Author's remarks and their role

An author is narrowly defined as the originator of any written work and can thus also be described as a writer (with any distinction primarily being an implication that an author is a writer of one or more major works, such as books or plays). More broadly defined, an author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility for what was created.^[1] The more specific phrase published author refers to an author (especially but not necessarily of books) whose work has been independently accepted for publication by a reputable publisher, versus a self-publishing author or an unpublished one.

Michel Foucault argues in his essay "What is an author?" (1969) that all authors are writers, but not all writers are authors. He states that "a private letter may have a signatory—it does not have an author".^[4] For a reader to assign the title of author upon any written work is to attribute certain standards upon the text which, for Foucault, are working in conjunction with the idea of "the author function".^[4] Foucault's author function is the idea that an author exists only as a function of a written work, a part of its structure, but not necessarily part of the interpretive process. The author's name "indicates the status of the discourse within a society and culture", and at one time was used as an anchor for interpreting a text, a practice which Barthes would argue is not a particularly relevant or valid endeavor.^[4]

There are many different types of authors; novelists, poets, journalists,screenwriters, playwrights, copywriters, and so on. There are also many genres of writing; academic, creative, business, professional, and journalistic.

What does an Author do?

Authors use their voice in the form of text to express ideas, thoughts, images and information. There are various types of writers and many paths to choose from. Here are just a few:

Story Writer -
is someone that is typically a freelancer and specializes in writing short fiction stories for a variety of magazines. Many well-known authors started out as story writers.

Author (or Novelist) -
is someone who writes long stories. Depending on the genre, a fiction book can have between 80,000 to 200,000 words, so this type of writer needs to be able to plan and execute his work. This requires dedication and patience.

Non-Fiction Writer -
is someone who writes in a specialized field. This may include technical writers and academic writers. They are able to take a large amount of information and break it down so it is readable text. This type of writing requires fact and research checking.

Journalist -
is someone whose writing is published in newspapers and magazines and read by thousands if not millions of people. This type of writer is typically a freelancer and is always working to a deadline. Quality of work is extremely important as is making a name for yourself, as this will help to earn a respectable income.

Article Writer -
is someone who writes a short piece, for example a food article or travel article. He or she will write for a variety of magazines, using crisp and concise language to make the article informative and fun to read. Having specialized knowledge is excellent, as article writers are always needed for medical, technical or commercial magazines.

Online Writer -
is someone who is typically a freelancer and writes articles or short stories for websites and blogs. The internet is a great way to provide amateur writers an outlet for their creative work, enabling them to learn and progress in their skill level as they climb upwards in their writing career.

Ghostwriter -
is an anonymous writer who writes books, articles, stories and other texts that are officially credited to another person. He or she needs to keep the voice consistent with that of the official “author.” This type of writing is challenging, as there is a lot of planning, communication, re-writing and patience needed in order to satisfy the client.

Copywriter -
is someone who writes good marketing text (or copy) in order to sell something. A good copywriter will get paid well, as good copy sells more products. The key to this type of writing is being able to garner the trust of the reader while evoking interest and enthusiasm in the product.

Business Writer -
is someone who generally writes for cutting-edge professional magazines and newspapers. Business magazines and newspapers need writers that have relevant business knowledge, excellent language skills and who are on the same, if not better level, than the reader.

Columnist -
is someone who writes for newspapers, magazines and newsletters. Some columnists are syndicated; their articles are seen in hundreds of newspapers, and a new article needs to be written every week.

A writer’s style is a reflection of his or her personality, unique voice, and way of approaching the audience and readers.

However, every piece writers write is for a specific purpose—for example, writers may want to explain how something works or persuade people to agree with their point of view. While there are as many writer's styles as there are writers, there are only four general purposes that lead someone to write a piece, and these are known as the four styles, or types, of writing. Knowing all four different types of writing and their usages is important for any writer.

Here are the four categories of writing and their definitions:

1. Expository Writing:

Expository writing's main purpose is to explain. It is a subject-oriented writing style, in which authors focus on telling you about a given topic or subject without voicing their personal opinions. They furnish you with relevant facts and figures but do not include their opinions. This is one of the most common types of writing styles, which you always see in textbooks and how-to articles. The author just tells you about a given subject, such as how to do something.

