What is writing? Is there any one definition? I think not! Who is to say that one man's opinion on what it means to be 'writing' is indeed the true definition of writing? I think writing can be expressed on so many different levels that having one definition would take away from its complexity. As in my previous post, writing can be what you want it to be. We start out as children thinking writing is fun, something we do for pleasure when we are drawing or creating imaginative lands and creatures. Then we enter adolescence and high school, and we perceive writing as something laborious, something that we HAVE to do. But as we grow older, we realize that writing is a great way to connect people from various backgrounds and places. writing can be on paper, on the computer, even on a bathroom wall, and all of it is considered writing. However, writing still goes beyond taking a pen or writing utensil and scratching something down on a surface. People can write things on clothes, people can write music, people can draw, and all of it is considered writing. People can even vandalize a wall and it can be considered writing and even art! So writing has endless possibilities, so many that one person could not even begin to name all of them.
In the academic sense, writing has always been '5-10 pages, double spaced, MLA format, arguing a topic in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.' Not to discredit that type of writing, but that type of writing is some of the only writing people do in high school and college. and to think, there is so much more out there with the Internet and various genres of culture.
I think that people would benefit greatly on a cultural and intellectual basis if media was to be brought into the English curriculum earlier on. Many people would be more knowledgeable, and with globalization it would help people create connections with many other people.
However, as I mentioned in a previous post, some underprivileged schools and people might not be able to transition to the new curriculum due to insufficient funds and materials. This might put people at a disadvantage when we think about the big picture.
I think there is still more things to think over about when to implement a new curriculum, but i feel it is imperative to have a up-to-date curriculum sometime in the near future.
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2 comments:
I always felt that the papers we had to write for English in high school were a little pointless because I alway knew I would never have to analyze a piece of literature in whatever career I chose. However, I still think that writing those papers, although tedious and sometimes very boring, is for practice. Although I agree with you that teaching other forms of new media will be of great importance in the near future, I believe that we should continue to teach students how to write those papers because it builds necessary skills required to succeed in using new technology.
I agree that in "academic" writing it is always a 5-10 page paper about some literature. I also think that we need new media because we will most likely not use the standard "academic" writing in our careers. However, I agree with liz in that we still need to tecah this "acdemic" writing because everyone needs these skills. Maybe after a person's first or second year on college we should go beyond this "academic" writing, but at least until then students need to learn those skills.
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