Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Week 4

I remember sitting in year 8 English class where we were taught the "correct" structure of how an essay should pan out, what to write, what not to write and the difference between an A+essay and a B. From the introduction, the body and the conclusion, topic sentences and the use of relevant quotes and how to analyse these quotes within the essay, there wasn't much left for the mind to wander. So when Game and Metcalfe(1996, p.87) say "most forms  of academic writing repress any notion of dreaming,"  you can guess that I relate just a bit. Like putting boundaries on the imagination, dreaming or art, putting boundaries and giving rules in regards to the way in which somebody should write, inevitably detracts (atleast in my case) from the enjoyment one gets out of an activity which incorporates all of these things.

Game and Metcalfe make a point that writing helps to develops one's ideas, "thinking with then pen" they call it (p.95). In the debate team in highschool, I'd often have to argue topic which I either didn't agree with, or hadn't really thought about. Through configuring an argument I would sometimes find myself believing the argument I had written, sometimes changing my opinion on the topic and at the very least challenging my prior attitudes and beliefs. It is through writing that people can challenge and develop their own ideas.  

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Game, A.  & Metcalfe, A.  , 1996, Writing in Passionate Sociology, Sage, London, pp 87-105

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