Simple Song?

            “Simple Song” by The Shins offers a good example of creative writing being used to create the lyrics of a song. The song was written by The Shins lead singer, James Mercer. It is written in a way that shows specific rhythm on paper with the use of commas to provide pauses, rhymes and near rhymes to create a poetic visual and sound qualities, and rhetorical devices to creatively disguise and blend the meanings behind the lyrics as well as making it easier to create the poetic qualities previously mentioned. The use of creative style in this example really allows the author the ability to send a poetic message to his wife while using allusions to secrets and feelings towards his relationship which work to suggest that listeners make these connections with their own personal feelings for someone they love. Also, another thing to consider when looking at the lyrics in this song is how the accompanying music affects the emotion and message that the lyrics attempt to provide. Listening to the song may make more sense than reading the lyrics without prior knowledge to how the song sounds, but for those who examine the lyrics in both contexts, it offers more of an in depth understanding for what the song means.

“Well, this is just a simple song,

To say what you done.

I told you 'bout all those fears,

And away they did run.

You sure must be strong,

And you feel like an ocean being warmed by the sun.”

            In this first section of the song, the use of the creative style is very clear. First off, it tells the reader that it is meant to be a song in the first line. This makes it easier to be able to see the writing as having rhythm. It is clearly a message for somebody as it addresses “you” in the second line. Personification is used to create an image of the fears leaving the author by way of running. The use of this device really helps show the intended emotion of how the author feels emotionally cured by his wife without going into in depth problems or wordy explanations. In the last line of this first section, there is a simile used to provide the connection to a feeling. “You feel like an ocean being warmed by the sun,” creates vivid imagery of the sun beating down on the ocean. It creates a feeling of heat that the reader or listener can imagine feeling. The use of alliteration and assonance is also strong throughout this first section, and will continue to be throughout the rest of the written text. With the examination of these lyrics, it’s clear to see that the writer intended this song to bring up thoughts of a significant other to the listener.

            The second section which I will be looking at says:

“When I was just nine years old,

I swear that I dreamt,

Your face on a football field,

And a kiss that I kept,

Under my vest.

Apart from everything, but the heart in my chest.”

            This section follows the same rhythmic flow of the first section, but it doesn’t use perfect rhymes like the first section. Aside from the near rhyme of “dreamt” and “kept”, the last two lines are the only ones with rhymes. The end line rhymes of “vest” and “chest” stand out when looking at the section, but “apart” and “heart” in the last line also create a rhythmic connection. This offers a look at how dynamically the creative style can be used on a rhythmic meter. The ability to keep the emotional flow of the piece relies here on alliteration with the use of assonance and consonance to provide a similar link to the rhymes that dominated the first section.

The next section in the song is the chorus, which reads:       

“I know that things can really get rough,

When you go in alone.

Don't go thinking you gotta be tough,

And bleed like a stone.

Could be there's nothing else in our lives so critical,

As this little home.”

            This section may act as the climax of the writing. It very clearly points out who the “you” has been throughout the song. While in the previous section, the reader is able to tell that the “you” is a girl whom the author might be in love with. This section sends the message of a connection and overall togetherness between the author and “you”. It’s about wanting the other person in the relationship to open up and share the feelings with the author.

            The section after the chorus brings several strong metaphors into play that create a more emotional connection between the author and the woman he loves:

“My life in an upturned boat,

Marooned on a cliff.

You brought me a great big flood,

And you gave me a lift.

Girl, what a gift.

Will you tell me with your tongue,

And your breath was in my lungs,

And we float up through the rift.”

            The strong metaphor shows the relationship from the view of the author. He compares his life to an upturned boat on a cliff. This was designed to show that he felt that his life was going nowhere. His life had stalled, and with seemingly no future in sight, he was in need of a miraculous occurrence to give his life meaning. That is where he uses the girl as the metaphor of the flood. The use of the creative style here ables the author to use what in most instances is seen as a disaster (a great big flood) and turn it into a metaphor for what saved him from a life with no future in sight. The use of creative style here allows for interpretation for the listener to relate to their own lives. The creative style often implies meanings, which in the case of this song allow it to stay within the required time length to be part of an album. Trying to force a message into a four minute song does not allow for great elaboration or explanations for rhetorical devices that may be used.

