Contemporary Reasons For Writing

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Today there are many reasons to write. Without writing we would not be able to communicate many messages. People use writing every single day in things like newspapers, emails, letters, text messages, and magazines. Writing makes things permanent and is essential in our society for order, this is displayed in written laws and constitutions. Writing puts our thoughts onto paper and makes them visible. In George Orwell’s essay Why I Write he describes four great motives for writing. The first of which is Egoism, the desire to be well known and remembered. I think that egoism is one of the main motives for why people write, however I don’t think that it is the most accepted or sought after by readers. The second motive Orwell mentions is Aesthetic Enthusiasm, where an experience or a certain outlook on a situation is described through writing. The third reason is historical impulse, which is writing true facts for history. Orwell’s fourth and final motive for writing is Political Purpose. Orwell states that political purpose is when someone writes in order to sway people’s ideas on society. Orwell says that these motives exist in different degrees in all writers. According to Orwell people will react best when all four motives are present and he also said that he was somewhat forced into becoming a pamphleteer because he was unaware of his political loyalties. From reading his essay I gathered that descriptive writing could be written without all four motives but other than that the writing cannot be whole unless all four motives are displayed. Similar to Orwell’s view on the political motive for writing Linda Hogan believes that writing comes from the community and goes back to the community. Hogan believes that writing should be used to ask and answer the deepest of all questions, both internal and external. I think that people can connect well to this type
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