5 Ways To Write Better Poems

Poetry is a strange medium. It’s both heavily critiqued and profoundly subjective. A poem can be as timeless as the best classical literature or it might only ever move one reader. When a format is so artistic and personal, it seems absurd to impose rules or suggest ways in which one poem is objectively better than another. Nonetheless, there are certain ways in which a poet can make her own work the best it can be, regardless of how it compares to the mainstream.

Write when you’re ready.

This advice may seem obvious, but too many poets worry first about writing a poem—any poem—rather than deciding on what they really want to say. Others may have a great central idea, but nothing else to follow it, so they end up filling in the gaps with stuffing. When inspiration is lacking, don’t try to force creativity. Work on peripheral things, expand your vocabulary, research something that interests you, and examine those old ideas you put aside. When the time is right to put pen to paper, you’ll know. By exercising patience, your work will come from inspiration rather than obligation.

Write what you know.

This is just as true for poets as it is for novel writers. The best poetry comes from the heart and soul, so examine what lies within your own. Experiences, both good and bad, are ideal fodder for inspiration and will give your words the ring of truth. Look through old photographs or diary entries and ask your friends and family about past events. Compare their perspectives or recollections to your own. Remember that nobody else has had a life quite like yours; what better subject matter for a unique poem?

Borrow from known techniques.

Poetry is personal and expressive, so you shouldn’t feel obliged to follow the classic literary techniques, no matter how boldly academics tout their importance. Having said that, they are useful as tools to help you develop your own style. Try a simple device like alliteration, wherein words are grouped together by their first letter to create a sound pattern, as in “The train tore along the track at a terrifying speed.” When read aloud, the consonant sound mirrors the clacking of the tracks, and the motion of the train becomes a little more real. There are plenty of classic poetic forms you can try, such as elegies and ballads, but never let them hem you in. The key is to consider how these techniques can help you, not to blindly follow them.

Remember the power of words.

Poetry tends toward the short form, especially when following a rhythm or meter that requires a set number of syllables. Expanding your vocabulary will make it easier to find one word that can do the job of three. Similarly, you can use literary devices to layer on additional meanings; with the right expression you can make your words say more than one thing. For example, hyperbole involves making outlandish exaggerations that paint a bold picture. Instead of “My father was very strong and supported the household,” try “My father could lift the whole house with one hand.”

Write for yourself.

You are not writing for the critics, or a publisher, or your readers. Poetry is written for the poet. Even when you do have adoring readers, or you choose to craft a piece as a gift or homage to another person, the spark that makes your poetry special is you! Readers follow writers because something about their talent appeals to them. Publishers look for unique points of view. Switch off the inner voice that tells you to follow certain rules or avoid certain subjects. There will always be people who don’t like your poems, but your poems can only be considered art if they remain true to your vision.

The Secret to Success? Many of Our Favorite Writers Also Worked as Librarians.

April 14 is National Library Workers’ Day. Given the literary nature of library work, it’s not surprising that some of our favorite authors were also librarians. Here’s a short list of writers who put in time between the stacks.

Lewis Carroll Before he began writing Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll (whose real name was Charles Dodgson) worked as a librarian in England.

Jorge Luis Borges This Argentinian author had quite a successful career as a librarian. After working as a librarian for years, Borges served as the Director of the National Library of the Argentine Republic.

Madeleine L’Engle After the success of her Newbery Award-winning novel A Wrinkle in Time, author Madeleine L’Engle had a career as a librarian in New York City.

Marcel Proust Proust is famous for his novel In Search of Lost Time, but he also worked at the Bibliothèque Mazarine. The Bibliothèque Mazarine is the oldest public library in France.

Beverly Cleary Newbery Award-winning children’s book author Beverly Cleary also worked as a children’s librarian. Perhaps her experience putting books in the hands of eager readers helped her create some of her famous characters like Ramona Quimby and Henry Huggins.

Does what you read influence how you write?

The Grammarly team is growing quickly, which means that we’re writing a lot of job descriptions to help us recruit top talent. One recent job post stated: “Salary will be commensurate with experience.”

Commensurate . . . commensurate . . . commensurate . . .

Perhaps you know what that word means; you may even understand how to use it in the context of a sentence. However, if you are like me, you have no idea how to actually say it aloud.

(In case you’re interested, here’s how.)

