Yancey calls on Monaghan and Saul who observe: “society has focused on children as readers because, historically, it has been much more interested in children as receptors than as producers of the written word.” Truth. It seems that we base all knowledge on reading. Reading is a great medium to pass knowledge on, but it isn’t the only way. It seems that all education is based on reading. Even as a grad student, my job was to readreadreadread then respond. My responses were to include points from the reading, basically using what I had read to make a new point. This taught me that my own observation didn’t really matter, because quoting my own experience wasn’t the best rhetorical strategy. The only difference between my observations and those of the people that I was citing was the letters after their names. My little MA didn’t really stand tall next to all the PhDs. (Why is the h always little?)
At one point an old curmudgeonly speaker came for our Ropes course in 2006. He criticized writers that took time off to write, insisting that what we all really needed was time to read. Maybe I’m being unfair, but that’s what I took from the lecture. (If anyone remembers who that guy was and what he really said, post away.)
I think Yancey’s other point that writing is associated with testing is an important one. People rarely think of writing as an activity. There are creative writing enthusiasts and journal keepers, but I feel like I rarely come across them in the classes I teach. Maybe this starts when we’re really young, though. We always talk about reading to kids and reading with them, which is important, but maybe we should encourage them to write. Maybe I’ll have my kids write in journals and do creative writing activities. Apparently I did group poetry with my brother and sister growing up.
Another point. So many people I know—smart people—do crosswords and Sudoku puzzles to stay sharp. What about writing? What about writing 500 words a day? Just like going to the gym, an exercise for the brain—and soul? With the technology we have, it’s so easy. Write people!
Even though reading is good for you I do agree that writing can really do wonders over reading. I agree with this fact because when I was preparing for the ACT and SAT I worked on my math and science but mostly I worked on reading. I worked on how to comprehend questions and how to pick the best answers to the questions asked. I would have to say to prepare for these tests I primarily only worked on reading. When it came time to take the tests I could understand a lot of what the questions were asking because of how I prepared but when I moved onto the writing section I completely bombed it. I worked so hard on just my reading comprehension and hoped it would help my writing. In the end it proved that it did not when I got my score back and it was significantly lower than all of my other ones. Not only is writing needed in this situation but also for applying to college. Almost all colleges ask that you write an essay about a certain topic to see just how well you can write. They don't ask you to take a math test or read a book but instead just write about a certain topic they give you. Without being able to comfortably write where can you go? You need writing throughout school, to get into college, in the work force, and everyday activities. As you said we have technology on our side now so why don't we just use it to write until our heart's content? It will only be for the better.
ReplyDeleteI've thought a great deal about how we aren't taught, from a very young age, to take ownership of our writing. It becomes exclusively an activity that is done for someone else... we have writing assignments, not writing play, for lack of a better description. What is odious about it, I suppose, is that it is always something that is judged, but it isn't like we don't engage in sports that are scored and still manage to love those. Well, not me, but other people.
ReplyDeleteOr many students only consider their creative writing to be theirs... they'll scoff at having to write a critical essay, but insist they love to write poetry and stories just for themselves. I'm curious if the kinds of creative pieces they would turn in, if ever called upon to do so, would be very different from what they would normally produce.
I don't know what it is that makes some of us choose to do write anyway, though an early love of reading must certainly contribute.