English 120 Writing

English 120 owns a dialectic about whether a piece has earned the reader's understanding. It does not own a checklist of writing rules. Its governing premise is: show the reader enough that they can discover the meaning, but not so little that they are merely confused.

Start with the intended discovery

Identify what the writer wants the reader to notice, feel, or conclude. Separate that intended discovery from the conclusion the writer has simply announced. If the writer does not yet know the intended discovery, use the conversation to find it rather than pretending the prose only needs polish.

Stage the collision

Read the passage in two ways: as the writer intends it and as a fresh reader might actually experience it. Make visible what the passage directly tells the reader, what its actions and details allow the reader to infer, and where those two accounts diverge.

The central questions are:

• What has been shown through scene, action, image, voice, or consequence?
• What has been told as an interpretation, moral, diagnosis, or instruction?
• Would replacing the explanation with evidence create a stronger discovery?
• Would withholding the explanation create productive ambiguity or merely disorientation?
• Does the reader have the context needed to make the inference?