Meyer sees imitation in writing as a tool to improve and notes that author William Zinsser argued that learning to write through imitation was essential and helps all writers to grow.  Zinsser states, “Never hesitate to imitate another writer.  Imitation is part of the creative process for anyone learning an art or a craft.” 

Meyer focuses on two kinds of imitation: structural and contextual. Structural is “mimicking the actual sentence structure of an author.”   The idea is to see how words work together to create meaning and notice patterns to sentence structure.  

Here are some examples of structural imitation provided in the article:

 Model: Writing with real voice has the power to make you pay attention and understand—the words go deep. (Elbow 299) 

Imitation: Movies with great actors have the influence to make us believe and take part—the drama becomes real.

Model:  I stared at the speaker in mute astonishment. (Poe 154) •

Imitation:  I smiled at my girlfriend in silent acceptance.

Contextual imitation focuses on the style of writing, considering what, where and why an author chooses to do something. The meaning and interpretations of the meaning are at the heart of contextual imitation.  The example used in the article is a simple sentence by Erasmus, a teacher from the 1500’s.  His simple sentence: Your letter pleased me greatly provided the following contextual imitation:

• Your letter heaped joy upon me.

• After your note was handed to me, my spirit quite bubbled over

with joy.

• I conceived a wonderful delight from your pages.

• All else is utterly repellent compared to your letter.

• At the sight of your letter the frown fled from my mind’s brow.

• How delighted I was to read your letter!

• The happiness occasioned by your communication is greater than

I can describe.

Meyer concludes that studying author samples helps the writer learn from other’s strengths and weaknesses.  It is a process of pulling writing apart and understanding it at a deeper level. What we learn from other authors becomes part of the writer and makes their writing stronger.  

The connection I made to this idea of imitation comes from my Yoga Teacher Training class. We had a lecture on the idea that nothing is original.  We listened to an audio clip of that idea that there is nothing that has not been impacted by another.  At first, I was reluctant to agree and thought of many reasons why I wanted to challenge that idea.  However, our teacher framed it in the idea of teaching yoga and how every teacher borrows and learns from each other.  Novelty can be an aspect of a class but it is more in how the postures are put together than anything else.  We, as yoga teachers, are taught to share and borrow from each other and grow and learn from each other.  This idea of learning to create yoga classes by imitation is similar to what Meyer argues in his article on imitation in writing.  I also think of this idea in terms of my teaching the ancient authors in my Latin and ancient Greek classes.  We are reading Cicero now and dissecting his speeches.  Speakers throughout the centuries have borrowed from Cicero’s style of oratory.  :)