Not that following the rules are wrong, but often we take those rules too seriously to the point where we forget that writing should be a joyful exploration that interest us all the time.
Though I am a person who loves to write journals, I often panic and feel out of control when writing an essay. A great comfort came when Murray says that “the writer's ignorance is essential” (pg 3.) And he goes on explain a craft(an imperfect one) allows writers to discover what they didn’t know they knew and how this unknowing could develop an effective writing. He then says""
I think rather say Murray is telling us to break the rules, he is more telling us to be “free” from the rules. As an international student, writing in English always comes with a great fear. Countless time I had let my great ideas slip away by trying to figure out the grammar and the spelling. At the end I might write an essay with grammatically perfect but mean nothing to me. After all, those formulas and grammar could be revised, but our ideas might not come back to us. I think what Murray tried to encourage us is that, writing imperfectly is way better than too afraid to start writing.
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This is a great perspective! Yes, you need to write your thoughts first. The fine-tuning and the re-structuring should come later. We'll talk about drafting and re-drafting, which is key to the process.
ReplyDeleteI can be too focused on proper grammar use at the beginning of a paper as well. I find that it steals away your ideas and becomes a waste of time. At the end of my paper I change so much anyway, that I know I shouldn't bother with making it perfect all the way through. I think this is an important point you bring up, because it can save you a lot of time and help you to remain "free" in your writing if you wait to do the editing till later on. I am not sure when... but Dr. Kevin says we will learn about it. Hurray!
ReplyDeleteI highly agree with Jessica's idea about free writing. I think Murray is trying to tell audience that writing is not limited in a cage. A good writer could not only drive those rules properly, but also knows how to break the rules.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about free writing. He says that we should try to forget the rules more because we are often scared of them, not because they are a totally bad thing.
ReplyDeleteYES! I agree that you do need to take rules seriously but you also need to have JOY when writing. For me personally i do find that i start out with good intentions to write with a positive attitude, but honestly, my joy turns into anger quite quickly. Perhaps this is because lately i have had to write essays, instead of poetry. WOOT!
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