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I have really been enjoying this course; I love how free and open our conversations are, and how Anne does not facilitate them in a "traditional" way. We just let our thoughts carry the conversation, and we are not constricted to as ridged a structure as I usually am in my courses. One thing that I am struggling with is writing a paper in a voice that is not as formal and directed as I have been writing. My high school was very strict about format and paper tone, so it will take me some time to get used to transitioning into a less formal writing style.
My one criticism is about posting papers online as we do. I really hate having to read comments that are not right next to what they are talking about. This way I have to read comments that are at the end of my paper, break up the comments into the pieces that correspond to my ideas, and then go back through my paper to search for those. I don't have a problem with comments about my paper being available for everyone to see, I just find it easier to understand and relate comments when they correlate more closely to my actual writing.
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Comments
rachelr, I totally know how
rachelr, I totally know how you feel about writing less formally. My high school gave us a style sheet during our freshman year for writing papers, and we were expected to follow it to the letter in everything we wrote throughout all four years. It's so difficult for me to even use the first person in papers (we were never allowed to), let alone write in a less formal style, which is why posting random thoughts for each week of class is so new to me. I'm trying to use this class, however, to ease into writing that way.
rachelr and molly, i see
rachelr and molly, i see your point of view, but maybe it isnt the manner in which our schools have structured us but how we've structured ourselves? i did the ib in high school and before that was in a rigid system of education, but the moment i was given a chance to express myself and the freedom to do so in a casual manner, everything that i had learnt fell apart, because this seemed more natural, easier than everything i had been doing.
what im saying is, dont think of yourself as trained or hard-wired, because if you give yourself a chance, you might be able to move past what youve learnt.
less formal
aybala50 says: "Molly and rachelr don't you think that writing less formal papers is a refreshing feeling? Personally, I love that I can use 'I' in my papers, or that I can put in videos and pictures. I love that we are less formal, because I feel like I can more freely express my feelings without thinking about the fact that only one teacher will be reading my paper. Rather, whoever wants to can read this and as I said earlier when the audience is larger there may be less self-editing?"
Class so Far
I agree with the first part of what rachelr said about the class. I absolutely love the freedom we are given. In every other class I've taken I've felt like there was a wall built around us by the professor or the syllabus. It has been a great experience to have a syllabus that wasn't a set and a professor that let us explore as we wish.
In my opinion posting our papers online hasn't been a problem for me at all. Even receiving the comments at the end of the paper has been refreshing for me. While usually, I pause reading my paper to read some illegible comment in the margin, it has been nice to be able to read through my whole paper without pausing. I also like that I am not writing for a single person, but rather for whoever out there wanting to read it. I feel like if anything this is making me a better writer or at least one that focuses on a larger audience rather than one.
In class we talked about self-editing because of the audience we are writing for. It seems to me, however, that the larger the audience the less self-editing that occurs. If I were only writing for one person, then I would focus my energies to please that person with my writing. When I don't know who the audience is maybe more of what I am is coming out...
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