Wordsmithery
We had our second 'workshop' Journalism class yesterday. This was moderately more interesting than last time, although I'd rather have Steve's input than anyone else. Still, returning to my English class yesterday afternoon, I was thinking about the nature of wordsmithing - my father always called me a wordsmith, but actually I think the academic track is less about writing as a craft and more as vehicle. There's something strange about the assumption in the English department (in my experience) that one is writing well by definition. There's very little discussion about the craft of writing, but rather the argument, and the content of one's writing. I know I take great care over my diction and syntax in my papers - and I'm sure I'm not alone, but there's this feeling that you write well as an inherent talent - drafting and editing are a process by which the innate skill floats to the surface. It was refreshing to hear Steve talk yesterday about writing as a strategy, a skill that can be a)l earnt, and b) improved upon. It's certainly not a talent that can be accessed in media res without potential development.
And with that, I'll move to my paper for Gravity - "This Book Weighs Heavily on Me: A Manifesto for a Principia of Literary Study".
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