DA RULZ

Writing is a form of communication. Sometimes we write to communicate with ourselves. Sometimes we write to communicate with others.

In this class, we can do both. The nice thing about receiving feedback from others is that we can see how our words resonate with others. We can learn from people's reactions, incorporate their ideas, etc. The not-so-nice thing is that sometimes, very rarely, feedback might not be constructive and turn into a personal attack. Yuck.

We need to come up with some guidelines for how to give and receive feedback.


Please answer the following questions in the COMMENTS section:

1. What are good ways to give feedback?
2. What do we NOT want to do in terms of feedback?
3. What are good ways to accept feedback?
4. What do we NOT want to do when looking at feedback from our peers?

LIGHTNING. BUGS.

Imagine that you have a friend who really wants to be a writer. He carries books about writing with him everywhere. He eats what he thinks writers eat, he reads what he thinks writers read, and he goes to hear writers speak about their work whenever he gets a chance. Will he become a writer?

Never.

Unless he actually does the activity of writing.

Writers WRITE. They are willing to put words on a page to see whether they sound good together.

Writers make mistakes. Sometimes they fail to achieve what they set out to do. But they don't care. Because the whole time they are writing, they know that what they are writing can easily be changed. So, no worries, right?

Writers RE-VISE. The beautiful thing about the written word is that it is so easy to change those words until you love the music of them. Remember Twain: "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug." Powerful phrase! But catching lightning bugs is sort of fun, so enjoy the process of catching them until you feel the lightning cause your spine to tingle.

YOUR TASKS:

1. You will post a minimum of one piece per week on this site. When you do that, you will have to act as an administrator of the blog and sign in. Put your name at the bottom of the piece.
2. You will also be required to comment on three people's pieces per week. When you do that, you will NOT sign in as an administrator. You will just read the piece and post a comment.
3. Go catch some bugs...and don't be surprised if you feel some electric shocks.