Just Write Already!!!

In Chapter, 6 Lindemann taps into the consciousness of the writer, and to this point I was very much interested in the chapter I know for myself I tend to always write creatively first. I have been one of those students who chooses to be really crafty with my prose, but then when it comes to academic writing I seem to fall short. Teaching academic writing I am sure will be just as difficult, as learning it. Since I do think creatively first, I found myself being more and more interested in Lindemann’s assumptions. Why do I begin my essays with some kind of rhythm prose? How often do I read my essays and wonder if I am writing a poem or an essay on the marginalization of a particular piece. When Lindemann writes “Who we are, determines how we see. And who we are, in turn depends on how we have been socialized (90)…I had to highlight these sentences. They actually spoke to the very core, as to how I see myself as a writer. I am creative so my voice does have the capacity of being both. Finding a way to pull them off, so that they live harmoniously is the true task. As not to offend we straddle the fence when it comes to “safe writing” vs. good writing”


Often times our authentic voices (If we have found them yet) are required to be silenced. We are taught to write so abstractly that soon we are drowning in a puddle of words. These words are not new spins on old ideas. They are just old ideas. The literary theory that we ask our students to produce is void of personality. While many would argue that personality, i.e. authentic voice is not necessary for academic writing. I think it might not be necessary, but does make for better reading. Its intuitive and honest, and that honesty I feel we see in creative writing, but not in the academic. When we ask students to be creative with their assignments we are pushing them towards a discovery that can only help them in the future to finding a distinct writing personality. .”If our assignments tap subjects, purposes, and audiences familiar to students their writing can be quite powerful.” (94)