Blog 2

I began with the 9 Rights book that we were supposed to read this week, mainly because I have yet to obtain a copy of the other book and loathe spending time in the campus library. Normally I love libraries, but there is something about the one on campus that makes me despise setting foot within, however, I am going away from the point of this topic and really need to get back on it. As I read the first lines I first smiled and then cursed, in one very short paragraph Spandel manages to say exactly what I spent seven and then after revision five pages saying for my upcoming writing portfolio. Personalized writing is something I highly believe in, nothing less can get me to write, and while many will believe that a prompt is the best way to help a person write all it does for me is cause writer’s block. In other words, I find prompts far too limiting, but again I am getting away from what needs to be done with this blog. Spendel talks about atmosphere, about the workplace of a writer, and while beautiful (and as I look around my apartment, true) I find that as a future teacher I cannot see myself being able to do many of things she describes. Space, time, money, and the position of the school administers all factor into such a thing, and unfortunately a teacher may end up being forced to keep the “standard” classroom appearance. So I wonder how much of an affect space and atmosphere have on the writing process. What Spendel has done, more then give me ideas on how to make myself a better writer is give me ideas on what to do with my students. I love the idea of writing everyday, and although I do not think I can give time in class for that every day I think that writing nightly would be the only assignment I would ever give. At this point I am wondering if a weekly writing, which would be worked on for 30 minutes at home every night of the week by students and peer reviewed the next day would be a good idea. Furthering that thought is a spinning wheel, with numbers (for the desk) and including the teacher which when spun would indicate a student who would read their current writing to the class (again including the teacher so that the students know even the teacher writes). I think this would be an excellent way to open up a class; however, I am not sure whether or not the idea would work well in actual practice.

Chapter 3 of Writing and the Write offered a chance for me to discover at the very least the reason why I became easily angry with one of my former classmates. Smith says that when a person speaks “at slower rates[less the 250 words a minute] the speaker becomes much more of a strain on our patience and on our memory”(22). This is easily true, and is something that can be very annoying, however with that in mind, the number of words especially it is interesting to see how the rate of words per second remain constant in every form of language but writing, with only 25 words per second for handwriting and an average of 60 words for typing (actually I wish I could type that fast) is amazing and shows just how much it takes mentally for a person to be able to write. I think that Smith’s initial analogy with the secretary and the boss (19-20) work well with his statement at the end of the essay about how to reconcile the oppressing forces of composition and transcription and shows that different drafts need to exist and that first or rough drafts are nowhere near a polished quality.

While I found chapter 3 of Writing and the Writer to be interesting chapter 8 was rather boring and for me did nothing but reiterate what I have already read for two different classes this week. I also found the blueprint analogy to be off in my opinion, but that may be because I was a draftsman before deciding to come back to college for a degree in a field that would see me taking a 40,000-dollar pay cut.

Best quote: “the author need not be able to spell or punctuate …”(Smith 20)