The Net-Self/Self-Net and The Overshadow of Thought by Writing

In the spirit of Ballenger, I shall question myself to a worthy essay. What was the most pressing news of this all? (Bellanger and Reid’s work). How did their locations influence their interests? In the modern days of keyboarding to different planes of thought and experience, does the internet replace location? (In the sense, simply, of the internet being an “environment” which can influence you). Did the original creators of the internet intend for this? I’ve read HTML is a systematic markup language; I have no idea what that means, but I’ve also heard that we (our “selves”) are inseparable from our language. Did a Derrida say something along the lines of, “There is nothing outside the text”? Then, has the internet—made of its own unique doing by programming language, markup language, and other digital languages—not effectively created a “language-world” incorporating our own language-created selves into it? What might we ask, then, what is to be made of the speculated relationships “between” these dimensions? (The Self and The Net). Being “made” by language, can the Net be said to have a Self of its own?

All the thinking and writing I’ve just done for this last paragraph reminds of something I’ve had a hunch about lately: Is writing overemphasized to the detriment of thought? As an English (Ed.) major, I understand writing as a core component of this academic program, yet it seems fair to me to make the following case for thinking, which I think isn’t “played around” with enough in English classes (sadly, as we have much room for it!). Please critique me to no end in my faults and misunderstandings, though; I attest I am not the Almighty. Now, for the following.

Language is a tool by which we can express our ideas. Writing is a manifestation of language. If we want to develop students’ writing skills, should not the emphasis and developmental-work go into thinking as much as it attemptedly goes into writing? When we “teach” writing, do we want to develop the tool, or our abilities to use it imaginatively beyond formal perscriptions? I’m mostly pressed to push this concern due one course I took my 3^rd year in college. I’ve taken many English and Writing courses before, but the one course which changed my capacities as a writer, which I can claim with much conscious conviction, was a Philosophy course. To be extremely brief, the course made me think (Surprise! I don’t think I thought much before then, at least not as much as today I do). I thought of many topics, but the one I’d like to mention here is knowledge.

I thought so much about knowledge, that I became critically invested in anything having to do with it. As you can imagine, being at a University, there was much knowledge now dressed up for me to give a renewed look of scrutiny with my mind’s eye. Today, still an English Ed. major, I apply these critical faculties to what I learn in my classes. And again, simply to close short, I perceive that my emphasis on thinking has helped me to better take apart and go at writing formulations (amongst much else in the academic writing tradition) with the hunger to understand, not just to mime in hopes that I do well enough to pass a class. I feel empowered, actually, now that I see so many of the holes in the frameworks of the relatively shifty, “good” writing doctrines we are taught; I understand enough not only to see that they’re not God, however, they can be extremely helpful.

And all this writing of mine, what is of it? Thus far, a production of heavy, but highly satisfying thought. I would say there is a benefit to taking up my considerations here. I learned much from Bellanger and Reid concerning writing tips, as I’m sure you all did, but I’d like to present this as something of my own “different angle” from which we can still consider writing, as they have, but in relationship to the thinking which produces it.

;;- I thank thee for thou thoughts.

I fully enjoyed Ballenger’s article, “The Importance of getting Curious”. The article was about letting students pick their own topic to write about and let them have the freedom to explore and write what they are passionate about and have genuine interest in. This article is motivating for students who don’t think they are good writers or have never written a research paper/essay before. It gives the students confidence that they have interesting thoughts and they should share them with others. Ballinger encourages writers to explore and get in depth with what they are curious about. I love the fact that this article makes research writing fundamental and fun. It’s kindof like an investigation. The more clues you find the juicier the case, the more you see how it happened and why. Writing is like that. You have to have a purpose and questions to figure out what you are looking for and once you get answers the real fun begins. Research is never ending. There are million things that trigger a thought another angle you want to investigate. I like the tips Ballenger for writing exercises. It makes students really focus and look at topic more in depth. The exercise encourages students to write down a list of topics that they are interested in and then write questions that they are curious about that topic. It gives them a focus and makes their paper more organized and concise. I also  like the writing exercise that makes students look at objects because it makes them become critical thinkers and also it allows them to get creative with their questions. It develops new thinking and new ways to look at things that they didn’t notice before. I like the advice that Ballenger gives writers that they should always look at their topic with new eyes. This allows the purpose for your paper to get stronger. There is more meaning behind it. Your purpose will guide you to what you need to investigate/examine. I highly recommend teachers who are struggling to get their students to write or have students who don’t have interest in writing or think they don’t have any good ideas what to write about use this article as a resource. These are all methods and strategies I learned in school and grad school to write research papers and always had successful papers.

I like the idea of blogging and think they are great to motivate writers. They have free space to write about whatever they think are interesting and get to share their ideas/views with others on a forum. They get to exchange their thoughts and beliefs. I also think it’s great that they are exposed to publishing their work and get recognized by others. I think it’s all great, but the way the author bashed traditional writing/writing courses kind of turned me off. Where would students be without English classes or writing courses to even know how to write? Let alone write interesting blogs? They need the basic foundations to write. So really I think the author was hypocritical. The author states, “not even writing intensive courses…work towards expertise”. Yeah, if the teacher doesn’t have fun actives, strategies to make writing fun then yes writing will be dreadful. I think it’s important to note that the author also contradicts himself when he says that there is not end when you are an expert. Of course there is no end because you are learning something new and improving. So would you say someone can’t reach “expert” level when writing in English class/writing courses? The more they write it’s likely that they will perfect their technique, structure, style, etc… It’s only a matter of time. Everyone be an expert at something. I think the author’s comment is really careless and insulting. The author also says that “writing assignments are short-lived”. Oh, really? I’m in grad school and still writing papers. I have an essay due every week on Thursday for this semester and also am taking this course that requires me to write on wordpress every week. So that comment the author made is false. You will always have to write whether a letter, paper, etc… for school, job, whatever. Even for presentations there is writing required. I guess whether it’s short lived or not  depends how much time the teacher takes with students to let them write and make them realize the importance of writing.

When I was little I used to read a lot. I also loved to write, but then it kind of died down because of school, life, etc… I still from time to time pick up books to read on my leisure time but its getting harder to do that with all my course work. I have done a lot of writing (8years to be exact) mostly academic. I am used to analyze, support my claims with evidence, make inferences.. It is all I know. It has made me more of a critical thinker, careful reader and make me question the purpose, the author and even people around me. Which I mean it has made me more aware of the influence that I allow people to have over me. I don’t have to agree with everything someone says me and can call them out. I have also become more aware of how people speak to me if they are being too persuasive I know they’re up to no good and are not letting me think for myself. That’s the great thing about writing/reading stories. It can teach you a lot about yourself,  your experiences and how you evolve.

So, the majority of the writing I’ve done for school, both public and paid for, has seen me struggling to reach the minimum page count around 2 in the morning, fighting against the urge to drop my face to my keyboard and give it all up. I’ve had more late nights accompanied by my screen’s white-word-processor light than I can remember. Not that the thought is revolutionary, but I might have had an easier time blowing passed the minimum if I had had better motivation than reaching a deadline and passing the class.

Of course, those things are very important and certainly motivated me enough to get the work done and done adequately enough to pass the classes, but I never really gained much out of it other than the experience of writing.

Both articles seem to hammer in the idea of curiosity. Curiosity in order to better writing strategies and outcomes. This is a lot easier to think about than it is to carry out, though the authors do give you ideas on how to spark a sense of curiosity, and Reid goes as far as to explain and list examples of exigency. I could identify with Reid’s list, thinking back on what I can remember writing. I can understand why my teachers and professors would stick to the formula, since formulas are easy to follow, easy to grade, and everyone needs to start somewhere with writing. Neither is there much a high school teacher can do to get students interested in Shakespeare or Jane Austen enough to ask them to write about what specifically, personally, or urgently interests them, if they were never interested in the first place.

Ballenger’s advice on making categories and asking questions about those categories reminded me of the broad to narrow way I’ve had teachers explain on how to come up with a thesis, even though I know that’s basically the opposite of the sort of writing Ballenger is writing about. But it did get me thinking, and, as I skimmed, a part of my mind got ahead of myself into making those categories, and I started thinking of one specific thing that interests me, and I got to asking myself why would it be so interesting to me in the first place, and I got to getting curious about why I specifically would be interested in that.

