In 11th grade, I took AP Language and Composition. One of the strangest, most formative assignments we were given was to hand-copy essays by great writers. I transcribed Emerson’s Self-Reliance, Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience, Dr. King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. I wrote out JFK’s and FDR’s speeches. I copied Coleridge and De Quincey in longhand.

At the time, I was annoyed by the drudgery. There’s a difference between watching the Karate Kid, and actually having to do the menial labor so glorified in the film. My hand hurt from hours of handwriting. It felt archaic, even monastic.

But over time, something shifted. By copying the rhythms of others, I started to hear my own. I began to notice choice: in sentence length, in diction, in tone. Style was no longer invisible, it was architecture. And with that came freedom, the emergence of my own style. That class single-handedly taught me how to write.

– Zohar Atkins

We copy to learn.

Pair with the Art of Manliness’ How to Become a Better Writer? Copy the Work of Others! piece.

Also Zohar Atkins is writing some great stuff.

Atkins, Zohar. 2025. “The Signature and the Shadow from the Turing Test to the Picasso Test.” Second Voice, May 20, 2025. https://substack.com/home/post/p-164007090.