How to Read Like a Writer — Page-by-Page Notes (Pages 1–17)

Page 1

• Source: "How to Read Like a Writer" by Mike Bunn, a chapter in Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 2. Open textbook series for the writing classroom.
• Availability and licensing: download from Writing Spaces, Parlor Press, and WAC Clearinghouse; Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US) with terms of use noted at the bottom of the first page of the chapter.
• Publication data (cataloging info) included for context: Writing spaces: readings on writing. Volume 1, edited by Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. ISBNs provided for paperback and ebook editions. (Useful for understanding the scholarly framing around RLW.)
• Purpose of the essay: introduce Reading Like a Writer (RLW) as a practical method for students to learn about writing by examining how writers make choices in their texts.

Page 2

• Personal anecdote sets the stage: In $1997$, Mike Bunn, a recent college graduate, is in London for six months, working at the Palace Theatre owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
• The theatre context: a four-story (i.e., $4$-story) red brick building in London’s West End, hosting a $3$-hour performance of Les Miserables, eight times a week.
• Safety protocol and role: due to fire-safety laws, a certain number of staff must be inside during performances; Bunn’s role as a Red Coat is backstage-like security, though he lacks formal training or knowledge of fire extinguishers, leading to a humorous image of potentially fleeing down back stairs in a bright red tuxedo.
• Reading in the theatre: the four Red Coats sit on each floor, reading with flashlights to pass the time; reading in the dim light is difficult, requiring intense focus on each word and often rereading sentences or paragraphs.
• Key realization: Reading that environment made him notice that his own reading method (one word at a time) mirrors the way the author wrote the text; reading is a word-by-word, sentence-by-sentence process.
• Broader claim: Writing is a series of deliberate choices; the author’s craft shapes how readers respond; Bunn realizes he had not previously connected reading and writing as reciprocal activities.
• Personal growth context: even as an English major, he did not consciously think about how reading informs writing; RLW reframes reading as a tool to understand and improve one’s own writing.
• Core thesis introduced: RLW is about identifying the writer’s choices to learn how to apply similar techniques in your own writing, by analyzing not just content but how the text was put together.

Page 3

• Definition and aim of RLW: When you Read Like a Writer (RLW), you identify the writer’s choices to understand how those choices might arise in your own writing.
• The learning objective: read to learn about writing, not just to understand content; analyze how the piece was constructed and how those choices influence your own reading and responses.
• Process focus: as you read, you consider how the author’s choices and techniques affect potential readers (including you).
• Critical exercise: locate the most important writerly choices, from broad structural decisions to small, single-word choices that occur infrequently; imagine alternative choices and predict their effects on readers.
• Goal emphasis: RLW is about understanding how writing works and how you might emulate or adapt those strategies in your own writing.

Page 4

• Example prompt: you read an essay that begins with a quote from Barack Obama about the war in Iraq; as a writer, you evaluate the technique of starting with a quote.
• Variations to consider: what if the quote were from someone else, a longer quote, or about a different topic? Would these changes affect effectiveness?
• Practical exercise: create a list of pros and cons of starting with a quote, and consider how different readers (e.g., Democrats vs. conservatives) might respond to such a choice.
• Application for writers: the goal is to weigh the writerly technique and decide whether to adopt similar choices in your own writing.
• Practitioner insight: Wendy Bishop’s reflection on RLW—shifting from reacting to texts to interrogating how the writer elicited those reactions and conveyed intentions about genre and irony (pp. 119–120 in her work).
• takeaway: Understanding writerly choices helps students become more effective writers by learning how texts are constructed to achieve effects.

Page 5

• RLW vs “normal” reading: Most reading is informational (recipes, sports pages, history books, syllabi). RLW asks for something different: reading to understand how writing is built.
• Allen Tate’s two reading metaphors (1940): reading like a historian (trace origins, development) vs. reading like an architect (focus on construction, not just history). This duality captures RLW’s aim to study structure and craft rather than only content.
• Tate’s corollaries: as architects, readers must understand construction to build their own works; as historians, readers may focus on origins and context.
• David Jauss’s parallel metaphor: reading like a carpenter looking at a house to see how it was made; RLW aligns with this view by emphasizing examination of details to learn how it was built and how to replicate similar methods in one’s own writing.
• Terminology shift: RLW could be framed as Reading Like an Architect or Reading Like a Carpenter; the emphasis remains on construction and replication of craft in new writings.