            At this point in the song, it goes back through the chorus again followed by the first section of the song. This is why I argue that the chorus contains the climax of this writing. It is important enough to mention a second time. Its context delivers the ideas of reaching out to the woman the author loves and also describes where they live as a home identifying the lasting relationship he hopes to have with this woman. The beginning part is restated to remind the reader or listener what started this conversation about this woman. It might be a signifier in showing that the author might have been trying to hide the context of the song in the first section. That is why he brought it back at the end. With all of extra information given throughout the rest of the song, this first section makes more sense and the repetition of it is evidence that the author wants to reiterate the points made and might fear that the first section may have been overlooked at the beginning without full context. The use of a chorus here also enables to show importance of the main idea by repetition. As repetition is a creative strategy, this song benefits from the creative style by being able to revisit the main messages as well as revisiting the emotions set up by the climax that was explored previously in the song.

            Overall, the use of the creative style is perfect for using when writing the lyrics for a song. Creative writing allows the author unlimited word combinations and meanings to arrive at the message they intend to deliver. This particular song strongly used metaphors to provide alternate wordings and descriptions to accentuate the feelings the author had for the woman constantly referred to as “you” throughout the text. This would not be something used in the official or plain style. Both of the other styles would imply that the reader is the “you” they would be referring to. With the use of creative style in this case, “you” can be used to address a person separate from the reader with whom the reader then is able to incorporate as a character in the story. Also, the use of creative style is more specifically used to generate though by the listener into their own relationships given the experiences of the song writer. When somebody shares emotional feelings and personal experiences about a love one through writing, the effectiveness of using the creative style will often resonate better with the reader or listener. 

By S.P. Michael. 

Instruction Clarity

The use of plain style finds a way to make writing more concise, readable, and easier to understand. These three things are very good things to have control over if one is writing for the good of a consumer. Most instruction manuals are written in variations of the plain style to make it easy for consumers to understand. I found an instruction manual from a game called “Rattle me Bones” made by Tyco in 1990 that uses the plain style very well throughout the entire explanation of setup and playing of the game. This game is intended for people ages 5 and up. Since children will be playing the game, they would presumably need to be able to interpret the instruction manual. Even if the instruction manual was written for a product intended for results, a similar use of the plain style would be used to ensure satisfaction with the product as well as making the manual short and concise and easy for the reader to quickly understand without having to re-read wordy passages. The plain style is used in this instruction manual to guarantee that people with very basic reading skills would be able to set up and play the game. This can be determined because of the simple step-by-step structure, short concise sentences, as well as a number of detailed pictures that can be understood by people without advanced reading skills.

            The parts of the manual that are the most plain in style are the “Label Application” and “Game Set-Up” sections. These are broken down into simple steps with pictures showing exactly what needs to be done. The simple plain style prose used here would not even need to be read by most game players because the pictures do a far better job at showing exactly what needs to be done. As far as the “Label Application” section, it would only need to be read one time as the labels are only added the first time that the game is taken out of the box. Seeing as the label section is only needed one time but is included with the rest of the instructions on the single page, I would guess that the instructions for this game were designed to fit onto the front of a single page in order to cut costs by being able to print each list of instructions on a single page requiring no folding, staples, or double sided printing. If the official style had been used to write this instruction manual, it would have been at least twice the length. Not only would it be more confusing for the general reader to understand, but it would increase the production cost costs for each sheet of instructions for each game.

Since this game is designed to be played by people from ages 5 and up, the grade level at which the manual reads should be around the first or second grade. While a majority of the sentences in the manual rate at the fourth or fifth grade level on a readability score calculator, the authors must have taken into account that younger players might be playing with somebody who would be able to read the instructions.  I would assume that five-year-olds in the beginning stages of learning how to read would need to have the rules read to them. While they might not be able to read some of the words, the plain style used in this manual does a good job at using words that non-readers can understand without additional explanation.

