In Search of a Writing Life

I've never been much of a diary writer or a journal keeper.  I definitely have desk drawers full of failed efforts, where I've never made it much past the page full of New Year's resolutions.  I used to think that I just wasn't a creative writer, but after taking a Creative Writing class in college, I think it's more that it's hard work on my part and that it's never been highly valued by teachers during my school career.  In addition, I think that most aspects of creativity related to reading and writing are lacking once students get to high school.  While I don't think that "book reports" are always helpful for engaging with texts and assessing reading comprehension, I really enjoyed the creative aspect of book reports in elementary and middle school.  But once I got to high school, there seemed to be no place for that creativity.  Instead, I was taught a specific five paragraph form within which to rangle my ideas, and writing about and engaging with texts was all analytical.  (I do remember one project where I wrote some journal entries in the voice of Yossarian from Catch-22--loved it.)

I think that the focus on all "good" writing being academic analyses caused me to think that creative writing was somehow a lesser form of writing, and I didn't want to "waste" my time on it.  However, I think that a lot of the articles we read for this week actually show that being aware of how to utilize and write in different genres (creative writing!) is helpful for the real world as well as for discussions on the how and why of different genres (as noted in Whitney, Ridgeman, and Masquelier).  Also, one of the most important aspects of writing, at least that I think, is being aware of audience; creative writing, at least in the sense of multigenre projects, forces students to really think through who they're writing to and for what purpose.  As noted in the Whitney article, students should be able to "take ownership of their writing as a tool for social life" (2011, p. 533).  We don't want students to think that the only purpose of having a literate or writing life is to do well in school.  We need to show them that good writing skills are important for having a rich, communicative life.

So, I am glad that we are taking part in a multigenre composition.  It's good to know what we're asking our students to do and note any problems that we come up against: "[B]y becoming writers themselves, teachers would better understand the composing process and use these newfound insights to work more effectively with their students" (Cohen, 2004, p. 120). But also, I think it's good practice for teachers to have a writing life beyond putting comments on student papers.  If we encourage our students to write, they need to see that we practice what we teach.  I think it will definitely be a stretch for me, but becoming a better writer is something that I definitely want to work on.  Even writing this blog is a good practice for me because even though I keep things mostly academic, there's a different voice that I get to use and hone.  I mean, my grandpa wrote an epic poem about his father a few years ago; I really have to flex my Homeric skills if I want to show him up.