Over fifty years ago, biologist Rachel Carson warned that as "Man proceeds towards his pronounced goal of the conquest of nature, he has written a depressing record of destruction, directed not only against the earth he inhabits but against the life that shares it with him."
Carson’s warning seems especially prescient this week as the release of a recent study found that “over 40% of insect species are threatened with extinction.” Carson predicted that pesticides such as DDT would eventually lead to a “silent spring” in which the chain of life that starts with insects and ends with human consumption of plants and animals would be permanently and irrevocably altered. How do predictions such as these impact day-to-day life? Or don’t they? In the comment section below, consider the extent to which one individual can address these issues that affect our environment. What actions do you take--or fail to take?
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Until fairly recently in this country’s history, a college education seemed to be confined to elite members of society, namely those who had the time and resources to study subjects that might not have had an immediate “market value.” As the cost of a four-year degree continues to rise, families are forced to ask themselves if college is worth it. Is a degree worth absenting oneself from the full-time workforce for four or more years? Is it worth the hours of studying? And most of all--is it worth the cost?
The financial reality of today’s highly technical, global economy is that college graduates need to be able to find jobs that pay a livable wage, one that will allow them to pay off their college loan debt as well as to provide for housing, food, and other necessities. But what else should a college education provide? The kinds of thinking and learning, the habits of mind, that students acquire over the course of their college years, also serve to equip and empower them to intervene in their own social reality. This is especially true for students who do not have time beyond work to devote to studying what has been called a “liberal arts” education. In a 2015 article in The New Yorker, John Cassidy asks the question: “What’s the real value of higher education?” As a student just entering higher education, what is YOUR answer to this question? Click the COMMENT box below to share your response. To participate in the conversation, register for a free Disqus account at www.disqus.com to get started! To what extent are language and identity connected? Consider the language or languages you speak. Does language, in some way, as Amy Tan describes in her essay, “Mother Tongue,” help you to “see things” and express your own unique identity? Does the way you “make sense of the world” change depending on what language you're speaking? English or Chinese? Texting with friends or meeting with a professor? Now imagine that you're the only one left who speaks and understands the language you grew up with. What would happen to your world then? To your identity?
Whether you grew up speaking one language or several, language is the way we make ourselves known to one another. It’s how we connect, communicate, and learn. We use language in multiple contexts: with family and friends, in our communities, at work, and at school. We might ask ourselves then if our identities change depending on the linguistic context. Or is our identity fixed and set? Unchanging and unchangeable? Thus, the relationship between who we are, what we say, and how we say it, might be one worth exploring. Comment below to share your thoughts on language, culture, and identity. Ever see one of those wooden puzzles for little kids? They have thick wooden pieces that are easy to fit together—unless the person is two-years old! Compare that simple puzzle with a jigsaw puzzle. Some of them have over one hundred pieces. Only when the puzzle is complete can one see the whole picture. For a really difficult puzzle, one might have to work on it in stages, first assembling the edges, for example, and then filling in from there.
What happens if our puzzle-maker gives up? Well, then one just has a lot of puzzle pieces lying around and no pretty picture. The first essay assignment is kind of like that puzzle. The good news is that the class has already created some of the pieces: the in-class writing prompts, the first blog, and the email assignment. Students should also have the notes they've taken on the readings by Langston Hughes, Anne Lamott, and other writers as well as each classmates' peer review workshop feedback on drafts. Respond to this blog post by describing a plan to use those pieces to write the essay. Students probably don’t have the whole puzzle put together yet; we’ll be working toward that goal in the next couple of weeks, but how might one start planning and thinking about what that finished product might look like? When I was in grade school, each September my teacher would assign us a writing project: What Did You Do This Summer? Possibly, this gave me my start as a writer, not because I wrote beautiful prose about exotic locales, but because I had to make things up. Most of my summers as a child were spent complaining to my mother that I was bored (“Bored? You’re bored? I can give you something to do…”), walking with my dog through the woods, and opening and closing the refrigerator to see if any good food had appeared since last time I checked (It hadn’t). So for that first-day-of-school assignment, I’d write about my trip to Disneyworld or the Grand Canyon. Paris.
