Positive feelings about writing?

 

It seems to me it is critical thinking and writing together that go to make up good thoughtful writing. The thing about writing is that there are many reasons for writing. In my art school education we were taught how to write a biography for art shows and application forms for funding bids. How to think about a project we wanted to make and write a proposal for it. The writing had a practical purpose and described practical actions.

 

I found abstract theoretical writing harder. At A level, I was very motivated by my studies in theology. Our problem was in the 1980s no internet to look stuff up and no contemporary journals to help our essays. No contemporary writing on theology in the reference library we used to frequent and the dusty old books there written over a thousand years ago some of them. Jerome and Peake. Phew. Now when I think about research I begin with the internet and quickly deep dive into the academic library catalogue at our university for up to date journal articles on education, criticality, and practice based research.

 

I was excited about writing then but my direction was off. My signposting opaque and the sat-nav had not been invented. Part of being excited about writing is for me being able to share my ideas, the things I have seen and read about the subject. Being part of the conversation, actually having something to say. Because in the past I was mute. Unable even to construct a question. I had thoughts of course. My thoughts always seemed to be out of step with what others were saying. Now I realise that having different ideas  is part of dialogue, that we do not all think the same or come from the same place. Each one of us has something to say about this world and our experience of it and in it. Critical thinking and writing gives me confidence to know I have a question and that it isn’t stupid. I hope that is something I can pass on to my students and readers. We can all  be part of the big conversations in life, critical thinking and writing is a way of accessing and articulating our ideas. 



 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Common elements in my negative feelings about writing Oh wow its not often I can go on a moan fest, let it rip, and let it all out. Negative feelings about writing. Doubt – I’m not good enough to do this, I’m not expert enough in the field of academic writing. I had the wrong training in art and design with a bit of academia tacked on the end so I fee unprepared. This critical incident vignette demonstrates the beginning of negativity towards writing. Sitting on the scratchy coconut matting in primary school, in our class we had glass jars of things to count, beads, dog biscuits, ect. Of course, I ate a dog biscuit, it was really dusty and stale. I had decided to be silent that year. In class 4, making me about 7. I had decided that grown-ups were stupid. They asked ridiculous question that I couldn’t answer like “why can’t you tell the time” or “have you got a smile for us love?” “what’s going on in that head of yours?” I decided the best policy was elective mutism. That way I could
Read more
Image
  Belcher, W. L. (2019) Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks, Second Edition: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing), Chicago and London: Chicago University Press. I have just begun reading and thinking about this book. I love a workbook , it has tasks :)  Task 1. What feelings come up when you contemplate writing? Shame, exuberance, brightness, creativity, restriction. Mixed bag really. Shame from failing for so many years at school with writing because of dyslexia. Not really understanding my degree dissertation at Staffordshire Polytechnic, kind of floating through it as if I was in a trance. I think I literally put myself in a trance to avoid the sheer terror of the whole thing, or a perceived terror. Yet the European History module I took during my undergraduate studies I adored. Essays on Fascist Italy and Post-Communist Catholicism in Bella Ruse and Estonia were a dream.  In my BA dissertation, when I think back
Read more
Image
 So excited to see my chapter in print this summer. Publishing work is a long and archaic process, it feels medieval in its venerable qualities.  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Practice-Focused-Research-Further-Vocational-Education/dp/3030389936/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=practice+focused+research&qid=1599745167&s=books&sr=1-1  Chapter 7 :   Developing Critical Thinking and Professional Identity in the Arts Through Story.  By Frances Norton. Extract from Chapter 7 Brown (1998, p. 189) states that the idea of educating students in an atmosphere of equality and joint inquiry could maximise each student’s access to the legacy of the critical traditions might at first appear to be a high risk strategy. He goes further describing critical thinking interventions in education as an invitation to classroom disorder. Positive, creative, fruitful disorder is what I was hoping for when I embarked on this research journey. Close reading of the ideas of Lipman (2003) reveals that he tur
Read more