Connecting the dots
The themes from all my posts are essentially writing about the organizations (I realize that it's the title of the class but for lack of a better term) and communities that I am a part of. To be a little more specific I talked about the fraternity that I was in or the group presentation project I did , which are all based around a common academic setting of some sort. I guess this makes our posts a little personal to who we are as a person and give some insight to what kind of person and interests that we may have. Another example may be that transaction costs and the Illinibucks are somewhat similar as they're not actual monetary costs, but still have to do with how we interact with business and other organizations.
I think my process for writing these posts have evolved quite a bit. I think I was quite unsure of what I wanted to write and how exactly I was going to write. Now that I think that I am a little more confident in my writing capabilities so I am not of afraid of saying what is coming to my mind rather than simply giving vague and uninteresting responses to the prompts. I realized I didn't write anything too meaningful in my earlier posts as opposed to my later posts, where I try to engage with the course material more in my writing. I also found myself trying to reach a good word count to end at it, but I noticed that when I stopped caring about that and let myself just write that I would often reach a nice and sizable blog post.
I would like to however, see myself dig a little deeper into analyzing what I am saying. I notice that I tend to jump from subject to subject, often never really fully exploring any of the topics I mention. I do want to modify that so I can go into a deeper analysis of what I am writing about so it makes much more clearer to anyone that reads my posts. I often lose interest in a particular topic quite fast, but I know that I need to expand on it so it doesn't look like I am jumping all over the place across my blog posts. I believe that a proper focus is the key that will make my writing better in that regard.
If I were to a write a prompt, I think I would want to see something a little more engaging and maybe a bit more relevant to today's society and climate. If that is being unspecific I guess an example would be to take a look at what's maybe going in in our government or the United Nations and trying to relate it to our course topics. I think this could possibly elicit in maybe more thoughtful responses to the prompts by other students. For example if we were to analyze how teamwork works and the way that it is structured within a climate change committee in say the UN, that would pose a little more intriguing to respond to. That is not to say that I do not enjoy writing about these topics but this is just to give new and interesting ideas to potentially discuss. I guess being too political could pose as a problem but if it was done with certain guidelines I think it could certainly be feasible.
I guess in a sense, to move forward for my future blog posts, I will be a bit more attentive to what I am writing and editing the posts better. I want it to be easier to follow while also offering a wide breadth in my analyzation skills to relate the course themes to my personal experiences and crafting a better writing piece.
You seem not to have made the post on Illinibucks and went to the post for next Friday. If you get the Illinibucks post done today, I'll still count it.
ReplyDeleteI'm unclear on whether you modified this post since or not. I did see another post mentioned in my reader, but then it seems that other one was deleted.
ReplyDeleteBased on your goals about sticking with an idea and exploring it further, I wonder how much time you spend before getting to your keyboard simply trying to think about arguments you might make in support of the idea. This is called pre-writing at it is very important. I can be done while you do sometimes else that is not demanding - like washing the dishes - so your mind can focus on the idea and you can still be doing necessary, if mundane, tasks. The habit you described about bouncing from one idea to the next suggests to me that your pre-writing has been inadequate. If you have actually done a lot of pre-writing you will then find the composing takes on a different quality. It is no longer so much about inventing what you should say. It become much more about are you telling the story well? That, of course, matters too.
Regarding your suggestions about taking course themes and tying them to contemporary issues, climate change was your example, you can definitely do that in your post. You don't have to write to the prompt. Now let give an aside.
I volunteer in support of a human rights organization in Uganda. It is interesting and quite different from work I've done through the university. Yet I've been reluctant to use it as an example for our course, precisely because I've done it outside my university work, so it doesn't carry that sanction. I might use it to illustrate a more general idea about volunteer work and volunteer organizations - you do it as an act of conscience to balance out what you do to provide food on the table for your family - but otherwise it is uncomfortable for me to bring it into class as an example.
I don't have direct participation in groups devoted to halting the ill effects of climate change. If you do, if you feel passionate about it, and if you can tie it into course themes, then by all means write about it. Put a different way, the responsibility for doing this should be mainly on you. Coming up with suitable prompts is a time consuming thing and the truth is I rely on prompts from previous offerings of the course to keep my work burden reasonable. Your incentives are different. You can make the course work for you, if you'd like. But to do so you must absorb some responsibility in the process. The burden should be yours.
I think you're right. I don't really prewrite and get stuck a lot. I need to carefully think about the arguments I want to make so that I can make my ideas look much better If I want to craft a better narrative, I have to plan it all out.
DeleteIf I can tie the topics that I want to do directly with courses themes, then I will try and attempt to write about it one of the times in the future.