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Today we will discuss Viggo Mortensen's short discussion of why he likes to write,
and we will come up with some basic rules for worthwhile writing.
So let's begin: I assume we are all here because we want to be. I do not imagine
myself to be someone who can in any way force you to be in this class or to do the
things that are required in the class. Everyone here knows that I will require some
writing from you and that you are still, as Viggo Mortensen puts it, "free to make
up [your] own minds" about whether or not you will want to do it and to do it well
(xxvi). I assume this isn't really an issue for this class; we are here because we,
like Mortensen, "value words" and also like how they "draw pictures and provoke
unexpected emotional reactions" (xxvi).
I suspect, also, that we all secretly intuit that writing is the best way to
think to ourselves because it offers the most proactive way to contend with our
ideas. We all signed up for a class that will allow us to share our writing
with peers and presumably the world. If you are at all like me, you may have had the privilege
of producing writing that seems to be flowing from you without thought or effort. When writing
flows from us, we forget we are thinking and imagine that
the writing is somehow happening all by itself. This is a wonderful feeling and
a much desired accomplishment, but it only comes from sustained practice, exercise, and
engagement with all sorts of things, be they writing, thinking, drawing, surfing the internet,
maintaining web pages, actively watching television shows, or keeping abreast of the news
and of pop culture. Luckily, this class will ask you to become fairly adept at
most of these things, but before we get ahead of ourselves we need to learn how to be honest
with ourselves and with one another about our writing.
Before we can do this, everyone needs to agree to have everyone else's best interest at heart.
This class will ask you to share your writing, and more importantly, to give each
other feedback on each other's writing. It is imperative that we be kind and
constructive in our comments to one another. I am most likely preaching to the
choir, and most likely to a choir that is eager to start writing and thinking,
in which case this is probably not your average choir.
So let's get to it. We are here to make the virtual world a richer place
because we are here to detail, decorate, and describe the real world with
language that is all our own and that will communicate to someone exactly
what we are seeing, thinking, and feeling. More specifically, we are here
to produce weblogs
that will hopefully make some kind of impact. You will learn something about essay
writing that will allow you to enter the virtual and real world as the
confident writers and thinkers you know you can be.
As all good writing must, we will begin with grammar and punctuation.
Why is grammar important?
Grammar is how the world knows whether or not you know anything. Many of us can
write, but some of us actually know what we are doing when we write. Writing
grammatically suggests that we have put time and effort into the thing we are
writing and that people should accordingly take us seriously. Also, you will
inevitably be asked to write something for someone who can hold a salary over
your head, or a grade, or a parking ticket, or general interest (as in the case
of the weblogs), and you are going to want to seem intelligent to hold your own
in the situation.
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Trust me; it is in your best interest to take stake in your
ability to write grammatically.
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