I’m not sure if that train of thought was Ballenger’s goal, but that’s how it worked for me, and, a bit unexpectedly, I guess, and maybe a bit clichéd, their advice actually worked in getting me curious enough about something to research.

I suppose it does make sense that posing questions would drive curiosity. Since you’d then want to find the answer to the question. I’m, ah, curious to know if this sort of thought process worked out for anyone else.

For a couple years now, I’ve been having a sort of crisis about my ability as a writer, and it’s made me extremely self-conscious about my writing style. What was once a fun process of spinning ideas into words turned into an anxious mess of edits, re-edits, and deep doubts that I was writing anything worth reading, let alone anything good. I’ve become painfully aware of my overblown vocabulary, overuse of commas and semicolons, and a general pretentiousness in how everything seems to come out. Every sentence I would write would fall into a cycle of getting deleted, rewritten, and re-deleted until I would either just keep the words I hated or just give up altogether. Frankly, I’ve been in down bad, bruh.

My first time taking Advanced Exposition exposed me to Anne Lamott’s essay, “Shitty First Drafts.” Across two and a half pages, she explained that the purpose of writing a draft is to just get down ideas, whatever they are and however they come out. If it’s a whole bunch of run-on sentences that sound more like a therapy session than an essay, it’s okay. If an entire paragraph is nothing but swear words, it’s fine. If you write “pee pee doo doo fart in a butt” while stating your thesis, it’s totally cool. By getting down anything at all, even if you’re positive that none of it is usable or even salvageable, you give yourself the raw marble needed to sculpt into the essay or story hidden inside. But when you stop yourself by holding out for the right sentence or the correct idea, you give yourself no room to explore; no marble to chisel. You can’t edit nothing.

In short: “It’s okay to write garbage.”

As embarrassing as it is to say it, that idea changed my whole view on writing. I’ve started to trust myself more as a writer. I’ve started to have faith that even the total bullshit that I end up with has, by God, something worth using. I’ve given myself the freedom to write badly, and that freedom has begun to change my very thoughts as I write.

In a sense, Ballenger and Reid suggest the same idea for research and publishing. Ballenger’s exercises and brainstorming methods, at their core, ask the student to simply trust in his thoughts, wherever they go. Even if the majority are dead-ends, or half-thoughts, or just goddamn stupid, the very act of releasing yourself to pursue them all reveals new possibilities and even new revelations in yourself that can turn you on to something you never knew could turn anyone on. Reid’s suggestion for students to blog stems from the underlying assumption that to get better at something, you ought to just do it. By creating a space where the student doesn’t confine themselves to word counts, essay structures, or even consistent publishing dates, he believes that the student can come to enjoy the act of writing, giving them more writing man-hours and leading them a few steps closer toward mastery of the craft. Or, if not mastery, at least something more than nothing.

After all, nothing from nothing leaves nothing.

Words….. Honestly this podcast was a confusing one to me. Since I am fluent in sign language, the story about the man who couldn’t speak really grabbed my attention, his miming and focus on the women was interesting to me.  When I began learning sign language, my thoughts went from images, to me looking at myself signing what I was learning. How does that even happen, the way I thought about words changed from the word and its meaning, to an image of a person making a hang gesture and this now being my reality of the word. Little did I know, two years after I began learning sign language, would I be diagnosed with a hearing disorder that would cause me to go deaf for periods of a time. This made me realize the importance of words. Listening to the “pod-casters”  talk about is language important or necessary after Jill Bolte said that she enjoyed the silence, made me want to jump through my headphones and scream, DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU ARE SAYING?!?!?! When I first lost my hearing in High School, I was so afraid, I had no way to explain to my parents, who don’t know sign language, what was going on but just scream, because I didn’t realize I was screaming, that I couldn’t hear. Without my words, my connection to the world was lost. After listening to Words by Radio Lab, I listened to  60 Words by Radio Lab, which pretty much explains the importance and weight of words and what words we use, by Discussing the bill that Former President Bush wanted through congress so he could take action after 9/11. Between words and 60 words, my opinion has grown so much in the importance and weight of words. Even if those words come in gestures that flash through the mind of those without words.