wrote it again from the beginning. Angus Wilson , for example, wrote for a number of hours every morning. Writer's block is a relatively common experience among writers, especially professional writers, when for a period of time the writer feels unable to write for reasons other than lack of skill or commitment.
Happy are they who don't doubt themselves and whose pens fly across the page Gustave Flaubert writing to Louise Colet [37]. Most writers write alone — typically they are engaged in a solitary activity that requires them to struggle with both the concepts they are trying to express and the best way to express it. This may mean choosing the best genre or genres as well as choosing the best words.
Writers often develop idiosyncratic solutions to the problem of finding the right words to put on a blank page or screen. Goethe couldn't write a line if there was another person anywhere in the same house, or so he said at some point. Collaborative writing means that multiple authors write and contribute to a piece of writing.
In this approach, it is highly likely the writers will collaborate on editing the piece too. The more usual process is that the editing is done by an independent editor after the writer submits a draft version. In some cases, such as that between a librettist and composer, a writer will collaborate with another artist on a creative work. One of the best known of these types of collaborations is that between Gilbert and Sullivan. Gilbert wrote the words for the comic operas created by the partnership. Occasionally, a writing task is given to a committee of writers.
The most famous example is the task of translating the Bible into English, sponsored by King James VI of England in and accomplished by six committees, some in Cambridge and some in Oxford , who were allocated different sections of the text. The resulting Authorized King James Version , published in , has been described as an "everlasting miracle" because its writers that is, its Translators sought to "hold themselves consciously poised between the claims of accessibility and beauty, plainness and richness, simplicity and majesty, the people and the king", with the result that the language communicates itself "in a way which is quite unaffected, neither literary nor academic, not historical, nor reconstructionist, but transmitting a nearly incredible immediacy from one end of human civilisation to another.
Some writers support the verbal part of their work with images or graphics that are an integral part of the way their ideas are communicated. William Blake is one of rare poets who created his own paintings and drawings as integral parts of works such as his Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Cartoonists are writers whose work depends heavily on hand drawn imagery.
Other writers, especially writers for children, incorporate painting or drawing in more or less sophisticated ways. Shaun Tan , for example, is a writer who uses imagery extensively, sometimes combining fact, fiction and illustration, sometimes for a didactic purpose, sometimes on commission. Some writers contribute very small sections to a piece of writing that cumulates as a result.
This method is particularly suited to very large works, such as dictionaries and encyclopaedias. The best known example of the former is the Oxford English Dictionary , under the editorship of lexicographer James Murray , who was provided with the prolific and helpful contributions of W. Minor , at the time an inmate of a hospital for the criminally insane. The best known example of the latter — an encyclopaedia that is crowdsourced — is Wikipedia which relies on the contributions of thousands of volunteer writers and editors worldwide, such as Simon Pulsifer.
Writers have many different reasons for writing, among which is usually some combination of self-expression [43] and recording facts, history or research results. The many physician writers , for example, have combined their observation and knowledge of the human condition with their desire to write and contributed many poems, plays, translations, essays and other texts. Some writers write extensively on their motivation and on the likely motivations of other writers.
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As to "what constitutes success or failure to a writer", it has been described as "a complicated business, where the material rubs up against the spiritual, and psychology plays a big part". The moral I draw is that the writer should seek his reward in the pleasure of his work and in release from the burden of this thoughts; and, indifferent to aught else, care nothing for praise or censure, failure or success.
The Writer offers articles of interest to both novice and experienced writers, including market news, interviews, and tips on how to hone one's skills in particular aspects of the craft. Over its year history, The Writer has been overseen by a number of editors.
Hills remained associated with the magazine until February On page 54 of that issue, he wrote a farewell essay in which he stated he felt he was putting the magazine in safe hands as he resigned his place as editor to William D. Luce, who later became a Massachusetts Congressman , remained with the magazine through September Hills is listed on the masthead as editor from April September , followed by Margaret Gordon as editor from October September Hills is again listed from October until his retirement in February No explanation for Hills' absence from the masthead during Gordon's tenure is mentioned in those issues; but an editorial by Gordon in the Sept.
Hills' obituary in the December edition page also seems to indicate he was involved with the magazine continuously from From , an editorial board was listed, which prominently featured Virginia C. Lincoln and Bertha W. Other board members changed, but Lincoln and Smith, who were listed as publisher and managing editor , respectively, by the October issue, remained in those positions until February Houghton served as publishers and editors.
The longest editorial era began in February , when A. Burack took over the editor's chair. The Writer chronicles the They return together to Los Angeles, and to Walt's increasingly impoverished bohemian lifestyle. When Walt fails to find a publisher, growing bitterness threatens to destroy his relationship with his muse, Chloe. Walt must finally choose between his dream and the woman he loves.
His decision reverberates to Paris and back, forever changing Walt's life and the lives of those who know him. Start your free trial. Find showtimes, watch trailers, browse photos, track your Watchlist and rate your favorite movies and TV shows on your phone or tablet! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends.