I Won T Use Writing As A Punishment?

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Short Assignment #4 The writing process is always taught as a set way of doing things when, in fact, it is a process that requires personal methods that work for each individual person. It is a necessary lesson to teach in school but there should not be so much emphasis on following the exact way that is taught. It is a contrived process that was probably created by a group of scholars who didn’t even follow these exact rules. If anything, they all did variations of the ideas and then met in the middle with what should be taught. I am in no way saying that the guidelines are wrong but they need to be exactly that, guidelines, instead of a rut that students get stuck in. When writing the simple 500+ word “Short Assignment 4”, an English 1010 …show more content…

In the book, “Essays on Writing”, Roy Peter Clarke writes an appropriately titled article, “I Won’t Use Writing As A Punishment, I Won’t…” (pg 3). In it, he describes the wrongful assignment of writing that students are required to do as punishment for their actions. I agree with Clarke that this is a terrible practice and teaches kids to hate writing but he doesn’t mention the reason that this is used as a punishment in the first place. It is a cycle of disgust towards the entire idea of writing that begins with students being forced to write under strict rules with the threat of their grades (and in turn, their futures) on the line. This causes them to hate the idea of writing from an early age. Then, since students don’t like writing from based on this reason, teachers believed that it was a good form of punishment. So, instead of redeeming the positivity of writing, teachers just threw it under the bus and are using it as a lesson, however, the only lesson being learned is that writing …show more content…

Do I listen to my teachers and follow their rules or do I totally disregard everything that is being shoved down my throat by the government and come up with my own writing process? Alright, it’s not that tough of a decision. Of course I’m going to do what works best for me and come up with my own way. After all, many successful authors do things in order to write well that teachers wouldn’t even think of teaching. In Susan Wyche’s article (included in Essays on Writing), She states that, “Famous writers have been known to do a lot of crazy things to help them write” and then goes on to list famous authors and their rituals before writing (pg 52). Now, I think that what some authors do, like lying on coffins, is a bit excessive and I’m not too sure how that helps them write but I do think that everyone is different and requires different settings and stimuli to help the creative process. For me, I need music that I know well. If I am listening to a song that I know every beat to, I can write through the entire song without taking a break. This idea is one of many that teachers have always tried to suppress saying that we can’t have distractions and not allowing us to listen to music in class even when we are doing individualized

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