blah blah blog

I am currently thinking abotu looking for an apartment. A copy of The Signpost was on a table in the Writing Center, I got curious and looked at the Classifieds. A couple of good apartements available now, but I haven't the money to pay for any of them. This sucks because there all pretty cheap. They have some good job offers. I don't know if I should believe what is said in the paper. I'm a little naive, but I won't do anything....(?) I'll just think ahout it for the time being.
I gotta go see a play tonight, so I'll be right back. Gotta go buy the dang ticket. Killer Klowns From OUter Space rocks, yo!

A Little Input From One of "Them"

I've been thinking about writing again, in the college setting. Our class discussion about "adult" students was interesting and I think the comments were accurate. It was interesting to hear the 19-20 year-old's perspective on the nontraditional students. I am a nontraditional student who sits between the traditional nontraditional student and the traditional student. I am "older" and married but I haven't gone and raised a family or had a career and then came back. I'm just a late bloomer. Everything I've done in life has been after most people do it, so for me I'm normal and I don't mind doing things the way I do them. I spend a little time in the "Nontrad" Center and listen to the 40% of our university population converse, and it sometimes really gives me a headache. The concerns are different and there are children being shuffled in and out frequently. The conversations are free and sometimes foul, so I'm glad I can swing on out of there when things get too heated. I wonder what they would do without each other--without the Nontraditional Student Center. Would they use the other facilities more? Would they go to the Writing Center for help when they need it or would they quit going to school altogether because they don't feel included or supported?

I know there are other students like me here who aren't very old but who are also not very young but they are the few and the quiet. We like to get help, we want to do well, we are too young to be afflicted with enough garbage to cloud our minds with serious emotional and communication problems and we are able to help the younger students who have a little less life experience.

I'm glad we have so many people who want an education from different walks of life. It provides for great conversation and some real life learning among the academic environment.

Cookie-Dough Writers

Golly, I always get addicted reading everyone else's blogs. I almost forgot to write one myself. You guys have excellent blogs and great ideas. Could I just say "ditto" a bunch of times?

Let me think now: what was the topic of discussion? Ah, yes; I remember: Learning the academic lingo. The way Mark and Greg were talking, it sounds like a foreign language. Maybe it is in some ways. I think that I am learning what professors expect and learning the academic discourse through trial and error. Like in Dr. Roger's class, I kind of knew what he was looking for in our reading responses, but not until I got my first response back from him did I really know what he was looking for. With each paper I write, I discover a little more about what the professor is expecting me to write like. Hopefully with each paper I write, I get a little better; I get better feedback and a better scores on my assignments each time I try another one. Some professors, like Dr. Rogers, want clarity; other professors want something else. The point to learning all of these different expectations is to combine them to learn the academic discourse: to write like educated collage writers should.

It’s like baking cookies, I guess. You have different ingredients to mix to make the dough and then you have to let the rolled up balls of dough bake (that's the hard part for me, waiting--- and you can smell them...mmmm)--- and then POOF yummy cookies to eat with a glass of milk. By learning different techniques through trial and error, submitting and resubmitting papers; pleasing the professor and earning the well deserved A in the class, writers can learn to write academic pleasing material. The trial and error, submitting and resubmitting papers, is like the ingredients for the cookie dough; and waiting for the cookies to bake is like waiting for the feedback from a professor or the grade for the assignment.

On the last episode of Buffy the Vampire slayer (7th season) Buffy tells Angel that she is like cookie dough. She isn’t ready for a lifetime commitment with a guy. But when she is ready and is a “cookie to enjoy,” then she will let him know.

I’m a cookie-dough writer; I’m still in the learning and discovering process and not quite like a baked cookie yet. Some people like my writing and I’d hate to tell them that it is just cookie dough that they’re enjoying. And that is because I’m not to my full potential as a writer yet. But then the issue of knowing when learning actually ends comes into play. There is always something more to learn and the academic discourse is metamorphic. Kirsten said, “The evolution of writing... will it ever end?” Will it? If it doesn’t, then I guess I will be like cookie dough forever. I guess I will always be learning. I like school, so I suppose that won’t be a bad thing.

What to do With a Good Paper?

Mark had an interesting question in his response. He asked what tutors should do when a student writer has a good paper that doesn’t need much revision. I had a similar situation a few weeks ago. An English 1010 student came in with a short paper about herself. It was clear, informative, and easy to understand. I couldn’t think of any noticeable changes that she needed to make and neither could she. Like Mark, I pointed out a place in the paper where she could expand the idea a little, but it wasn’t really necessary if she didn’t want to. Then I sent her on her way.