My inability to pronounce the word “commensurate” is a great example of how reading has made me a better writer. By reading others’ written job descriptions, I’ve learned specific text structures and language that I am now able to transfer to my own writing.

Today is National Reading Day, an annual event encouraging children to read. Although Grammarly is focused on improving English writing globally, reading is a topic that is dear to our hearts. After all, reading and writing are inextricably entwined.

Research has found that when children read extensively they become better writers. Additionally, reading provides young people with prior knowledge that they can use in their stories. Even professional writers understand the importance of reading others’ work. Here are the favorite books of some of our favorite writers:

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith

“A Tree Grows in Brooklyn [. . .] the story of Francie Nolan struggling up in a tenement slum through the cracks in the pavement to reach the sun. It may be the best book I’ve ever read about poverty, parenthood, the immigrant experience, and just about everything else. My firstborn daughter is named Francie Nolan.”

—Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean

The Music Room, by Dennis McFarland

“I love this book because it is a haunting, touching, and beautifully written story about a deeply flawed family. I also love it because it was put into my hands more than 20 years ago by a young woman who said to me: ‘You must read this book.’ Did I ask that young woman to marry me because of McFarland’s book? That might be overstating things. But sometimes when someone changes your life by handing you a great book, she might be there to change your life in other ways as well.”

—Garth Stein, author of The Art of Racing in the Rain

What do you think? Does what you read influence how you write?

Today, Grammarly is launching our 2^nd Annual Scholarship for Exceptional Writing, and we’re interested in your feedback.

For a chance to win a $1,000 scholarship, we’re inviting students to write a short essay responding to one of the questions below, and submit to scholarship@grammarly.com before February 24, 2014 at noon PT.

• How are reading and writing interconnected?
• How has reading improved the way you write?

Please see additional scholarship rules here. We’ll leave you with the thoughts of Robin Kimmerer: “With words at your disposal, you can see more clearly. Finding the words is another step in learning to see.”

Happy National Reading Day, writers.

Finding a Rhyme and Reason for National Poetry Month

Academia teaches us to use proper nouns, pronouns, and punctuation, but what about other types of writing? What about types of writing, like fiction or poetry, which capture a reader in ways beyond the period or comma?

April is National Poetry Month, and a great time to help writers to answer these questions — even if in an intangible way. For example, to strict grammarians, poetry may seem as though it has no rules. But this is definitely not the case. While poetry takes traditional grammar rules, chops them up, moves them around, and fits them back together again in a contorted puzzle, it does have — pardon the pun — a rhyme and a reason.

It is possible to break a poem down by its rhyme scheme or meter, and to identify its specific form. In addition, you can often identify certain grammar rules that are utilized in poems – including commas, point of view, or the use of capitalization. But these rules, similar to poems, themselves, are subject to creative license.

In poetry, writers may choose which rules to use and how to use them – and may choose to disregard some of them in the process. Brent Calderwood, a writer, editor, and activist, recently expanded on this topic in his article about writing rules: “Writing is like a painting. You have to know the rules before you start experimenting with them.”

This method of understanding grammar rules, and then breaking them down, encompasses much of what we call informal writing. Blogger Anne Wayman writes about how writing has become more informal over time: “My hunch, too, is that over the last decade or so all writing, including formal writing, has become more informal. While some might lament the lack of rules and structure in much of today’s writing, I like it – as long as it communicates clearly, accurately, and completely.”

Anne’s point is quite relevant to poetry. It is the communication of a piece that remains the golden rule of poetry. While a poem might break a few rules of academic writing, as long as it communicates a feeling clearly, it can by many standards be considered a good poem.

Poets do not ask permission to bend the rules of grammar. Instead, they create new forms of writing such as haikus, sonnets, or ballads (you can view a large list of poetic forms here). Many great poets have chiseled their names into the walls of history through the creation of such forms. Some, like Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, or Emily Dickinson, remain as relics in our literature books. While others, like the Taoist Laotzi, have forged religious and philosophical belief behind their words.

There were many famous authors who also wrote books of poetry to accompany their other forms of writing — Wendell Berry, Richard Aldington, Walter Allen, and Simon Armitege, just to name a few. The list of influential poets is also too long to put here, but PoetrySoup.com has an interesting top 100 list to get you started.