            When describing how to play the game, it lists the steps in order with numbers in front of each one. It says, “1. One player is selected to go first. Players go in turn in a clockwise direction. 2. The on-off lever on the game base is switched to the “on” position. 3. During each turn, the player spins the spinner to determine which game piece to remove from the skeleton. (If that piece has already been removed, the player has to remove a coin from the treasure chest. If no coins remain, the turn is over.) 4. The player then tries to remove the game piece as carefully as possible so as not to rattle the skeleton’s bones. 5. If successful, that player keeps the game piece and the turn is over. If unsuccessful, that player returns the game piece to the skeleton (as well as any pieces which may have ‘rattled’ off!) and that player’s turn is over. 6. The winner is the player with the most game pieces after all the pieces have been removed from the skeleton and treasure chest.” This entire game description is summed up in the size of a single paragraph. It is clear that they have made the instructions as simple as they thought they could. I did notice that there was use of parentheses in steps 3 and 5. The information in the parentheses further explains the steps and doesn’t really require to be in parentheses, but added length to the description without parentheses would imply complication. The author clearly wanted to keep it concise, and the use of parenthesis in these two steps are able to suggest that the information might have been considered common sense, but was still important enough to include in the instructions. The “who’s kicking whom” aspect of the plain style works well in this section of the  instruction manual because this allows the author to easily issue concise commands of what to do to the reader. Other styles might be less effective in terms of being able to tell someone what to do.

            Overall, instruction manuals for children’s’ games should be easy to understand and easy to remember so the game can be played at a future date without confusion or much reference back to the instruction manual. The plain style was chosen for this instruction manual because it was intended for people ages 5 and up. While the intentions might not have been to design an instruction manual that a five year old can read, the plain style makes the game easy to explain to these individuals without extra interpretation that would likely be needed if official or creative styles had been used. Another thing to consider when looking at instruction manuals in general is the use of plain style as a way to keep the manual smaller cut costs on printing the manuals for each game. That was probably the case here. Also, the plain style offers a simple way to relay commands in a step-by-step format. The importance of being clear and concise in this example was perhaps the biggest reason for the use of plain style in this example. 

By S.P. Michael

Promoting New Media

I am critiquing an article from an academic journal titled, “A New Digital Dark Age? Collaborative Web Tools, Social Media and Long-Term Preservation,” by Stuart Jeffrey. This article looks to discuss ways of how digital media and the archiving of data using forms of digital media could potentially help the field of archeology. While this seems to be the focus in the abstract and introduction of the article, the focus generally is put upon digital media and its temporary dark ages. Very light references back to digital media’s help to the archaeological world are touched upon briefly in various sections discussing digital media storage and sharing abilities. It becomes clear to see that the author is using the official style as a way to strengthen his argument for the digitization of archeological records by intentionally creating his points with an overly wordy, professional sounding backing. He then uses the official style in a way that pinpoints current archeological operations as the wrong choice by simply diving into the thesaurus for negative words that undermine the current methods of excavating and saving artifacts in archeology as villainous without having to saying it in a straightforward way. Why would Jeffrey use the official style as a device to dismiss the current practices of archeology? Because he is involved in the field of archeology and might not want to be held accountable as a single person for exposing some of the flaws in the current system while still being able to bring up his own ideas for new for new methods under the cover of a collective which is generally how the official style reads to the average person.

As the article begins, its introduction begins with the line, “Archeology is a discipline whose practice is often predicated on the idea that the information being generated by its practitioners will be available in the long term for reuse and reanalysis.” This first sentence describing archeology contains four “is” verbs and three prepositional phrases. It’s really a long way of saying that archeology is a field where found information is shared and reused frequently, at least that's how it appears at first glance. A deeper reading will reveal that Jeffrey has already shown that the current practice of data findings for reuse is an unfit system. Using passive voice and starting with “Archeology is,” Jeffrey is trying to create a definition for archeology. He is using the official style to exert power over the field of archeology in this sentence, especially with the prepositional phrase, “on the idea that.” This is a device used to make a point that the idea that this practice in archeology doesn't always hold up to “the idea.” Already the sense of abstraction is well above the seventh grade reading level. The second sentence in the introduction provides the impactful blow to archeology that the first sentence was hinting at. Jeffrey writes, “While this can be said to be true of most academic endeavors, it is a particularly potent notion in archaeology due to the intrinsically destructive nature of the excavation process.” “While this can be said to be true of,” is an extremely unneeded phrase. This writing style and use of the official style can clearly be seen as showing extreme finesse work trying to impress the reader while building up to the meat of the argument. By using words combinations such as “potent notion” and “intrinsically destructive,” he artfully sets a negative charge to archeology while explaining why archeology practices the reuse of found data as he stated in the first sentence.

