About Donald Murray

Donald Murray (1924-2006) was an English professor at the University of New Hampshire, as well as a journalist. He wrote several books and publications on writing and teaching as an art form. He was also a writing consultant for major newspapers. Murray described writing as a method of discovering definitions and developing ideas by clarifying different words used in this venture.

The Inner Space Explorers According to Murray, there are three approaches in the learning process in 1969: prewriting, writing, and rewriting. Prewriting according to Murray takes 85% of the time used for this process, this stage involves methods such as activation of prior knowledge, daydreaming, brainstorming, and organization. Victor Villanueva 2003.This stage according to the author brings about new discoveries, and after this, the ideas generated by the writer the writing can proceed from this.

The second stage which is writing, where the draft is edited and put into work, this step takes about one percent of the writer’s time. And in this case, the writer should have several drafts for revision purposes. Then we check the third stage which is rewriting.in this juncture the author evaluates the papers so that they can revise them accordingly. Fourteen percent of the time should be used in this stage. (Murray, 1996.)

From Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue”(76-81), it is clear on the effects the language has on our lives. This is because language defines my lifestyle, effects of my choices and the types of a person I am. In Mother Tongue, Amy Tan elaborates several ways of the consequences of language in her life. Her main idea is to point out the fact that because one cannot be able to communicate effectively using the English language, that does not make them lesser intelligent in comparison with a person born in a country that understands and communicate in English fluently.

The difference that arises in her discussion is that it is close to impossible to find two people interacting in the same kind of English. Each and every person speaks” Limited English” (Tan pg. 78). Amy Tan discusses the limitation imperfect English poses in a community and the richness the language brings to writing. She does this by accessing her mother’s language, societal response to English usage by various people and also her use of English (.Tan pg. 257)

We will start by looking at the contrast between Murray’s and Amy’s perceptions.

Tan uses different English’s and they what they symbolize, according to her, form means something else. Proper English indicates her acceptance into American culture and a separation from the mother, and she points it out in writing her speech she was making her feel strange to say when the mother was inside the room. (Tan pg. 257) Instead, she uses simple English in the midst of her mom, and this shows the bond with her family, but this is not the case in Marker’s eye by Murray. Because he encouraged other writers to establish a routine of practicing writing, actually he often wrote writing 5:30 during the morning daily, used to motivate writing in His book Crafting a life, he demonstrates his writing process and provides guidelines in developing their writing in the way set in the English language.

The changing view on Language. Amy Tan points out various emotions when talking about her mother’s English, she does not consider her shame of the way she speaks, and instead of this, she looks at how the society will judge because of being proud in using the proper English language in place of the clear language of her mother. (Tan pg.261).it does not happen for Murray because we have to use good English the way it is grammatically correct and this call for more training and revision of the various papers. The writer has to develop different writing skills. Therefore, the writer has to go to the Standard English

The structure of the language. In the mother tongue of Amy Tan, there is the use of broken English and disorderly structure. She points out that it is broken or fractured and she cannot be able to describe it otherwise apart from that. (Tan pg. 258). There is the usage of bad English, and this is because of the limited knowledge of the English Grammar. According to Murray, the writer must read critically and constructively to show what is good and what is bad. The writer must survey work critically as though he was a stranger to it. (Murray pg. 56). Eleanor Estes and therefore making the work be revised, edited, deleted, change of nouns, adjectives among others. The writer has to consider spelling and pronunciation mistakes in the course of this venture, and this automatically calls for rereading and rewriting for best results, Anthony Burges one of the lucky writers admits that he might revise a page twenty times.

Usage of Tone, when studying literature, we saw it as the feeling an author brings out to their audience. In ‘Mother Tongue,’ Amy incorporates several different tones in the whole short story. It is different from Murray’s Marker’s Eye analogy, where we present only one perspective of reading and writing the English language and explained the three stages involved in writing this kind of proper language, and this calls for adequate training on the same.

The rebellion of the Language, in the Mother Tongues there is an aspect of rebellion is depicted by Amy where she defies the modern English and denies to call her mother’s language broken or limited without putting quotation marks. Tan 258.this is very wrong in Murray’s way because the words have to be punctuated correctly and written in proper rules according to the set guidelines.

Let now at the similarities

In both cases, there is a progression in the languages, in Amy’s case we see her increasing in the knowledge of her mother tongue since she was young till she went to higher levels of learning professionalism, and this has enabled to communicate with her natives family members and relatives. It was similar to the proper English where each student is supposed to train about the grammar standards and rules and then practice them.

In both cases, they both approaches are used for efficient communication, Amy communicates effectively with her family and relatives through her mother tongue and us also in markers eye students learning proper English to communicate efficiently and to be understood by the other members.

In both cases, they b show the love of the language as they continue in it. Murray’s perception is that the Amateur have a problem in writing the correct language as compared to professional ones(Murray,257).It shows us that the love of the tongue increases as you train and advance in the understanding of it. The author, Donald uses the same way to the mother tongue. That is in both cases the students have to learn about their language for them to be conversant with it.

To conclude this matter, we have seen that both mother tongue and English languages are so much important, They only vary when it come as to their usage, the mother tongue will mostly use for communication and bond with the family members and people of that society. People are also able to learn their culture and reduce conflicts that may arise due to a generational gap. While the English language has been used as an international language because it helps people of different races to interact and also do business efficiently Language involves words arrangement, utterance, symbols and it an instrument which depicts images and motion. But of course, language is self-expression and ability to share the expression with others.

Works cited

1. Murray Donald, Victor Villanueva, and Ed.Crosstalk in Comp Theory: A Reader. Urbana pp 3-6

2. Tan, Amy. “Mother Tongue.” The McGraw-Hill Reader: Issues across the Disciplines. 10th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008. 62-67. Print.

3. Marquand, Bryan. The Boston Globe, 2006

4. Murray, Donald, Crafting a life in Essay, Story, Poem, Portsmouth: Boynton/Cook, 1996.

5. Murray, Donald. ”The Explorers of inner space. ”The English Journal, 1969

6. Murray, Donald M.The Markers Eye: Revising your Manuscripts ”The McGraw –Hill Reader: Issues across the Disciplines. Ed .Gilbert H Muller. New York: CUNY, 2002.56-60.

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