The session was probably less than fifteen minutes—which was good because other people were waiting—but I felt like it was too short and that I had failed to teach her anything about her paper or about writing in general. Now, I wonder if there was something more I could have said or done or taught to that student. She was required by her teacher to use the writing center and that’s what she did. But I don’t know if she will want to come back on her own. Any suggestions? How could I have had a more productive session with that student?

Ostrich & Chirping

I think it's so funny to remember how silly my attitude was when I first got to college. I thought I was so smart and that this whole thing would be a breeze. Precious naivete. Where have you gone to?

Because this attitude really started to disappear when I began turning in papers and taking tests and giving speeches in class, I said to myself, "I've no idea what I'm doing?" Then I also thought maybe I didn't know what I was doing here at this place. It went on like this for quite awhile but I'm not sure at what point I became more familiar with the discourse of the university. It was just something that gradually came into my conscience via trial and error. I've always been too embarrased to ask a professor what is expected of me especially if maybe they've already explained what that is. So I would always just kind of take the plunge, wait for the results, and then try and learn from them.

This method may have been a result of my attitude when I first arrived here and then being totally disillusioned about what I thought I knew about everything. And I suppose I still carry a few ideas and beliefs with me from when I first began college. But for the most part I resent what I thought I knew and have strived every day to find new truths. It really has been like learning a new language for me. Learning new languages gets more difficult as you become older. Even now I'm trying so hard to learn Spanish on my own but it's very hard when all I can do is think back on the language I already know. And to learn Spanish is pretty straightforward. The language of the university is anything but straightforward. I feel I'm constantly drowning in ambiguity.

To effectively learn a language, however, people must always be trying to speak it whether they know it well or not. I always try to talk to people in Spanish despite my lack of confidence. In doing so, people can give me feedback and tell me what I'm doing wrong. This is crucial to my learning experience. During the English 3840 classes, I actively participate in class discussions. Sometimes I miss the point or say something that's not relevant, but at least through trying am I learning how to have an intellectual conversation. I don't always get the right answer, but what I'm really striving for is whether or not I can ask the right questions.

As languages are constantly evolving and changing, so are we. If there's one attribute that I feel will get me through this institution, it's adaptability. I may not always know the "discourse" of the university, but if I can count on myself to be able to adapt to its changes, then I will change alongside with it and manage to keep up. Does any of that make sense?

Huh, what's that? I wrote a post?!? NO WAY!

I definitely feel like Kirsten, how she's in over her head and learning how to swim. I was so excited to come to college that I didn't really think about the requirements for the classes. Two honors classes--full of reading. An English class with light reading and responses, and my History class that.....*cough, cough* is going great. reading for that too. I know, I know. There's reading in everything, but...Mommy, I don't wanna go to school today. Yeah, I went to my HIST class and got so wrapped up in the lecture that I TOTALLY forgot to write the assignment down. Duh! I can look that right now, hold on. Okay, I'm back. The past two days I've worked have been great. The first OWL I did gave me a migraine and that's where the twelve hours of sleep came from, but last night was more enjoyable because I really felt like a tutor.

Today for the tutorials I got to dance with words and deny a young man's wish of letting him know his professor is stoopid, haha. Oh, and this other girl wanted me to tell me her thesis and how to wirte her paper. Any question and/or suggestion I offered she shot down. ??? Her instructure handed her herspecific assignment out of four and wanna me to do the same.

And I'm such a bad influence on my friends... not really it's their own choice to ditch class. Hell, their my friends; I'm not going to complain.

It's All Unknown Unknown To Me

I've been thinking about writing and learning to write (big surprize since it is what our class is about) and reading some of your bloggets, and I wonder what you are all really thinking. I'm not sure if what I have written has come across as arrogance about writing or if it is just trash that you think that I think is good, or if you like what I have written even though I'm full of hot air and have little experience writing? I think that some of you have written some things that have been very funny and entertaining and that put me to shame. But that provides me some good reading and you can learn how wonderful you are by reading my bloggets.

I can only think about writing so much before I feel like I am going to explode. My hair will stand on end like I touched an electrical socket, my arms flailing, I'll run screaming and never be seen or heard from again. Maybe that is improbable but I am tired of writing about writing. It's like thinking about thinking. You can only do so much of it before nothing makes any sense any more; all things run into each other never to be identified again. Too many judgements and not enough food. It can't be that hard to see the simplicity of something and accept it for what it is. Are we all doomed to find ourselves in a cave (like "Dead Poet Society" people) talking about writing when we are 90 years old (some of us a little older) and still looking for answers to our writing questions? "Back in 2005 a Comma Splice was a broken sentence, but what is a Comma Splice now?" The evolution of writing... will it ever end?

