Blog 07

I am attempting, and badly at that, to figure out this week’s readings. What was I too learn, what small grain of truth was to explode within my mind giving me the realization and understanding of what the readings presented. Simply put I have nothing. Both readings were interesting, short, and thankfully missing the ever boring work of Smith. However, I seem to be missing something, or if not missing, overlooking a variable that I had not previously considered. Being that my workload is immense I can not afford to re-read assignments over and over so twice has to suffice and as such all I can add to any discussion, either physical or verbal is as follows. Also there was a mention of a handout in the schedule listings a “Macrorie, Handout” however I cannot seem to find it.

While Spendel’s 9 Rights reading was interesting, highly so I found it to be simple repetition of what has been drilled into my mind for years. I was nice to see that the old “write what you know” idea was expanded and clarified as to show that it means that to write as an authority a person needs to do research. This opens up many doors I know classmates of mine in high school found bared because they assumed that “write what you know” meant that a person should only write what they readily knew and that everything outside of their readily available knowledge was evil and taboo. While I was happy that this was said I have a feeling that to this day it is something not taught in classrooms, and while I can see the reason why (time constraints, teachers not wanting to be bothered giving their students true guidance and just offering nothing but silly platitudes, etc) this is a subject that needs to be fully understood, and more so in the field of creative writing were students can stumble far easier than in more formalized composition and research writing.

The reading that I found to be far more interesting this time around came out of the WTL, and involved the writing workshop and how it affected the learning disabled. Unfortunately I wish Swoger would have given more information on her actual day to day practices and life in the classroom. While it was nice to follow along with Scott’s improvement and journey into the world of writing I felt it would have been much more helpful to actually get an idea of the inner workings of Swoger class. Since I could not step through her open door and share the experience of that particular workshop I feel as if I missed something vital in its workings and how to attempt to emulate it in a future classroom.

I-Search ... Easily identifiable with the late 1970s. Anyway, this sounds interesting, and I have had the unfortunate pleasure of doing this my first year in college. Unfortunate I say because the things I find interesting are not exactly as easily available as a fire station. There is also the small problem as what I would like to talk about is often received the wrong way. The last thing I need is someone thinking I'm making a threat when all I'm talking about is my love of firearms. Question (yes I know it won't be answered, I've given up on that) is the interviewing process a requirement? I ask this because something are impossible to get interviews for.