I've taught writing for nearly 40 years, whether as an agent or a teacher. Colleagues, students, and a few writers would become peeved when I told them that in order "to make writing sing it has to flow while you read it aloud." Any singer, songwriter, poet, actor, or playwright can tell you that. Whether it's a college essay, a book proposal, or a show tune; that is what the reader is looking to hear without always knowing it. I also tried to teach my students that there are formulas and orders of execution like there are in Math and Science. That wasn't well received at first either, especially when I ask kids to tell me the "charges" of vocabulary words; positive +, negative - or neutral o. Then depending on which definition of a given word (I was always looking for the contextual definition), they would learn to trust their guts on which definition was correct (contextual) because the definition "fit" with the "charge" in the text when they read it aloud.

        The case for why the "green great dragon can't exist." It all started with a blogger named Mark Forsyth, and, yes, he's British. The blog was called Inky Fool and I believe it launched near the start of Facebook (at least that is where I first saw reference to him over a decade ago). He earned the eyeballs and clicks of many word nerds and it lead to several book deals. He had found a way to use the language of authors from Shakespeare to Katy Perry (remember it was over a decade ago) to inform native speakers and English language learners the proper and an "eloquent" way to speak and write. It's often the things in front of us that we take for granted that are the hardest to define. His "Elements of Eloquence" is this generations "Elements of Style." If you write  that "the green great dragon roamed the hills of Scotland evading being blighted by a young knight on quest" you mind would hear it as a Great Dragon that is green. You mind would pause and then adjust the meaning to fit the syntax. Thus it wouldn't flow nor sing.  The sentence is interrupted by the incorrect order. Yes, English takes many forms; Academic, Conversational, Idiomatic, Cultural, Standard (for any given era, usually meant, again in the writing of it), Ethnic, Regional and so on. But even with all these forms the order still matters. 

        Order is flow. When informing my students that the next book we were going to analyze was actually a play by Shakespeare, I was often met with groans and dagger glares. The second thing I'd say, to manage them before things ran amok, was this, "I'm going to teach you how Bad Bunny* is Shakespeare and Shakespeare is Bad Bunny!"  I'd remind them of the prologue to Romeo and Juliet. My classes were mostly made up of Juniors and Senior, while Romeo and Juliet was a Freshman core text. We analyzed the Prologue to refresh (or teach for the first time, as our student body is very transient) their knowledge of the terms iambic pentameter, stanzas, staves, Shakespearian sonnet rhyme scheme, quatrains and the concluding couple. By dissecting the prologue as a poem, they saw how the fourteen lines told the whole story of the two hour play! In reading it out loud together, after I did the first run through, they heard where I stopped (with the punctuation, not the end of the line) and saw where I paused for effect (my first lesson in acting, but they didn't register that yet). Many of them knew that I was the teacher that had her students perform acts from the plays, but I wasn't going to harp on that just yet. 

        In my tenure as teacher in two pubic high schools, one affluent suburban (3yrs) and the other underfunded urban (17.5yrs), I learned that all kids can perform Shakespeare, understand it, translate it into modern English, create stage directions and costumes that are justified to their characters and scenes and even, dare I say, enjoy it!  Nine times out of ten it would be the shy kid who would shine. Being given the words and actions to take the spotlight and enact a character that is "someone else," but within whom they can be bold or sneaky or both is a window of opportunity for them that they couldn't imagine when we started with the Prologue. LHS has 64 languages under it's roof and many kids speak multiple languages. Additionally many students miss school to be translators, babysitters, and caretakers for their families. But each of the three groups (8-10 students depending on the size of the class) assigned themselves roles and responsibilities knowing their school and family demands, and  that it was a 200 point project (Promptbook 100 and Performance 100). And, 95% of the time the performances were fantastic! 

         Most arts have the foundational requirements or classical cores one must master. Once one has done that they may improvise ~ abstract art, jazz, punk rock, Kathy Acker, virtual reality, or the Life of Pi. Students loved when I used math and π! Martell's, potentially, never ending story depending on how many ways you find the approach the narrative (circumference) by it's characters storyline(s) (diameter).

        There has been a lot of loss in my life since I first heard of Mark Forsyth. A marriage, a two year relationship, places, friends and most recently parents. This will be the first time in 21 years that I won't return from a February break and be readying my students for Shakespeare (Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, or Romeo & Juliet). A chosen loss, but a loss just the same. This will be the first Spring with two parents gone. Mom and David both wrote poetry. They helped each other with their poems. The order, space, phrasing, word choice, tone, charges, definitions, references, and flow mattered. They'd struggle for days, weeks, years, with certain order and flow.  It doesn't feel right to share their writing just now, but I'll share a poem from a book of poetry bought in NYC when I lived and worked there in the the 80's. The book is WITT by Patti Smith and the poem is entitled Conch:

        This one made us all laugh and smile when reading it on the porch, at Dingley, shortly after  Mom and David started dating in the 80's.   One can play with the pauses, charges, and phrasing which makes it a treat.

* When I first started teaching 20+ years ago, I only had to change the musical artists name every four or five years. When I finished teaching, thing were so fractured, that I would take an artist I knew was popular and ask them to provide me with one of their own favorite artists, so we could work my formula on them. Dances ceased in the school from 2012-2022 because students didn't all like the same music. I hosted the last one in February 2012 as the Black Heritage Club Advisor.  Finally the city hired a tutor who happened to be a DJ on the side and he but into rotation music that all the students liked. In 2022 he was hired for the Prom. He is also one of the few teachers that looks like the majority of our students.