Wednesday, February 7, 2007

"academic" writing

The images from my last post really show my experiences in writing, especially my college years. The image that probably needs the most explanation is the photo of the police. My reasoning behind that is "academic" writing tends to be so structured and forced that it sometimes feels like if you stray from what is expected to any degree, the police will chase you down with their riot gear and dogs. In my experiences, little to no creativity is involved and the entire writing process is something that drags along and I want to put it off as long as possible.

I think incorporating more new media writing would take away the bland, boring nature that writing has come to be for most college students. I believe a lot of students would initially feel a little nervous, but once they became familiar with what new media writing would consist of, I believe the change would be welcomed. Learning a new style of creating a "paper" would be very rewarding and much more exciting and I think a more modern form of writing classes would create a higher interest level in writing classes. I have avoided a lot of classes that I know are writing intensive but if there was something unfamiliar or exciting to get out of one of those classes there would have been a much greater chance that I would take it.

I think for a lot of smaller colleges and universities, funding and availability could be an issue. For most larger colleges though, I think everything needed would be readily supplied in order for students to learn the basics of using the programs and equipment to create a new media project for a writing class.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Funding is definitely an important issue, one we even see at UW and in this class (c.f. moving from room to room to room in order to have access to the tech and software we need that day). And, as we discussed in class, funding in the public schools makes a huge difference in whether students encounter new media literacies. Perhaps this is where more traditional conceptions of rhetoric come in: schools at all levels need informed and persuasive advocates bringing these issues to the powers that be.