Throughout my education, I have had to write countless papers on many different topics, in different formats and through different perspectives. Even though I wrote in school, I never had the urge to join a writing group such as those explained in Gere’s “Kitchen Tables and Rented Rooms: The Extracurriculum of Composition”. Although I am pretty sure that if I was given the opportunity to join a writing group, back then I would have declined. Back in high school I had a negative viewpoint on writing. I thought that the only point for us to write is just to show the teacher we knew the topic on our paper. After years, and maturing, I figured that it is not just that but also to expand on our ideas, to teach ourselves new thoughts. Compared to those days, I would just read about the topic and paraphrase and did what I had to do to get a good grade. But now I read about my topic and have to expand my ideas to make a more thorough and interesting paper.
Through our writings, we have taught ourselves new ideas that can be used for the rest of our lives. We can find an article that we can connect to and relay it on to someone else, in hopes of that person bonding to it in the same way. Back in high school I did my work just to get it done. I think it is safe to say, that in this class, with our peers picking our writing topics for our blogs, really gives us another view (hierarchal standpoint) in how we are taught in school. I enjoy classes that the students do take part in discussions and even deciding what we write about. Through this class, even though it is not an extracurricular activity taken place in someone’s kitchen, I feel that we can relate our class to those writing groups. When it says “workshops outside classrooms walls frequently, however, succeed with those individuals deemed unsuccessful by their composition instructors” (78) in the article, I think that it refers to some teachers who do not expand the students mind beyond a certain idea. Within those groups, these people of all sorts come together to continue in what they enjoy, and that is writing.
I would not have called myself a writer a couple years ago, but I believe that when taking initiatives in my work, I would like to think of myself having evolved into a writer. I do not believe that I was taught unconsciously that I was a bad writer; I just thought that there were certain classes that I did better on papers than in let’s say another class. I definitely have labeled myself as a bad writer, but once I figured out the best way for me to write, I liked to think of myself not as a “bad writer” or even a “good writer”, but a writer that works towards becoming better in their work.
There were a couple of things I really liked about this post. First of all, I liked the connection that was drawn between Gere’s interpretation of the extracurricular and this class. English 201 could be viewed as extracurricular in the way that it is structured since the students are the one’s who basically drive the whole learning process. We do have control over what we write on for blogs and the way that discussions flow. This is extremely important because we then become each others support system and are able to learn from our peers. The second thing I thought was striking was your switch from thinking you were a ‘bad’ writer to finding you were a writer who was ‘in training.’ I do not consider any of us to be ‘bad’ writers nor do I think there really is a such thing. I liked the phrase, ‘...once I figured out the best way for me to write’ because writing is all about personal style. Everyone is a ‘good’ if not a great writer once they learn the best way for themselves to write. I think too often people are put into this mold and if they do not fit the mold exactly, they are considered in the wrong. I truly do not think there is a right or a wrong way to write so I throughly enjoyed your viewpoint.
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