2. Descriptive Writing:

Descriptive writing's main purpose is to describe. It is a style of writing that focuses on describing a character, an event, or a place in great detail. It can be poetic when the author takes the time to be very specific in his or her descriptions.

3. Persuasive Writing:

Persuasive writing's main purpose is to persuade. Unlike expository writing, persuasive writing contains the opinions and biases of the author. To convince others to agree with the author's point of view, persuasive writing contains justifications and reasons. It is often used in letters of complaint, advertisements or commercials, affiliate marketing pitches, cover letters, and newspaper opinion and editorial pieces.

4. Narrative Writing:

Narrative writing's main purpose is to tell a story. The author will create different characters and tell you what happens to them (sometimes the author writes from the point of view of one of the characters—this is known as first person narration). Novels, short stories, novellas, poetry, and biographies can all fall in the narrative writing style. Simply, narrative writing answers the question: “What happened then?”

Trails in fiction

A metaphor is a figure of speech that refers to something as being the same as another thing for rhetorical effect.^[1]

In simple English, when you portray a person, place, thing, or an action as being something else, even though it is not actually that “something else,” you are speaking metaphorically. “He is the black sheep of the family” is a metaphor because he is not a sheep and is not even black. However, we can use this comparison to describe an association of a black sheep with that person. A black sheep is an unusual animal and typically stays away from the herd, and the person you are describing shares similar characteristics

Metaphor is realizing two lexical meanings simultaneously.
Metaphors which are absolutely unexpected, i.e. quite unpredictable, are called genuine metaphors:
A puppet government
He is a mule.
He is not a man, he is just a machine!
Genuine metaphors are mostly to be found in poetry and emotive prose.
Metaphors, commonly used in speech are called dead (stereotyped, hackneyed), fixed in dictionaries: A ray of hope, roots of evil, to fish for compliments, to bark up the wrong tree, to apple one’s eye.

Metonymy is the substitution of one word for another with which it is associated:
‘The White House said…’ (the American government); the press (newspapers and magazines); the grave(death); The hall applauded;
I am fond of Agatha Christie;

Synecdoche is a form of metonymy: using the name of a part to denote a whole or vice versa: the police (for a handful of officers); bread (for food).

 

Simile is a figure of speech in which the subject is compared to another subject. By means of the comparison the objects are characterized.
The formal elements of a simile are like, as, as if, as though, such as, seem, etc.
2. She seemed nothing more than a doll.
3. Maidens, like moths are ever caught by glare.
In the English language there is a long list of hackneyed similes, which are not genuine similes any more but have become cliches:
Faithful as a dog; to work as a horse; stubborn as a mule; slow as a tortoise; busy as a bee; hungry as a bear; to swim like a fish

 

Irony (‘mockery concealed) is a form of speech in which the real meaning is concealed or contradicted by the words used.
Well done! A fine friend you are!
‘What a noble illustration of the tender laws of this favoured country!’
Irony must not be confused with humour, although they have very much in common. Humour always causes laughter. But the function of irony is not to produce a humorous effect. Irony is generally used to convey a negative feeling: irritation, displeasure, pity or regret.

 

Epithet coveys the subjective attitude of the writer as it is used to characterize an object and pointing out to the reader some properties or features of the object. Epithet aims at evaluation of these properties or features.
Heart-burning smile; wild winds; fantastic terrors; voiceless sands;
unearthly beauty; deep feelings; sleepless bay.

 

Oxymoron is a combination of two words in which their meaning clash, being opposite in sense:
Sweet sorrow; pleasantly ugly face; deafening silence; horribly beautiful.

Allusion is reference to a famous historical, literary, mythological, biblical or everyday life character or event, commonly known. As a rule no indication of the source is given.
It’s his Achilles heel.

 

Antonomasia is intended to point out the leading, most characteristic features of a person or of event. It categorizes the person and simultaneously indicates both the general and the particular. Antonomasia can be defined as a variety of allusion:
Vralman, Molchalin, Mr. Zero, Don Juan.

