WBC17: Professional Wine Writing Tips: What’s Your Point of View

Wine journalist and educator Deborah Parker Wong will talk about using the four points of view in wine writing: First Person Omniscient, “I”; First Person Plural, “we”; Second Person Singular, “You”; and Third-Person Omniscient, “Reporter’s Point of View”.

Transcript

1. What's Your Point of View? Deborah Parker Wong, DWSET
2. Amy & Joe Power Hardy Wallace Thea Dwelle Joe Roberts Lenn Thompson Megan Riley Liza Swift Joe & Janelle Bacerra Michael Wangbickler Shana Bull Gwendolyn Alley Doug Cook Cory Voorhees & John Sosnowy Ken & Theresa Hoggins Larry Levine Doug Wilder David Cole Ted Henry
3. “Under the Wave off Kanagawa” also known as The Great Wave, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
4. A Celebration of the First Person Voice A Celebration of the First Person Voice
5. First Person POV Subjective Objective Possessive I, we me, us my, mine our, ours • Telling your own story. • Open to scrutiny. • Not used in academic writing.
6. “A world that follows the rules of epidemics is a very different place from the world we think we live in now.” Malcom Gladwell (1963 -)
7. First Person Omniscient POV • All knowing - New Journalism 101. • More objective form that sets the stage, you know something and you’re going to share. • Sets an expectation that it’s going to be worthwhile to keep reading. • Compared to third person omniscient.
8. “I remember once as a child seeing our family’s puppy encounter snow for the first time.” “I made some of you reading this yawn simply by writing the word “yawn.”
9. Second Person POV Subjective Objective Possessive you you your, yours • Used to address a person or group. • Discouraged in academic writing. • Used in business and technical writing, rarer form for novels.
10. “You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning.” Jay McInerney (1955 -)
11. Third Person POV Subjective Objective Possessive he, she, it, one him, her, it, one his, hers they them theirs • Refers to people or things other than the writer or reader. • When the writer is unreliable, we arrive at - third-person, subjective.
12. “What surprises fans of Chardonnay styles from both ends of the spectrum—from steely and austere to dripping butter—is that they both rely on MLF for their charm and popularity.”
13. Third Person Omniscient • Reporter’s point of view. • Simple declarative statements. • Confidently stating the “facts” and can back them up. • Voice of the professional and the academic.
14. 3rd Person • Yawning is contagious. 1st Person • If I yawn, it’s very likely… 2nd Person •you will too.
15. Allowing you to eat is the most obvious but far from the only favor granted by saliva. Silletti squirts a drop of vinegar on my tongue. It’s as though I’d taken a sip of water. Vinegar, cola, citrus juice, wine, all are in the acid range of the pH scale: from around pH 2 to 3. Mary Roach (1959-)
16. Stream of Consciousness POV • Type of narration that uses interior monologue - talking to yourself. • Mirrors the subjective nature of consciousness. • Uses imaginative perception.
17. James Patrick Donleavy (23 April 1926 – 11 September 2017)
18. Subjective vs Objective POV Subjective • Appeals to the five senses. • Based on feelings and opinions. • Includes thoughts and experiences. • Can be omniscient. Objective • Reporter’s POV • Fly on the Wall • Only what can be seen and heard. • Based on facts.
19. Subjective “I like this wine, it tastes good and it’s cheap.” Objective “This is a good quality wine. It’s balanced and delicate with plenty of varietal character and a lengthy finish. For $11 it meets and even exceeds the quality I expect at that price.”
20. How does choice of POV establish a consistent and trustworthy ethos?
21. Ethos Logos Pathos
22. Ethos An appeal to ethics that convinces your reader of your character or credibility. “Based on the thousands of Pinot Noir wines I’ve tasted, I’m confident this wine is a Pinot Noir.”
23. Pathos An appeal to emotion that convinces your reader of your POV by creating an emotional response. “I’m not just a wine drinker – I love everything about Sonoma, every vineyard, every winery and every hard-working winemaker in this county.”
24. Logos An appeal to logic that persuades your reader using reason. “The analysis of this wine makes it perfectly clear that it won’t up well in the cellar; the pH is too high and the acidity is too low.”
25. 1 Choose a topic, something top of mind: sustainable winegrowing 2 In a few sentences, convince your reader of your POV using ethos, pathos and logos. • I’ve walked in sustainably-farmed vineyards all over the world and the biodiversity is always apparent. If I’m standing in a lunar landscape that I’m told is being sustainably farmed, I’m going to start asking questions. • If you’re concerned about pesticides in your wine including chemicals like glyphosate that cause cancer, I suggest you start buying wines that are produced organically or bio dynamically. • It’s essential to grow grapes and microbes in the vineyard. Organic vineyards have sustainability markers that are never found in vineyards that are farmed conventionally.
26. Consider your natural voice and then past your comfort zone by test driving a different POV. How would your readers respond if you introduced a different or many different POVs?