My responses to the readings for this week were, again, varied. The James Britton article, “Spectator Role and the Beginnings of Writing”, was virtual nonsense to me until we discussed it in class. Maybe it is due to the fact that I just spent three years reading, writing, teaching and grading at a 9th grade level, but I came to grad school with the belief that reading and writing were simply forms of communication and connection. Every discussion I have, both as a grad student and teacher, is showing me that I know nothing.
Emig’s article, “Writing as a Mode of Learning”, was half confusion and half good, common sense. Towards the end of the article, she discusses several points about learning to write that make a lot of sense to me, namely that you have to write at your own pace and that writing is slower than talking, and therefore, allows the learner more time to grasp a concept.
The Elbow article was pretty much the redeeming one for the week, or at least it was the only one that I enjoyed in its entirety. As a cook, a gardener and an English teacher, I found the analogies for the writing process entertaining and beneficial. It also stressed the method of writing until the ideas run out, even if it’s crap, and then revising the information into a written work of art. Trashing one’s written words is hard, even for me, but a necessary part of a successful writing habit (in my humble opinion).
No comments:
Post a Comment