Additions to my writing philosophy

This class has helped me think, practice and reflect on the art of writing and my role as a writer/writing instructor. After rereading my first attempt at a writing philosophy, I realize I still agree with some of the ideas I presented in September, but that because of this writing course, my philosophy has evolved.

One important piece that I left out of my first draft was the simple fact that the only way we improve our writing is to write. We need constant and consistent writing practice in order to improve. This means that relying on worksheets to practice grammar, usage, mechanics and style should not be a constant classroom routine - meaningful writing instruction asks writers to analyze and revise their own work, not a textbook model.

Another feature of writing that I didn't consider in September is the importance of an audience for one's writing. Student and adult writers write to express their thoughts and feelings. This should not remain a solitary act. Including an audience for one's writing is an essential aspect of the writing experience.

Finally and more conclusively, after this course I came to realize how important it is to thoughtfully design writing curriculum on the school level. Too often teachers repeat lessons from grade to grade and lead students through units heavy in textbook practice and light on individual writing practice. These inconsistencies in curriculum set students years back in their writing development. In order to strengthen student writing, we need to ensure that the school's approach to writing instruction is based in research and meaningfully implemented.

Writing with and for an audience

It's funny that this reflection is about writing with and for an audience because my scholarly project topic was on writing for an authentic audience. After reviewing my research and reflecting on the project, I began to feel that all writing should have the opportunity to be shared with an authentic audience. Blogging this semester allowed me to explore my perspective on writing with and for audience and personally, I think writing with the awareness of your audience and having the weekly feedback from my think tank is a valuable experience. This process also inspired me to reflect on my experiences with writing for/with an audience online.

Writing for a select audience on the internet has been a practice of my for the last 15 years. Prior to the advent of blogs, during my high school days in the late 90s, a group of friends and I started to share our thoughts on an email group we called the "hello there" list. ("hello there" was always the subject line) It was just a list of 30-50 people (depending on the year) that we "replied all" to constantly. We discussed school drama, our home lives, music, TV... you name it. I remember how exciting it was to read through my email at the end of the weekend and see that I had 35 messages. A friend of mine still has all of the "hello there" emails saved in a file. I wonder if there's evidence of digitalk on those... I bet the beginning of digital language is there. I know most of us chose not use any capital letters when sharing those emails.

After "hello there" began to dissolve as most of us went to college, I began to keep a livejournal. This was a blogging site that allowed writers to "friend" other writers and to see all of their livejournal posts on a "friends" page. I kept my livejournal page up until the fateful day when I signed up for facebook. :)

Because of my experience with writing for/with an audience online has spanned over 15 years, I some times wonder where I fall on the continuum of digital native/immigrant. I'm comfortable writing in public forms and have been posting my thoughts online for years, but I did adapt to this practice as a young adult. I was not working online when I was 10... does that make me a digital immigrant? I'm grateful I didn't post my 7th grade thoughts online, but if I was in the 7th grade now, I wouldn't have that choice. Is that what makes me a digital immigrant, the fact that I still consider my online filter? My enthusiasm to share online is accompanied by a hint of caution and concern for my future reputation. I'm very interested in the experience of writing digitally and how it continues to evolve. This blogged helped me explore that topic and many more throughout the semester. :)

Reflection

This course has helped me meaningfully reflect on the way I approach the teaching of writing. Overall, my three take-aways at this point of the class is that the only way you get better at writing is to write, that when assessing writing mechanics less is more and that the act of composing includes more than just typing. All of the reflections I mentioned also apply to the forum of digital writing. Although students may use "digitalk" when they write in online formats, they are still getting writing practice. It's so important to encourage students to explore various forms of self- expression and collaboration. Discouraging students from writing online would be doing everyone a disservice. However, I do believe that students need to pay attention to audience as they're writing- this allows students to naturally code switch and to remind students that writing is a social act. I'm also considering using the word "composing" more often. When we discussed multimodal writing, I realized that I believe multimodal composition can include images, videos and other digital elements. At the start of the class I began to think that writing was more complex than I realized, but now my view of writing is actually more simplistic. Writing is a social act and the act of composition is a form of self expression that should be supported in the classroom, online and everywhere inbetween.

In the next three weeks I hope to complete my scholarly project, update my annotated bibliography, make sure I'm up to date on all of my Learning Log posts and comments, complete my last Sociolinguistics reflection, complete my comprehension presentation and paper, submit IRB for my research apprenticeship... and a partridge in a pear tree... oops, that reminds me... I reeeeealllly need to go shopping as soon as possible!