Page 6

• Rationale for RLW’s value: RLW is typically new for many college students and may not be explicitly taught by instructors who focus on writing rather than reading.
• Practical benefits: RLW helps learners see writing as a sequence of decisions, enabling anticipation of choices they may face and techniques they might adopt in their own work.
• Moran’s perspective: Charles Moran argues that reading like writers allows us to understand and participate in the writing because we recognize the moves writers make and their consequences; readers who have written know the terrain and can anticipate moves.
• Self-identity as authors: Students bring prior writing experience, giving them an advantage in spotting writerly choices; this self-awareness aids in transferring RLW insights to their own writing.
• Closing encouragement: RLW turns reading into an opportunity to think and learn about writing rather than solely consuming text.

Page 7

• Before-reading questions from student insights (context matters):
  • Alison: reading in college requires breadth and depth, with informed analysis and understanding of context.
  • Jamie: importance of historical context.
  • Richard Straub: reading within a specific context, audience, and purpose.
• Contextual factors to consider before reading:
  • What is the author’s purpose?
  • Who is the intended audience?
• Practical note: identifying purpose and audience may require reading first, but attempting to answer upfront helps evaluate writerly choices.
• Example application: understanding the opening quote about the Iraq war could be more or less effective depending on the author’s purpose and target audience.

Page 8

• Genre matters: Genre signals different conventions, which affect which techniques work best. Different genres require different expectations (e.g., poetry vs. legal briefs).
• Mike’s example: when reading philosophy, look for signaling words (however, therefore, furthermore, despite) to trace argument direction; in fiction or creative nonfiction, pay attention to dialogue, narration, and how authorial voice is used.
• Published vs. student-produced writing: RLW can analyze either published pieces or student-written work to understand writerly choices.
• Implication: the same RLW approach can be applied to both professional and classroom writing to learn techniques and adapt them to one’s own writing goals.

Page 9

• RLW’s applicability to writing tasks: RLW helps readers anticipate and imagine how techniques could be used to influence readers in their own writing.
• Nancy Walker’s stance: reading published work with RLW allows it to be seen as a living utterance with immediacy and texture; the text could have been better or worse had different choices been made.
• Value of imagining alternatives: thinking about how a text might change if different writerly moves were used helps you anticipate and plan for your own writing.
• Practical guidance: RLW is useful whether the text is a published piece or a student-generated one, and it connects to the kinds of assignments you will be asked to produce.

Page 10

• Practical questions for reading as a writer: Clare (a former student) emphasizes asking many questions while reading and imagining alternative directions an author could take.
• Core questions to guide RLW:
  • How effective is the language? Is tone appropriate for audience and subject matter?
  • What kinds of evidence does the author use (statistics, quotes, anecdotes, citations)? Are they effective?
  • How does the evidence support claims, and would other types of evidence be more effective?
  • Does the wording or the genre affect the reader’s interpretation? How do genre expectations influence what counts as evidence or argument?
• Note: the degree of scrutiny depends on genre; opinion columns often demand strong supporting evidence, while a short story may rely more on narrative technique than empirical claims.

Page 11

• Additional reading questions: transitions between ideas, clarity, and potential confusions in the writing.
• Emphasis on evaluating appropriateness and effectiveness of techniques, not simply liking or disliking them.
• Consider how other readers might respond to the techniques identified.
• Connection to writing practice: anticipate how readers will respond to your own techniques; RLW helps you test your craft from the reader’s perspective.
• Practice guidance: ask what the author is doing at each step, and whether the same choices could work in your own writing.

Page 12

• Practical note on annotating: the most common student recommendation is to mark up the text, write margins notes, and summarize ideas during and after reading.
• A concrete exercise: highlight the passage, identify the technique, evaluate its effectiveness, and consider advantages/disadvantages of applying the same technique to your writing.
• Outcome: building a personal catalog of techniques to draw from when you start writing your own pieces.

Page 13

• RLW in action: return to the opening paragraph and practice reading like a writer.
• Exercise setup: attempt to answer the pre-reading questions (author’s purpose, audience, genre, publication status, and potential applicability to your own writing) and then reread to refine your responses.
• Candid note: the author acknowledges “cheating” by already having read much of the essay, but uses this as a practice exercise for readers to repeat on their own.
• Four guiding questions to reassess after reading: purpose, audience, genre, and publication status, plus the potential for RLW to inform your own writing.
• Framing idea: RLW helps readers recognize writerly techniques that can influence readers and that might be useful in future writing projects.