Clever Title

I suppose it is prudent to begin this blog with a confession: I haven’t always been such a great writer. Yes, it is true. At the beginning of my time as a university student, way back when I was an English 1010 student and, oddly enough, a Business Administration major, I had no idea of how to write. So I did what many other beginning writers do when they get stuck in their writing; I copied other writers’ styles, crammed essays to the hilt with clichés, and tried to sound as smart as possible. These strategies, of course, didn’t work. Instead of sounding authentic in the discourse of the university, I came across as pretentious, presumptuous, and half-baked.

Then one day I read a magical essay that changed my life as a writer forever. That essay was Eric Blair’s, “Politics of the English Language.” In this essay the author describes the ways that the English language has been abused and neglected by politicians and writers who try to make themselves sound intelligent, or who intentionally try to write discourse in a wordy, confusing “legalese” style. Blair gives examples of words that have been overexploited to the point of having no real meaning such as, “fascism,” “hate,” and, “love.” After this he writes what I consider the most important piece of writing advice ever given:

“Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.”

After I read this simple, sensible piece of advice my perspective on writing changed considerably. I realized that what I had been writing was insincere, garbled garbage. I knew that by trying to sound intelligent I was really exposing my lack of knowledge to professors and long-suffering writing center tutors. Blair had shown me all of these things through his essay and now I was ready to start writing with sincerity.

Perfection didn’t come easy. For awhile I went through a process of relapsing into old clichés and often used words that I didn’t really know the meanings of. I was beginning to learn how to write to suit the academic discourse, but I was still uncertain of when to put this knowledge into practice. The format became increasingly clear, but the application remained vague. At this point I received the second most important bit of advice when somebody told me, “don’t ever use a word if it is not ‘your own,’” meaning that if you do not normally use a word in your speech or writing, then it is not “yours.”

This last piece of advice helped me to avoid using the presumptuously didactic tone that Bartholomae assigns to his “basic writers.” When my written style and vocabulary became my own, I started to be increasingly able to approach academic discourse in a more effective and natural manner. These new abilities, combined with time and practice, have helped me to fit more closely into the discourse of the university.

A Mature Reaction

Who taught me the discourse? My answer is simple: it's all Nona Horsley's fault. Well, mostly. Mrs. DuBois is partially to blame as well.

Mrs. DuBois was my eleventh grade honors English teacher. The self-proclaimed Lady-of-the-woods was having a love affair with language long before I walked into her classroom. Some days it seemed as though she had randomly chosen large words from a gargantuan hat (with a "press" sign tucked into the band) to use in her lectures for the day. Every two weeks, she would dance around the class as she handed out vocabulary lists.

"Use these words!" she would exclaim. "Make them your own! Incorporate them into all of the papers you write. Bring them up in conversation. Who cares if people think you're crazy at first? You need to exercise a muscle to make it strong. Exercise your vocabulary!"

Mrs. DuBois also used rhythmic sentences to teach us other things. We all snickered behind our hands at first. But before long, conversations in between class included, "William Cullen Bryant wrote Thanatopsis" and words like bugbear and superfluous and beneficent. Once in a while, we tossed a word or two into our papers for good measure, but we enjoyed using such words in conversation too much to confine them to our papers.

My vocabulary was not incorporated into my papers until Mrs. Horsley demanded it. Her one great tool in forcing me to learn how to include words in my papers? Fear. She provided us with list after list of vocabulary we needed. If we did not know this vocabulary, we could not possibly pass the AP English test. I had always excelled at English, but I began to feel inadequate.
"An AP test grader will not be impressed with a student who describes the tone of a poem as being nice," Mrs. Horsley lectured on the first day of class. "You may be able to get away with using 'positive' or 'negative.' But don't count on it. None of you could pass the test right now. You need more writing skills. You need to read more. And you need more vocabulary. Learn to use your vocabulary to your advantage and you have passed the AP test."

"Mrs. DuBois taught you to use your vocabulary in everyday conversation. You have used it to impress people for the past year. Let me tell you now that you sounded like idiots. Nobody speaks like that in everyday conversation because we do not speak like we write. It's cliché, I know, but you've learned to talk the talk. I'm here to teach you how to walk the walk." And she did. At the same time, she taught us the importance of separating the discourse from everyday life.

I do not think a student can survive the university without learning the discourse. I've found that one of the tricks of being a writing tutor is knowing when to shut off the discourse valve. We may be forced to communicate that way in our papers, but communicating that way in person turns a student off a tutoring session faster than bad breath.

I think the trick is to make the discourse your own. Learn it as you must, but twist it as you will.