blog 5

I liked Sommers analogy of the coat business and writing as well. The part of this reading that really struck me was when she asked the question, "How do you know you have been successful in teaching your students to write?". Obviously, she doesn't give a definitive answer or any type of guide to measure one's success, but it really got me thinking about how exactly do we know when we're successful in teaching students to write? Is there any way we can measure if students are successful writers? What criteria do you we use to judge this? I do not know how to judge whether or not I am a successful writing teacher. I was curious to know what guidelines other people use, or what it is that you should use in determining your success as an instructor. Do you consider how much the student has improved, how interesting their writing is, how creative it is? For some reason I really got stuck on this idea and I only wish there was a clear cut answer to it!

I can't remember which reading it was, but one of them said that writers should only write about things things they would read. At first, this idea seemed obvious, but then I thought about it some more and I'm not quite certain I agree with it. For instance, there have been times that I have had to write about things I was not interested in, and initially I was not enthusiastic to work on it. But, when I actually started to work on it and write, I found that I really enjoyed it and I made some fascinating discoveries. Had I followed this person's advice and only written about things I would read, I never would have written the assignment and discovered how interesting it actually was. Maybe this isn't true for everyone, but I think there is some merit in not always writing what we would read.

One of my favorite quotes from the readings came from Spandel's chapter on formula writing, when she said, "Formula writing takes away both the pain and the reward of thinking like a reader" (123). I completely agree with this and I also think there is almost something rewarding about the pain and struggle we go through in the process of a good piece of writing. Formula completely takes away from the creative aspect of writing, which is part of the enjoyment of writing. I never realized it before, but Spandel talks about how formula stifles thinking and makes writers fearful of new situations. Speaking from personal experience and having been taught formulaic writing throughout school, I do find that I am fearful of new writing experiences. I always think, 'well they never taught me the formula for this type of paper so what do I do now?'. It never crosses my mind to approach the assignment the way I think it should be approached because I'm always afraid it won't meet the formulaic expectations. I've also been trained that way for so long that I don't know how to write 'without formulas' which can also be a scary thing.