As we head into poetry month, and contemplate the rhyme and reason of poetry, let’s not forget to give homage to those great writers who have come before us. They are, after all, the ones who created the poetic rules we often observe. They are the ones who walked off the beaten path, and for the first time created the complex rhyme schemes that we identify today. Whether you prefer free verse or formal poetry, remember to appreciate these poets and their rules as the forefathers of poetic form — and to observe and appreciate the form that does exist.

Perhaps then, we too can help invent the poetic forms of the future.

Happy National Poetry Month!

7 Tips for Formulating the Perfect Five-Paragraph Essay.

Do you want to write a five-paragraph essay that makes your mama proud? In case you missed it, here’s the secret ingredient: structure. These seven tips will help you formulate the perfect five-paragraph essay.

Start With an Outline

Mapping out your essay before you begin writing helps you stay on point. Start by jotting down the following subheads, inserting ideas and research as you see fit.

• Introductory Paragraph/Thesis Statement
• First Paragraph
• Second Paragraph
• Third Paragraph
• Conclusion

Get to the Point 

In your first few sentences, hook your reader by telling her what she can expect to learn. Let’s say you’re writing about the perks of starting a cake decorating business. Explain your essay’s focus in the introductory paragraph.

Good: “Are you a culinary artist who dreams of having her cake and eating it, too? If so, a career in cake decorating could be right for you.”

Bad: “First, find a recipe. Next, bake your cake. Now it’s time to decorate. That’s where the fun begins.”

The second example beats around the bush too much. If you don’t zero in on your main idea right away, you run the risk of confusing your reader.

Forecast Your Arguments in a Thesis Statement

Conclude your introductory paragraph with a thesis statement that ties your essay’s three forthcoming arguments together.

Good: “Owning your own cake decorating business can lead to artistic satisfaction, job security, and personal freedom.”

Bad: “Owning your own cake decorating business is a great idea.”

The second example is too vague. A quality thesis statement provides a concrete list of facts or ideas that your reader will internalize by the end of the essay.

Present Your Best Argument First

Present your best argument in the second paragraph. In this example, exactly why should your reader consider a career in cake decorating?

Good: “Decorators enjoy the artistic satisfaction of creating beautiful cakes for special occasions.”

Bad: “People like frosting cakes.”

Our vague second example tells the reader something she already knows. Don’t bore her with the obvious. Give her a compelling reason to jump into cake decorating.

Continue Your Arguments in Paragraphs Three and Four

A five-paragraph essay cannot stand on one argument alone. The third and fourth paragraphs should continue your pro-decorating sentiment.

Recall that the example thesis mentioned three cake-decorating perks: artistic satisfaction, job security, and personal freedom.

Address job security and personal freedom in paragraphs three and four. How does owning your own business provide job security? What are the benefits of being your own boss? If you’re not sure, brainstorm ideas via a Google search. Play with search terms such as “cake decorator,” “owning your own business,” and “personal freedom entrepreneur.”

Wrap Up Your Arguments

Wrap up your arguments by restating them in your concluding paragraph. It’s okay to repeat some of the same language you used in your introductory paragraph. Your conclusion is your last chance to persuade the reader, but make sure you don’t introduce any new ideas.

Rest, then Review with Fresh Eyes

Once you’ve finished your essay, put it away for a while. You’ll return to it with fresh eyes, and you’ll undoubtedly notice things you could change. It’s perfectly normal to draft three, five, or even ten versions of an essay before you’re completely satisfied.

If you don’t have time to set your piece aside, ask a friend to edit it. You might not agree with your friend’s critique, but your eyes will open to a reader’s point of view. Running an online plagiarism check is also smart.

All good writing adheres to a structure. When you write a five-paragraph essay, that structure is fixed and specific. However, the product you create within that structure is uniquely yours. What will your next five-paragraph essay be about?

What Is a Protagonist?

• Protagonist comes from a Greek word for the principal actor in a drama.
• In modern literature, the protagonist drives the story forward by pursuing a goal.
• The protagonist of a story is sometimes called the main character.
• The protagonist of a story is opposed by an antagonist.

---

If you have ever taken a writing or literature class, you probably heard someone refer to a protagonist. You may even have a sketchy idea of what a protagonist is. Today you have an opportunity to learn the literary definition of protagonist as well as how the word is used in other contexts.

Protagonist Definition

What is a protagonist? The word comes from ancient Greece. An actor who played the chief role in a drama was a protagonistes. The prefix proto- means to “first,” and an agonistes was an actor or a competitor in a contest.

