Discussion Questions for Altick, Chp. 7 (Philosophy of Composition):

• What are the main principles of writing according to Altick and Fenstermaker?

• What are your thoughts on the use of “jargon” or “crit-speak” in your writing?

• Thoughts on revision: “Rethinking calls for rearrangement, and rearrangement means rewriting:  perhaps a paragraph here, a whole page there – or the whole article or chapter.  But one can find a positive gain in necessity.  For if the process of writing is in part destructive, exposing as it does the flaws of one’s thinking, it can also be creative, because by forcing reconsideration of what has been said, it sharpen insight into the means of one’s material, suggests new sources of data, perhaps make sit possible to extend the argument a further step” (229). 

• By the way, what do you think about the use of the first-person in literary criticism? (237)

• Pages 242-244 contain some very good bits of advice on writing and publishing.  What do you find most helpful?  What do you learn from this?