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adding voice to science writing
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From: Lisa Peters <lwpeters>
Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 11:39:57 -0500
Maia Cheli-Colando said:
Voiceless (much of the nonnarrative) presentations have no sound or taste or feel in my brain. Perhaps something must become experientially sensory to become real.
(For me.) And voice is a faster step to sensory experience. (For me.) I have also noticed that my daughter enjoys science with a voice, but has a harder time reading depersonalized presentations of our world.
I wholeheartedly agree. Has anyone has brought up John McPhee's abilities yet? I wish we had more John McPhees in the children's nonfiction world. Voice is what makes his writing about science and a wide range of other topics so remarkable. McPhee isn't a scientist, he's a generalist, a fact in his favor. But he gets very close to his subjects. He would never write a book about condors unless he'd first spent hours and hours with the scientists who study condors, with the folks who shoot condors, with the condors themselves, or all three. His is an intimate, passionate voice.
To see the difference, I offer examples of two approaches to the subject of salmon spawning. The first comes from an encyclopedia (which kids turn to all the time), the second from McPhee's book, Coming Into the Country:
"Female salmon lay their eggs in the gravelly bed of a shallow, rippling stream. A male salmon stands guard as the female turns on her side and digs a saucer-shaped nest in the gravel by swishing her tail back and forth....The gravel dug from each nest normally washes back and covers the previously laid eggs."
"Paddling again, we move down long pools separated by short white pitches, looking to see whatever might appear in the low hills, in the cottonwood, in the white and black spruce -- and in the river, too. Its bed is as distinct as if the water were not there. Everywhere, in fleets, are the oval shapes of salmon. They have moved the gravel and made redds, spawning craters, feet in diameter....Looking over the side of the canoe is like staring down into a sky full of zeppelins."
McPhee can make any subject fascinating. Maybe if we had more writing like this, nonfiction wouldn't be the poor step-child in children's literature.
Lisa Peters
Lisa Peters
Received on Fri 15 Jul 2005 11:39:57 AM CDT
Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 11:39:57 -0500
Maia Cheli-Colando said:
Voiceless (much of the nonnarrative) presentations have no sound or taste or feel in my brain. Perhaps something must become experientially sensory to become real.
(For me.) And voice is a faster step to sensory experience. (For me.) I have also noticed that my daughter enjoys science with a voice, but has a harder time reading depersonalized presentations of our world.
I wholeheartedly agree. Has anyone has brought up John McPhee's abilities yet? I wish we had more John McPhees in the children's nonfiction world. Voice is what makes his writing about science and a wide range of other topics so remarkable. McPhee isn't a scientist, he's a generalist, a fact in his favor. But he gets very close to his subjects. He would never write a book about condors unless he'd first spent hours and hours with the scientists who study condors, with the folks who shoot condors, with the condors themselves, or all three. His is an intimate, passionate voice.
To see the difference, I offer examples of two approaches to the subject of salmon spawning. The first comes from an encyclopedia (which kids turn to all the time), the second from McPhee's book, Coming Into the Country:
"Female salmon lay their eggs in the gravelly bed of a shallow, rippling stream. A male salmon stands guard as the female turns on her side and digs a saucer-shaped nest in the gravel by swishing her tail back and forth....The gravel dug from each nest normally washes back and covers the previously laid eggs."
"Paddling again, we move down long pools separated by short white pitches, looking to see whatever might appear in the low hills, in the cottonwood, in the white and black spruce -- and in the river, too. Its bed is as distinct as if the water were not there. Everywhere, in fleets, are the oval shapes of salmon. They have moved the gravel and made redds, spawning craters, feet in diameter....Looking over the side of the canoe is like staring down into a sky full of zeppelins."
McPhee can make any subject fascinating. Maybe if we had more writing like this, nonfiction wouldn't be the poor step-child in children's literature.
Lisa Peters
Lisa Peters
Received on Fri 15 Jul 2005 11:39:57 AM CDT
