On writing "things"...
I was thinking today, about writing another post here
I was thinking that, for this blog to survive, it is going to have to simply be an exercise in writing "things". Writing things has never really been my strong suit (I mean..I'm an engineering student after all...) but somehow I have collected around myself a lot of people who either write a lot (more than I do),or have words just pour out of them. I've never really had that pleasure, whenever I try to write things, from lab reports, to essays, I always seem to be caught struggling. Most of the struggle is with how do I get all these thoughts I have in my head out onto paper. How do I frame them for this or that audience who I don't know particularly well? Usually I struggle until the day before the thing is due, then tell myself "Just fucking write it already" and quit thinking and just type, and eventually I come up with words on paper. Which was the goal to begin with.
Another trick I've found, which works better than anything, is to talk to Travis. Which isn't the same as to ask Travis for help (as he is one of those people who seems to have a much easier time writing things than me, one might think the gut instinct is to ask him to write it for me..) What I really mean is to just IM him with my thoughts on something, or where I'm stuck writing something, and the act of writing it down to Trav in a way that he will understand does exactly what I've been trying to do all along--get the ideas out of my head and onto paper.
It was only recently that I've come up with an explanation for why this helps. One of the classes I had to take last term was called Oral and Written Communication. It started out with talking about the "theory" of how language worked, but as it was a class aimed for engineers, ended with lots of practical "here is what you need to do to write a good resume", "here are the elements of a good interview", "here are the elements of a good visual aid". It was a very practical course in the end.
Anyway, this course discussed the "language triangle" which lists three things to consider when writing something. You have to think about what it is you want to say (duh!), but also how your audience is going to receive what you say (I mean, it's not going to be easy to walk into a Synagogue and convince people good Jews don't go to heaven) and how your audience receives you (Your credibility and reputation and stuff.)
Now that it's all in place: What I'm saying is that by talking to Travis, I've given myself a (blessedly critical at times) audience to present my ideas to. An audience that I know quite well, and have plenty of practice talking to. Which is an audience way easier to communicate with that "Stuffy potential employer #8".
I guess this all sort of begs the question "Who is my audience now?" (begs the question in the "makes me think of a question" sort of way, and not the "logical fallacy" sort of way). Truth be known--I really like to hear the sound of my own voice. Even when something I write has little content, and is structurally poor, it still looks good to me. (which would likely be a problem--if I had to take more than one English class.)
Speaking of English classes--I have to take one, and I'm not enjoying it as much as I thought I would. (though my lack of participation in it may be the source of some of these problems.) It is a course on poetry (which despite all my troubles writing, I usually don't usually choke writing poetry as much as I do writing other things) It's not the poetry itself I have trouble swallowing. There is just a subtle underlying hypocrisy's that drives me up the walls!
Let me explain; In this English class, the prof has been very adamant that "If your references page so much as loses sight of the rest of your essay, we will drag you up in front of the class and hang you as an example"--in other words "don't plagiarize". Yet, class after class, she stands up in front of the class and explicates all these poems we're supposed to be reading. It's not that she's ever claimed "these are the one true meaning and the author's intent when they wrote this piece", it's just that she doesn't say "this is what I think this means".
I mean, I know it's implied, but if your going to be so melodramatic about plagiarism, shouldn't there be some disclaimer?
Nevertheless; since I don't have the faintest idea who is reading this blog, other than myself, I'm going to write it assuming I'm the audience. So far it's paying off--I'm pretty easy to talk to.
Sometimes it's handy to be a little narcissistic.
Coincidentally, my inner narcissist also likes it when you tell me what you think of me. (I think this sort of thing is mandatory to include in a blog once in a while...)
I was thinking that, for this blog to survive, it is going to have to simply be an exercise in writing "things". Writing things has never really been my strong suit (I mean..I'm an engineering student after all...) but somehow I have collected around myself a lot of people who either write a lot (more than I do),or have words just pour out of them. I've never really had that pleasure, whenever I try to write things, from lab reports, to essays, I always seem to be caught struggling. Most of the struggle is with how do I get all these thoughts I have in my head out onto paper. How do I frame them for this or that audience who I don't know particularly well? Usually I struggle until the day before the thing is due, then tell myself "Just fucking write it already" and quit thinking and just type, and eventually I come up with words on paper. Which was the goal to begin with.
Another trick I've found, which works better than anything, is to talk to Travis. Which isn't the same as to ask Travis for help (as he is one of those people who seems to have a much easier time writing things than me, one might think the gut instinct is to ask him to write it for me..) What I really mean is to just IM him with my thoughts on something, or where I'm stuck writing something, and the act of writing it down to Trav in a way that he will understand does exactly what I've been trying to do all along--get the ideas out of my head and onto paper.
It was only recently that I've come up with an explanation for why this helps. One of the classes I had to take last term was called Oral and Written Communication. It started out with talking about the "theory" of how language worked, but as it was a class aimed for engineers, ended with lots of practical "here is what you need to do to write a good resume", "here are the elements of a good interview", "here are the elements of a good visual aid". It was a very practical course in the end.
Anyway, this course discussed the "language triangle" which lists three things to consider when writing something. You have to think about what it is you want to say (duh!), but also how your audience is going to receive what you say (I mean, it's not going to be easy to walk into a Synagogue and convince people good Jews don't go to heaven) and how your audience receives you (Your credibility and reputation and stuff.)
Now that it's all in place: What I'm saying is that by talking to Travis, I've given myself a (blessedly critical at times) audience to present my ideas to. An audience that I know quite well, and have plenty of practice talking to. Which is an audience way easier to communicate with that "Stuffy potential employer #8".
I guess this all sort of begs the question "Who is my audience now?" (begs the question in the "makes me think of a question" sort of way, and not the "logical fallacy" sort of way). Truth be known--I really like to hear the sound of my own voice. Even when something I write has little content, and is structurally poor, it still looks good to me. (which would likely be a problem--if I had to take more than one English class.)
Speaking of English classes--I have to take one, and I'm not enjoying it as much as I thought I would. (though my lack of participation in it may be the source of some of these problems.) It is a course on poetry (which despite all my troubles writing, I usually don't usually choke writing poetry as much as I do writing other things) It's not the poetry itself I have trouble swallowing. There is just a subtle underlying hypocrisy's that drives me up the walls!
Let me explain; In this English class, the prof has been very adamant that "If your references page so much as loses sight of the rest of your essay, we will drag you up in front of the class and hang you as an example"--in other words "don't plagiarize". Yet, class after class, she stands up in front of the class and explicates all these poems we're supposed to be reading. It's not that she's ever claimed "these are the one true meaning and the author's intent when they wrote this piece", it's just that she doesn't say "this is what I think this means".
I mean, I know it's implied, but if your going to be so melodramatic about plagiarism, shouldn't there be some disclaimer?
Nevertheless; since I don't have the faintest idea who is reading this blog, other than myself, I'm going to write it assuming I'm the audience. So far it's paying off--I'm pretty easy to talk to.
Sometimes it's handy to be a little narcissistic.
Coincidentally, my inner narcissist also likes it when you tell me what you think of me. (I think this sort of thing is mandatory to include in a blog once in a while...)
posted by rob-d at
2:27 PM