For this blog, I’ll give you a choice: you can either write about your summer vacation, real or imagined, or you can write about your summer of writing (obviously, I’d prefer the latter). For either option, describe something new that you learned about yourself. Or about writing. Or about vacations. What did you learn and how did you learn it? What can you take with you into the rest of your life? What do you still not understand? In other words, write about yourself as a writer (or vacationer). Note: While we all enjoy praise, your response in the comment box below should be about you, not your wonderful creative writing professor. I’m not immune to a little blown smoke, but I’m more interested in you. Thank you all for sharing your wonderful stories with me! I am truly honored. Part of being a writer is being an observer. As you walk through your day, you gather bits and pieces of impressions through all of your senses, most of which we forget as we round the corner. For example, as I walk to the store, I simultaneously hear the music pumped directly into my brain through my earbuds, overlaid by the jackhammer tearing up the sidewalk in front of CVS. The sun is hot on my shoulders and I sneeze from the dust being kicked up by the construction. Instinctively, I step back to avoid being run over by a bicycle, and to the side so that I don’t bang into the umbrella of the woman whose head barely comes up to my shoulder. She’s wearing a trench coat buttoned all the way up to her neck on this summer day: Why?
What detail will make it into my next story? I won’t know until I sit down to write it. In the comment box below, describe the moment you’re having right now. Not what’s going on in your head (worried about word counts, dinner plans, getting to work on time), but what your senses are telling you about what’s going on around you. Playscripts.com is an online community for playwrights and for people who are seeking scripts for professional, community or school theater productions.
This website is one of many valuable resources for emerging writers. For example, in an Introduction to Creative Writing class, the assignment to write your own script is, for many students, overwhelming, especially if your exposure to live theater is limited or nonexistent. You might wonder: What makes a good story worth telling on the stage? How many actors do I need? How do I find the balance between too many stage directions and not enough? What about set design and lighting and costumes? The best way to find answers to your questions is to read what’s out there. Read work by professional playwrights, aspiring playwrights, and teenage playwrights and consider what captures your attention and holds it. Click on this link to read some scripts that are posted on Playscripts.com that are seeking production. Find a script for a one-act play and write a mini-review. Here’s a caveat: You can’t all choose the same one! That means you might have to scroll through the list past page one or even page two to answer the question: What do you like (or dislike) about this script and why? ...can be found on the WhatWeShare page. CLICK HERE!
Click on the best option to answer this quick survey:If you picked the last choice on the list, you’re probably on the right track. You could probably make the argument that there’s not enough practice in the world to make up for a lack of talent, or that talent alone will not make up for a lack of perseverance. We could also probably add a couple of more items, such as opportunity and life experience. While not all aspiring writers are born with innate talent, there’s one item on the list that we can all benefit from, which is the pursuit of knowledge. If you navigate to the WhatWeWatch page on this site, you’ll see some videos of writers talking about their own writing. Take a few minutes and watch Junot Diaz in the video above share his thoughts on what makes a successful writer. Then, in the comment box below, imagine that you could respond to his ideas with questions of your own. What would you ask him? What didn’t you understand? What would you like to know more about?
Go ahead and google it. I’ll wait. This quote has variously been attributed to Stephen King, William Faulkner, and King quoting Faulkner. Whatever. I’m not a big fan of quotes, but this one seems appropriate for the writer’s most odious task: revision.
Writing is like falling in love. At first everything is great: you’re funny; she laughs at all your jokes. There’re sparks and rollercoaster moments and meaningful silences. Then there’s the relationship. There comes the day when she doesn’t laugh; she rolls her eyes instead. Silence is now the warning of the coming storm. That’s when you have to reevaluate: Maybe you’re not as funny as you thought you were? Revision is like that. You are not as funny as you thought you were. So what are you going to do? Throw up your hands and walk away? You? No way! Get back here. Sit down. Get to work. That’s my slightly overworked analogy for the writing process. In the comment box below, come up with one of your own. Use your imagination.
And please make sure you read the other comments so you’re not all coming up with the same one! What’s your metaphor for revision?
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About this blogA blog is an online conversation. This one is for students of writing and is an extension of our face-to-face classroom. Here is where we can continue a discussion started in class, ask questions, and test new ideas. Archives
March 2020
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