In English class, when you hear the word protagonist, you’ll probably be discussing a work of literature. (Films also have protagonists.) The most common definition of protagonist is the leading character of a drama or literary work. You can see the relation to its Greek root word in the sense that the character is important in the plot. Sometimes, the term hero refers to a male protagonist. Heroine refers to a female protagonist. Champion is another synonym of protagonist.

Protagonist Examples

Usually, the protagonist is easy to identify. Take the book Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, for example. The action of the novel centers around one man, Alonso Quixano. He is the protagonist.

Let’s look as some other famous protagonists, as identified by fellow authors and readers:

Harry (“Rabbit”) Angstrom, the serial hero of John Updike’s Rabbit tetralogy, is the only protagonist I’ve grown old with―doomed, but indomitable and lovable.

”John

[A Handful of Dust] shows all of Waugh’s gifts for satire and farce, but unlike his earlier novels, it has a three-dimensional, tragic protagonist in aristocratic cuckold Tony Last.

”Jay

The protagonist A.J. Fikry, for example, is a crotchety old bookseller in the isolated New England town of Alice Island―a guy who thumbs his nose at anything unworthy of the term “literary.”

”Kate

In some novels, there may be more than one protagonist. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy is a famous example―it has five. However, not every book with multiple main characters has multiple protagonists. According to NarrativeFirst.com, the main character “represents the audience’s eyes into the story,” On the other hand, the protagonist “pursues the goal of the story.”

Outside the world of books, protagonist can refer to anyone who is a leader or an important person in a movement or cause.

After a positive showing in Euro 2016, Welshman Gareth Bale will be asked to take over the role of protagonist and fans will be hoping he can deliver in the same way. ―AS.com

Protagonist and Antagonist

What makes many stories interesting is the struggle that the protagonist has to go through to achieve his aim. The antagonist is the principal source of conflict for the protagonist. Often, the antagonist is a bad guy, a villain, but he doesn’t necessarily have to be. He may just be someone who has a different agenda. Antagonists might be one person, a group, or even an animal. For example, Professor Moriarty is the antagonist of many Sherlock Holmes stories. He is a clear opponent; Sherlock dies in a battle against him in “The Final Battle.”

Can the protagonist be his own antagonist? In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the character McDuff opposes Macbeth and eventually kills him. However, some say that the protagonist Macbeth fills the role of antagonist against himself. Macbeth causes his own problems. McDuff isn’t an evil character in the play. In fact, he’s described frequently as “holy.”

However, like protagonists, antagonists aren’t always easy to distinguish. Furthermore, not all antagonists are people. Sometimes, a character’s opponent is something abstract, like an internal struggle or a difficult life situation. Abstract antagonistic forces can function as obstacles that a protagonist must overcome. In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the protagonist Okonkwo is haunted by the memories of Unoka’s wrongdoing, and this shapes his character.

Famous Protagonist and Antagonist Pairs

• Sherlock Holmes vs. Professor Moriarity
• Harry Potter vs. Lord Voldemort, the Harry Potter series
• Elizabeth Bennett vs. Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham, Pride and Prejudice
• Hamlet vs. King Claudius, Hamlet

False Protagonists

One interesting literary technique is to introduce a false protagonist. When the story begins, one character stands out as the principal player, but a change occurs at some point in the novel. Often, this character dies, leaves the story, or turns out to be the antagonist and someone else emerges as the actual protagonist who will continue the mission of the first character. An author famous for this shocking technique is George R.R. Martin, author of the Game of Thrones series. In the early stages of his story, Ned Stark seems to be the main protagonist of the novel―much of the story is narrated from his point of view. Later, his sudden execution surprises readers, forcing them to rethink their theories about what’s really happening.

How to Create a Protagonist

What does protagonist mean? Now that you can answer that question, how do you create one? The Sumo Nova blog provides some helpful steps. First, create a central conflict. “A protagonist is defined by how he faces such challenges, and moreover, how he overcomes them.” Next, consider what your protagonist wants and needs. These desires have to be strong enough to motivate your character to take action in your story. They can change, but they always need to be relatable to what people want in real life—love, success, justice, happiness, etc. However, don’t explicitly state the goals and needs of the principal character. It’s much more interesting for the readers to figure it out by listening in on the character’s thoughts and conversations and by observing how the character acts in different situations. Finally, choose how you will describe your character, including his name and physical appearance.