The author goes on to mention how older digital medias that once helped share and save archeological data are no longer safe to use to make the data last on a long scale. It seems that he is not trying to use the official style to exert the power here, but he uses vagueness by switching activity systems to explain how technology in the past has not always been the best option for sharing archeological samples. While talking about the digital dark age, he uses a sentence that demonstrates this point by saying, “The potential that significant volumes of important work have been generated using software packages or stored on physical media that will become unreadable and inaccessible is a serious one.” This sentence contains technological jargon that might be assumed as common knowledge. By placing the words “unreadable” and “inaccessible” next to each other, the author has intended for this to create alarm. He finishes this example by pointing out an example of when this happened, but does not explain it. This is where I would like to see many examples pointed out or a few explained in slight detail for the point to come across without the official style. By simply saying, “(for a good example, see Dunning 2001)” at the end of the thought concerning how data has been lost in the past forces the reader to believe what the author is saying. It creates a belief that this problem is extremely common although there is only one example given in parentheses.

            He follows this with new and improved ways of securing archeological data using digital media. When I read through this section, I kept wondering why these new methods wouldn’t eventually become obsolete like the old methods that Jeffrey has mentioned to be problems. This is where he uses the official style to really sound intelligent. When listing one of the ways of new archiving, Jeffrey writes “One of the most widely acknowledged approaches to the practical matter of preserving digital data for the long term is the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) reference model (CCSDS 2002). OAIS comprises hundreds of pages of guidance and good practice and makes clear the importance of open file formats, data migration, robust and distributed hardware infrastructure and the necessity of discovery, access and delivery systems. It does not, however, detail the specifics of day-to-day practice. Actual digital preservation based on OAIS can be enormously complex.” This contains many terms that people without knowledge of computer storage wouldn’t be able to understand. While offering this as one of a few suggestions for new digital archival methods, he doesn’t offer solutions seen as permanent in the way of not becoming obsolete. With technology progressing greatly on a yearly basis, this article offers up new ideas using the official style as insurance to the reader that new ways of digital archiving will be around forever.

            The official style when used in legal documents is often used to confuse. In academic documents such as this one that I have critiqued, it is used more artfully to set tones of arguments and to sound intelligent to readers to lead them in the direction that the author feels is right. Jeffrey constantly uses words to strike emotions throughout the text that would be able to make readers feel a certain way about a topic without fully understanding everything being discussed through the use of the official style. This paper could have been summed up without the official style, but would have lost the vague negativity placed upon archaeological archival systems and the technology of yesterday. It wouldn’t have been able to persuade me to think that the new technologies discussed could be sustainable and unable to become obsolete as quickly as the old technologies. Overall, he used the official style to author an intelligent suggestion in the field of technology that readers might not understand, but would potentially be supportive of because of its professional nature. 

By S.P. Michael

Rage On: A Look at the Universal Truth Achieved by Dylan Thomas

“Creative Prose Style categorized as 19th century villanelle poetry achieved universal truth and timeless connection with society by the late poet Dylan Thomas.”

To begin, it is important to understand the story of Poet Dylan Thomas. In the creative process, one’s subjective experiences in life come through in the writing. This is most definitely the case when looking at Thomas’s infamous poem “Do not go gentle into that good night” where his voice is strong and believed to be directed at his dying father.

According to Wikipedia sources, Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) was a Welsh poet who gained popularity for his “rebellious” form of poetry with focus on sound over everything. He started his career with contradicting content and conflicting images with intention of some confusion. The 1930’s fostered most of his writing. As he grew as a writer, more concrete poetry became his favored style. He also favored heavy drinking, as his late wife wrote of in her autobiography after his death. From her Wikipedia page, it is quoted from her autobiography that their relationship "was a drink story, not a love story, just like millions of others. Our one and only true love was drinking.” She also had first hand experience with Dylan Thomas’s father, DJ Thomas. Dylan’s wife described DJ as “the most unhappy man I have ever met and it showed in his face. He was unhappy with his life. It was exactly the kind of life that he had hoped not to have, and by the end he could feel himself sinking back into the very existence he had sought to escape' (http://www.newquay-westwales.co.uk/). I found this quote to be very important in analyzing Thomas’s poetry, specifically the famous poem recited in every English and Literature high school classroom across the country. The relationship behind the scenes is the backbone to the villanelle, written with a strong undertone of a yearning for more from Dylan’s father as well as the presence of frustration towards a lack of desire that the reader now knows was present in more than just the end of Dylan’s father’s life, but perhaps in the dying father’s life as a whole.