Page 14

• Deeper reflection on opening details: why the author chose specifics (e.g., a famous London theater, a theater owned by a renowned composer) and what effect those details have on credibility, audience connection, and engagement.
• Why these details matter: details can anchor readers, establish credibility, and invite readers to participate in the author’s narrative.
• Questioning approach: consider how the piece would differ if details were trimmed or altered; what effect would that have on readers and on the author’s voice?
• Broader questions: how the opening frames the relationship between the writer and audience, and how it foreshadows the connection between personal experience and reading like a writer.

Page 15

• Analytical method for sentence-level choices: explore how word choice shapes tone and impact.
• Example: the phrase "antiquated fire-safety laws" versus alternatives like "old fire-safety laws" or "outdated laws"; examine how word choice signals attitude and affects reader perception.
• Language formality and audience considerations: formal language can create credibility or distance; more conversational language can enhance accessibility and engagement.
• Thought experiment: compare revised sentence variants to consider what is gained or lost by substituting words such as "staff members" vs. "employees" or "show" vs. "performance".
• Core question: which version is more appealing to readers? The analysis demonstrates how tiny word choices influence tone and reader reception.

Page 16

• Metacognitive takeaway: as you practice RLW, you’ll increasingly notice techniques automatically and selectively focus on new ones.
• Lola’s reflection on RLW: reading like a writer compels you to question why decisions were made, evaluate what worked or didn’t, and consider how to incorporate best attributes into your own writing.
• Reframed aim: RLW is about questioning, evaluating, and importing successful writerly strategies into your own writing rather than merely enjoying or criticizing texts.
• Readiness prompt: Are you ready to start reading in this way? The section ends with discussion prompts to deepen engagement and practice RLW in a classroom setting.
• Discussion prompts:
  • How is RLW similar to or different from your usual reading in other classes?
  • What writer’s choices might you identify in your own writing?
  • Is there a technique you’d like to try in your own writing? When would you apply it?
  • What strategies can you use to learn about a text’s context before you begin reading?

Page 17

• Works Cited: The page lists foundational sources that informed RLW and the broader discussion of reading like a writer, including Bishop, Jauss, Moran, Straub, Tate, and Walker.
• Purpose of the citations: situates RLW within a broader scholarly conversation about reading, writing, and pedagogy, reinforcing the theoretical underpinnings of the RLW approach.
• Concluding takeaway: RLW provides a practical, transferable framework for students to analyze texts, understand writerly decisions, and apply those insights to their own writing journeys.

Summary of Key Concepts Across Pages

• RLW is a deliberate practice: read with the goal of uncovering writerly choices (structure, word choice, tone, evidence, transitions) to learn how to write more effectively.
• Reading like a writer is a reciprocal activity: it helps you understand how writing works and, in turn, how to craft your own writing to produce desired reader responses.
• Context, genre, and audience matter: your evaluation of a writer’s choices should consider purpose, audience, and genre conventions.
• Practice and annotation are essential: mark up texts, pose targeted questions, and maintain a personal catalog of techniques to draw from in your writing.
• The opening paragraph as a case study: analyzing how authors craft openings (detail choice, tone, credibility) demonstrates RLW’s practical method.
• Metaphors for reading like a writer: architecture and carpentry metaphors help conceptualize how readers should inspect construction and replication in writing.
• Ethical and practical implications: RLW foregrounds reflection on reader response and the responsibility of writers to consider audience, genre expectations, and clarity.
• Form and content balance: decisions about formality, diction, and evidence influence readability, credibility, and persuasive power.
• Reflection and transfer: RLW aims to move students from reactive reading to proactive writing, enabling them to transfer observed techniques into their own work.

Notable Quotes and References (for study)

• Allen Tate on two ways of reading: historical vs. architectural perspectives on architecture (metaphor of two reading modes) $506$.
• David Jauss on reading like a carpenter: examine details to see how it was made (reading like a builder) $64$.
• Wendy Bishop on changing reading practice: from reacting to uncovering how writers achieve effects (pp. $119–120$).
• Nancy Walker on literature as a living utterance and the potential for better or worse with different writerly choices ($36$).
• Moran on the advantage of reading like a writer: understanding the territory through prior writing experience (pp. $61$).