Monday, September 29, 2014

Hot Coffee ;)

1) When I entered college, I definitely thought that as an English Writing major, I would be learning the rules to follow as a writer. I would say my opinion on this idea has changed greatly. Now, I am not saying that there are types of writing that don't have rules. For instance, if I am writing a grant, or writing a technical instructions manual, there are guidelines that I should probably follow if I want to end up with an effective piece. However, in all reality, that is exactly what I am learning as a writing student; how to write effectively. For most of what I write, this means that, for the most part, I won't have to follow "rules" per say. Instead, what I write will have more of an aim of effectiveness via wording, style, composition, delivery method, and of course, my use of rhetoric. Now, when I see "rules" set out for writing, I want to break them just to prove that I can be effective AND a bad-ass rule breaker.

2) Personal opinion IS writing. Writing cannot exist WITHOUT personal opinion. Personal opinion cannot be separated from anything that comes from a human source, which on this world, is everything. If I write an instruction manual for say, "How To Make a Grilled Cheese Sandwich,"(boring, yes) it is my personal opinion that you should turn on the stove at some point if you want the cheese to melt. It is my personal opinion that your main ingredients are going to be butter, bread, and cheese. It would be incredible to imagine a type of writing that did not include personal opinion, but I also think that it would be impossible... But I guess that's just my personal opinion... *pause for audience to laugh for at LEAST 5 minutes* No laughs? mmkay moving on.

3) I'm not sure if I can actually answer this last question, because according to my last answer, everything is personal opinion. Therefore, any place or scene of writing associates with personal opinion for me... So I'm not going to answer it... Instead, in honor of national coffee day, I'm going to leave you with this
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2 comments:

  1. UnknownSeptember 30, 2014 at 2:44 PM

    I came into the writing major with similar feelings. I assumed there would be a large focus on rules. I came to realize that the more we write, the less we have to focus on rules. The rules do not seem to be as big or frightening—they almost disappear. Sometimes the rules are broken in our writing but the other aspects of writing seem to push them aside (if that makes any sense).

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  2. UnknownOctober 1, 2014 at 1:59 PM

    I wrote pretty much everything that you wrote in response to these questions. Funny. I love breaking the "rules" of writing for rhetorical affect as well. I emphasized how opinion and writing are intertwined by default and cannot be untangled. I've recently been thinking about how this is tied to epistemology. If all humans can do is give opinion, and opinion is not fact, then do we ever really know anything? Just something I've been tossing around.

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