Another Type of Protagonist

There is a new definition of protagonist that arose in the twentieth century: a proponent or advocate of a cause. The American Heritage Dictionary adds this usage note: “[This usage] may have been influenced by a misunderstanding that the first syllable of the word is the prefix pro-, “favoring.” Many readers will therefore find erroneous a sentence like, “He was an early protagonist of nuclear power.” Though controversial, you will see this usage occasionally. Here are a couple of examples from the media:

The people of Bengal have maintained that their greatest protagonist for the freedom struggle, Subhas Chandra Bose, was always subjected to neglect by the Congress, because of the fundamental differences Bose had with the party’s official line. ―The New Indian Express

At the University of Havana, Fidel was president of the Committee for Democracy in the Dominican Republic as well as of the Committee for the Liberation of Puerto Rico, then as now, a U.S. colony. He was an active protagonist for Latin American unity, not just in words but in deeds. ―Liberation

From ancient Greece down to today, protagonists have been the central figures of plays, books, films, and even causes and organizations. Do you have a clearer idea of what a protagonist is? You can test yourself by trying to identify the central charac ter of your favorite books and movies. To challenge yourself further, create your own protagonist for a short story.

Purposely vs. Purposefully—Learn How To Use Both Correctly

Purposely and purposefully are two English words that are often confused. Because they both have the same root, purpose, are both adverbs, and are only a shade apart in meaning, it is no wonder that they are used incorrectly with such frequency.

Here’s how to use them.

The Difference between “Purposely” and “Purposefully”

When you use purposely in a sentence, it should be synonymous with intentionally and on purpose. The opposite of purposely is accidentally.

Theresa purposely placed her note on the table where her mother would find it.

Theresa intentionally placed her note on the table where her mother would find it.

Theresa placed her note on the table on purpose so her mother would find it.

When you use purposefully in a sentence, it should mean “in a way that shows determination and resolve” or, put more simply, “full of purpose.” The opposite of purposefully would be close to negligently or carelessly. A good example of a character who does things purposefully is Mary Poppins; there is a sensible methodology to everything she does.

Mary purposefully measured out a spoonful of sugar into each child’s medicine.

That is not to say that one needs to be as “practically perfect in every way” as Mary Poppins to do something purposefully. As long as an action is done with determination, it is purposeful.

His supervisor purposefully showed him how every file needed to be organized in order to avoid further errors.

Tip:

Here’s a tip: Purposely means on purpose. Purposefully means full of purpose.

“Purposely” and “Purposefully” Are Close in Meaning

People who are predisposed toward grammatical hypercorrection often nitpick about the correctness of purposely, presumably because purposefully just sounds more “grammatical.” Yet, purposely can be the unequivocally correct choice when it means “on purpose”. Here are some further examples of just how fine a distinction needs to be made when you decide whether to write purposely or purposefully.

The princess surreptitiously, but purposely, dropped her handkerchief so the knight would be tempted to pick it up.

Why does this sentence require purposely and not purposefully? The fact that the princess dropped the handkerchief surreptitiously (i.e., she wanted it to appear accidental) precludes the use of purposefully. If the princess had dropped her handkerchief purposefully, her determination would have been overt.

In some cases, sentences can be almost—but not quite—identical in meaning when purposely and purposefully are interchanged.

Our software has been purposely designed to be efficient and user friendly.

This sentence suggests that whoever designed the software made it efficient and user friendly on purpose; its efficiency and user-friendliness is not an accidental by-product of its design. Let’s swap purposely with purposefully and see how the sentence changes.

Our software has been purposefully designed to be efficient and user friendly.

The meaning of this sentence is virtually the same as that of the first, but it highlights something subtly different. As it now reads, there is more of an emphasis on the fastidiousness of the creators rather than the product itself; we are impressed with images of a team of software designers working diligently to ensure that their customers have the best possible product.

Which word you choose in a situation like this should depend on what angle you wish to take and the point you want to be underscored.

Whether you choose purposely or purposefully, the involvement of purpose in both words suggests the intentional act of a human. (At the outside, it might also be applied to a well-programmed computer or a very smart dog.)

If you feel like a star after learning how to use purposely and purposefully, check out these other commonly confused words.