Sunday, October 19, 2014
Blog # 7
One of Murray's reasons that resonated most with me was the one that said, "To give myself a voice. I am heard when I write; I vote in the human community, registering my opinions, what I stand for, what I fear, what I stand against, what I celebrate." With many voices comes many different ideas and beliefs. In society, many voices can go unheard and the dominant voices can seem to always overshadow the rest. But when writing, there are no other voices being heard other than yours. You are the one writing, not your friend or anyone else, but you. This reason made not only made sense to me, but I never really thought about writing in that type of manner. Writing is a way to get your point across and you voice heard. This is so powerful for society. Most people write to get an A and essentially to just please the teacher. But if you take time to write for you and your ideas and beliefs, writing becomes so much more powerful. Everyones' opinions are important and should be heard. Just because of this reason by itself, writing should be considered a powerful tool for society and the voice of the individual.
One struggle for me has always been the Closing. Conclusions are at the end of a paper and usually are the last to be written. Because of this, I usually did not put much time into my closings and would merely restate my thesis and introduction. But Murray's point of inviting "readers to do their own thinking, inspired by the voyage of meaning writer and reader have just shared," is an interesting view of how a closing should be written. I just assumed conclusions were there for the reader to remind them what they just read and what they should have gotten out of that paper. Instead of doing this, we should allow the reader to do his/her own thinking. Closings are the last words the reader is going to read, making the closing important in an essay. In future essays, I plan on taking more time on my closings and aiming for that goal of inviting "the readers to do their own thinking."
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I also think that the advice of giving yourself a voice is very good and important. I really like how you explain what you think about it. I also agree with the fact that writing puts everybody at the same level: nobody can have a stronger voice than anyone else while writing. Everybody counts as one. And the hint about the conclusion is a good one to put in your bag. I personally had never thought of letting "the readers do their own thinking". I have always done my conclusions in the same way as you did yours; just restating the big lines of the paper.
ReplyDeleteI chose this same argument. There are too many times when people, especially of our age, are pushed aside or down by those who do not care for our own. This class allows us to write our opinions and feelings of the world and not be graded by how we think. I think this basis allows our writing to improve: we choose to write how we want, and so our writing becomes more passionate. We are not forced to write about subjects we are not interested in, or for others' satisfaction; we can simply use our power and opinions in the world and allow others to join us.
ReplyDeleteWow. I also never really though of writing like that. It make sense however. You are the one writing the paper, so therefore the only voice and opinion is yours. That is pretty powerful. I too also struggle with the closing. When I'm finishing up a paper I can never seem to come up with anything else creative, so my closing is often flat and boring.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog because I have never though about writing in that way. I feel like too many times peoples opinions and ideas aren't heard because they are either too shy to express it or not loud enough. I, too, have trouble with the conclusion. For me, its hard to restate what I have already talked about in a different way that is still fresh and new.
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