I’ve always been a reader. As a child, I didn’t watch TV because we didn’t have a television in my house. I was also kind of an awkward kid, a little shy. So I spent a lot of time immersing myself in imagined worlds and other people’s lives. Today, my reading habit is harder to feed as it competes with multiple social network feeds, Netflix binge watches, and -- of course -- student essays.
There’re different kinds of reading: for pleasure, for information, for understanding. For a grade. In a typical English class, we’re asked to read a text and come away with an understanding of that work’s theme or its place in the literary canon. In the words of the poet Billy Collins, we “tie the poem to a chair with rope / and torture a confession out of it.” Figuring it out is like solving a puzzle. When we read as writers, however, we’re flexing a different muscle. You might never have worked this muscle before so it may be out of shape. In the comment section below, describe this means to you: What does it mean to read as a writer?
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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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