 

Zeugma (syllepsis) is the use of a word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations. It creates a semantic incongruity which is often humorous:
1. He lost his hat and his temper.
2. ‘…and covered themselves with dust and glory.-Mark Twain

Pun (also known as paronomasia) is a deliberate confusion of similar – sounding words for humorous effect. Puns are often used in jokes and riddles.
2. The name Justin Time sounds like ‘just in time’
4. Officer.-What steps (measures) would you take if an enemy tank were coming towards you?
Soldier. - Long ones.

 

Interjections and Exclamatory Words are used to express our strong feelings; they are conventional symbols of human emotions.
The interjection is not a sentence; it is a word with strong emotive meaning. Oh! Ah! Pooh! Gosh! Alas! Heavens! Dear me! God! Come on! Look here! By the Lord! Bless me! Humbug! Terrible! Awful! Great! Wonderful! Fine! Man! Boy! Why! Well!

 

Periphrasis denotes the use of a longer phrasing in place of a possible shorter and planer form of expression. It is also called circumlocution due to the round-about or indirect way to name a familiar object.
There are traditional periphrases which are not stylistic devices, they are synonymic expressions:
The giver of rings, the victor lord, the leader of hosts (king),
the play of swords(battle), a shield-bearer(warrior),

Hyperbole is a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of a phenomenon or an object.
He was so tall that I could not see his face.

 

Proverbs and sayings are brief statements showing in condensed form life experience of the community and serving as conventional symbols for abstract ideas. Proverbs and sayings have some typical features: rhythm, sometimes rhyme and or alliteration.
1. ‘Early to bed and early to rise,
2.Out of sight, out of mind.

Epigrams are terse, witty statements, showing the turn of mind of the originator. Epigram is a stylistic device akin to a proverb, the only difference being that epigrams are coined by people whose names we know, while proverbs are the coinage of the people.
‘A God that can be understood is not a God.’

 

Quotation is a repetition of a phrase or statement from a book, speech and the like used by the way of illustration, proof or as a basis for further speculation on the matter.

 

Allegory is a device by which the names of objects or characters are used figuratively, representing some more general things, good or bad qualities.

A type of allegory is Personification.

Personification is a form of comparison in which human characteristics, such as emotions, personality, and behavior and so on, are attributed to an animal, object or idea.
The proud lion surveyed his kingdom.
The primary function of personification is to make abstract ideas clearer to the reader by comparing them to everyday human experience.

Onomatopoeia (sound imitation) is a combination of speech sounds which imitate sounds produced in nature (wind) by things (tools), by people (laughing), by animals (barking). ▲ plink, plink, fizz.

Direct onomatopoeia: words which imitate natural sounds. ▲ buzz. Indirect: combination of sounds which makes the sound of the utterance an echo of its sense. ▲ Камышишуршатвтиши.

Alliteration: repetition of similar consonant sounds in close succession. ▲ Functional, fashionable, formidable.

Assonance: repetition of similar vowel sounds, usually in stressed syllables. ▲ Grace, space,pace.

Rhyme: repetition of identical or similar terminal sounds or sound combinations in words. ▲ One, two, three, four, five. I caught a fish alive. Assonance of vowel [ai].

Rhythm: complex unit defined as a regular recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables (strong and weak elements) which determine the meter in poetry or the measured flow of words in prose.

▲ One, two, three, four.Mary at the cottage door.

Graphical expressive means include the use of punctuation, graphical arrangement of phrases, violation of type and spelling.

Graphon: the intentional violation of the generally accepted spelling used to reflect peculiarities of pronunciation or emotional state of the speaker. Types of graphon: multiplication, hyphenation, capitalization, apostrophe. Functions: - to give the reader an idea about smth (level of education, emotional state, origin). – to attract attention. – to make smb memorize it. – to show smth, explain. Graphical means are popular with advertisers. They individualize speech of the character or advertising slogan. ▲ A better stain getter. ▲ How do you spell relief? R-O-L-I-P-S – to make reader / listener to remember it.

 

Litotes is a figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite. For example, instead of saying that someone is mean, you can say he is not very generous.

He's not a very generous man.

She is not very beautiful.

He is not the friendliest person I 've met.