By assessing the creative style used to create such a prominent piece of poetry in past and current society, we can better understand 1) why we still revisit this poem and 2) how success is attained in the creative style of prose composition:

Assessment of "Do not go gentle into that good night" by Dylan Thomas
(footnotes linked to each highlighted mark)



Do not [i1] go gentle into that good night[i2] ,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;[i3]
Rage, rage against the dying of the light[i4] .

Though wise men at their end know dark is right[i5] ,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men[i6] , the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay[i7] ,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
[i8] Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. [i9]

(http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15377#sthash.urbD6Qsx.dpuf)

Thomas’s poem is interpreted differently by various scholars, but it is agreed upon that his father was dying, and he expressed the process of loss through poetry. Thomas was greatly influenced by the Bible, and this too, comes through in his writing. In terms of creativity, this poem seems to satisfy the masses because it addresses the inevitable yet feared experience of death. We all, at one point, will lose and be lost. We are often given directions like, do not go gentle into that good night. Naturally, you then ask, well if I should not go gentle then what should I do? We rarely get answers to questions about life and death. Thomas delivers an answer, and it is to rage. This has become a motto for generations. For example, my generation has currently invested in the creative slogan: YOLO, representing that You Only Live Once. It applies Thomas’s demand for us to rage. This is a universal truth that we invest in and believe in, which is why this poem will continue to resonate with generations to come.

Personally, I lost my uncle to cancer last year. When I read this poem, I think of his battle. He fought hard, and in a contradiction to Thomas, I am glad that my uncle eventually went gentle into that good night. His rage against his own body was violent and painful. In a literal sense, the gentleness of his passing was the result of his two year rage against the selfish disease. Within this context, the poem takes on a different meaning. This is an interesting point to make regarding interpretation. Others have found ways to express their interpretations as seen below:




In regards Thomas’s role within an activity system, the famous poem is still resonating with people, everywhere, in every medium, today. As we grow in life and face struggles that foster perseverance and inner-strength, art is created to express this process. As seen in the pictures to the left, the human race has and will continue to contemplate life, death, and the relationships that matter most to us on this planet. Different ways of expressing this human process gives Thomas’s poem an active role in the journey a lot of people go through to gain perspective on the mysterious human life cycle. The creative style plays into this concept, as a simple and perhaps plain style of the infamous poem might look like this: “Don’t give up, keep fighting for your life.”Although this phrase has a literal meaning that is easily understood by the masses, it has no life to it. The word usage is not memorable, and frankly, it does not evoke any emotional response; however, Thomas’s phrase “Do not go gentle into that good night, rage, rage against the dying of the light” delivers a parallel point but in a much more original way. Readers contemplate these specific words, question the connotation of gentle and rage, and resonate with the motivation these words perpetuate. It has become a slogan, really, to continue one’s relationship with the sun, the moon, the past, the present, and the future. When a piece of literature is composed in a specific time-frame, for a specific situation, and yet, can be applicable throughout human existence, it has achieved the rhetorical value of being a universal truth. There is a reason certain pieces do not disappear over time. Thomas achieved a timeless piece of literature via the creative style.

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch.vimeocdn.com

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgtQ61pXTlueUv0CMuF9VYG1p0hWaAw8V_YxQ2SliOSCl3SPBXdy52wrQG0c88_OGZ7qxnCn3qr5IC7m0uO85wCDJh8MESR9EVVZ1av9jHKz5UdlBLC1bbieVQwFcrSSLpB-i8GThU6Jw/+do+not+go+gentle.jpg

http://dktqof0r04orj.cloudfront.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/ragerage.jpg




[i1]Thomas is direct; clearly he is talking to someone. The reader is immediately taken into this dyad, wondering who should not go gentle.

[i2]Considered the title; however the poem was never titled by Thomas.

[i3]Day and Rage, great use of assonance or repeating vowel sounds.

[i4]Thomas follows the pattern of a villanelle , creating a song like structure, with two phrases that repeat.

[i5]If wise men know that dark is right, is Thomas inferring that perhaps his father has not been a wise man throughout his life but will still follow the path of wise men?

[i6]Thomas implicates 4 types of men: wise, good, wild, and grave. It sets up a comparison. And the point is that despite who you are and how you go out, you still go out. For some reason, men still must fight it. Is it pride?

[i7]Their actions in life are futile

[i8]Climax of poem, we now know this is about his father, and there is something pathetic about this dying man. Thomas looks at him with pity, anger, turmoil, and perhaps some regret.

[i9]Connection of the two repetitive phrases, there is a sense of completion.