Sunday, September 5, 2010
Is Writing Going the Way of Reading??
Of course, I'm a dork; that goes without saying, right, since I'm an English teacher. I love words, the sounds of them, the nuances of them. I think that students like a teacher who has a passion for his/her subject matter. They might not like your subject, but they like it that you do! I used to tell my students that I live with the illusion that they think everything I say is exciting and they hang on my every word. They would laugh and I would, too, but I cautioned them not to burst my bubble--side thought: burst--when was that dropped in preference to bust--BUST IS NOT A VERB--Back to writing and reading: good writers are readers; reading broadens the vocabulary; a wide vocabulary leads to clearer, more interesting writing--agree??
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All of the people I know that enjoy writing are avid readers, so for a while I assumed the converse was also true. My wife, however, is a particularly voracious consumer of novels, but has no confidence in her ability to write. She is unquestionably better read than I am, particularly in American literature, but she struggles when it comes time to put her thoughts into words. I think the act of writing favors a certain style of thinking. I've always been interested in the languages of both humans and computers, but her thinking is visually oriented. Writing and music have always been my favorite modes of communication, whereas she gravitates toward painting and photography to express herself. Getting to know her challenged several ideas I had about the way people think and communicate.
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