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The Writing style of Russell Baker 1 The Writing style of Russell Baker Sazanne Johnson Professor Mc Goldrick ENG 115 April 13, 2011 The Writing style of Russell Baker 2 Author Russell Baker is known for his wit and sense of humorous writing style, but he did not always possess this style once quoted as saying “I wrote like Hemingway, An awful lot of us wrote like Hemingway. All of our stories were set in bars and were about embittered old men. That was until his Professor at Johns Hopkins University seminar told them that “Hemingway’s good, but he’s out. ” (Rice, 1997, para. 4, 5). It was then Mr. Baker developed his own style or voice one might call it, one that would later earn him two Pulitzer Prizes. In his memoir Growing Up the reader can defiantly see how from the beginning Baker had his own style and did not need to adapt that of anyone else.
In the excerpt On Becoming a Writer Mr. Baker’s writing style was that of great wit, and humor for instance the way he described his 11th grade English professor Mr. Fleagle as very prim from his eyeglasses to his smile was done in a very primly fashion. When given the assignment to construct an Essay the topic he choose was very humorous as well “The art of eating spaghetti just by the reaction from his peers when read out loud by Mr.
Fleagle one felt as though they were in that long ago class room as a student it was then that Mr. Baker knew his true calling and the reader knew it as well. The Writing style of Russell Baker 3 References D. Roen. , G. Glau. , & B. Maid (2010). Brief McGraw-Hill Guide: Writing For College, Writing For Life. Boston: McGraw-Hill Learning Solutions. Rice, L. (1997) Fifty years of Devotion to Writing. The Gazette. Retrieved April 11, 2011, from Hhtp://www. jhu. edu/gazette