7
One of my greatest apprehensions about writing is my fear of writing. Fear of judgment, fear of the permanence of my words in the world, fear of my own voice, or even fear that someone has already wrote about an idea more eloquently than I ever could. How can I, an inexperienced writer and sophomore in college, compose a piece challenging those great writers? What makes me worthy of that? These anxieties make me question my abilities to succeed as a writer in the classroom.
I don't want to be a journalist or write as a profession. However, I'm studying to become a teacher and I feel that it's my own responsibility to be able to write in the same way that I will ask of my future students. Writing is not meant to be easy. I struggle each and every time I sit down to write a paper, no matter how provocative the subject is to me. However, these precise struggles are essential to the development of personal writing and a deeper understanding of the literary field of humanities. I also think that of the perception of writing and reading stems from the student's experiences in and throughout school. Teachers coach their students on everything from how to construct papers to the different ways of using language effectively. Therefore, I think, that if a student has as little as one poor teacher or receives unproductive criticism from one of their instructors, their whole idea of writing could negatively change. That is why the
writing classroom is critical to a student's growth whether they are in first grade or in college. This brings the aspiring teacher in me to ask the inevitable question: what is the most important thing for a student to leave the writing classroom having learned?
I had never read any articles or books by Peter Elbow before this class. However, after studying a few of his works, I can't say I agree with many of his arguments. Elbow romanticizes the act of writing so much that it seems as if the "author" should be able to sit down and effortlessly crank words out. This idea is damaging to those students just beginning their writing careers. Students under the impression that composing a literary piece is easy are much more inclined to quit once a spectacular paper or story doesn't come out of a 10 minute free write. However, despite my objection to Elbow's implication that creating language is simple, I do believe in his encouragement of a young writer's voice. Therefore, I think that the most valuable outcome of the writing classroom for the students should be to let their voice resonate throughout every piece of their writing.
Elbow celebrates the student courageous enough to bring his most raw and essential self to the page. I don't mean to contradict myself if it appears that way. It should just be made clear that, although I disagree with Elbow's idea of the fantasized process in which writing is created, I do value his encouragement of the student's thoughts and voice. Fear and struggle can push you away from finding that voice, but as Elbow says, "...it's the only voice you've got. It's your only source of power."
We can preach about the importance of voice and, although it may seem like the easiest part of writing, I personally find it do be the most difficult to attain. As Elbow emphasizes, ideas such as free writing and individuality are important, however, I'm skeptical of the concept of sentimental realism concerning voice. Elbow says that voice comes from self when it's untainted and in its purest form. It is not influenced by anyone or anything, but comes from within. However, when it comes to voice, I find the ideas of David Bartholomae to be more accurate. "For me, nothing happens, or could happen, until I imagine myself within a discourse - a kind of textual conversation/confrontation with people whose work matters to me and whose work, then, makes my own possible". Voice is created by personal thoughts and experiences, but it is also born from the ideas and teachings of great writers and academics. One student's experiences are never the same as anyone else. Therefore, voice is meant to be heard through each students writing and, although was initially formed or inspired by the work of others, was molded into what it is today, by that persons own experiences and life. It is my aspiration to be courageous enough to write with my own voice and demand that it be heard.
I grew up living in the world of teaching and writing. My Dad is both a very involved and well-respected instructor and author of two published novels. I love reading and love the idea of writing. Being able to choose the perfect words to articulate your feelings at that precise moment to an audience. It's a liberating, terrifying, and appealing thought all in one.
2
I never felt pressure from my Dad himself to be an amazing writer, but I felt his presence and the weight of the expectations of others to produce papers unlike any of my other peers. Everyone involved in the Boulder Valley School District knows my father which only gave me more of an incentive to prove myself. I didn't want to get special treatment because of my Dad. I wanted to earn my own way. The pressures I felt from the people around me and from myself made it even more aggravating when I would struggle with my writing. My Dad and my teachers wanted to help me with my writing. Not do my papers for me, but read them and give me feedback. They wanted me to succeed. Countless times I refused this help believing that by accepting guidance I was not doing the real work. I still thought that, in order to be a writer, I should be capable of sitting down, free writing for a while, and creating a paper. The passion I felt towards my subject and my desperate desire to communicate my thoughts to society would propel me forward in my conquest for the "perfect" paper. It was only after the constant reassurance of my Dad, my teachers, and the work of academics, such as Bartholomae, that I began to realize no writer can create their work, their voice, without some help. Whether it is accepting guidance in the form of editing, ideas that make me change my own view, knowledge that reinforces what I already knew, or the power of another writer's language to inspire and empower my own. There is no shame in listening to those "dialects of influence" and allowing them to influence. Everyone needs a starting point to find where they stand in the issue, discover how these outside influences coincide with their own lives and experiences, and find their voice. It is a teacher's responsibility to encourage their students to use what they have learned already to evaluate what they think and write with passion and courage to "demand" that the world listen to what they have to say.
Even at the end of this essay, I feel hypocritical and unsure writing about the importance of voice and how it should be the most valued aspect of the writing classroom. I'm discussing the crucial of a skill that I still struggle to bring to out in my own writing. I fear that I may not be doing this topic justice, in that the "greats" (David Bartholomae, Peter Elbow, Harold Bloom, Patricia Bizzell) have not already discussed more persuasively than I. However, I reiterate what I believe to be the defining element of voice, which is that no one has partaken in the same experiences as I have. It's the collaboration of learned knowledge and life events that make a writers voice their own.
2
Retired Professor and Shakespeare scholar Reg Saner once said the "we all write in the shadow of Shakespeare". Does this not apply to the greatest of great authors as well? Even Shakespeare himself created his most influential works based on the political and social aspects occurring throughout his life. Everything we learn, experience, know and believe to know shapes our ever-changing voice. Everyone we meet, connect with, befriend, idolize, and despise molds our voice into something new.
I have said what I believe, trying to own my voice while giving credit to those individuals and ideas I consulted to inspire my thoughts throughout this paper. However, I again find myself turning to David Bartholomae for help in reinforcing what I have already said. A "...writer learns, by learning to write within and against the powerful writing that precedes him, that haunts him, and that threatens to engulf him".
Posted by hill4205 on September 13, 2008
Tags Uncategorized
Comments on specific paragraphs:
Click the
icon to the right of a paragraph
Comments on the page as a whole:
Click the
icon to the right of the page title (works the same as paragraphs)