Thlog 1

It’s been an interesting first week of winter quarter especially with two days of Writing 2 with Zack and the rest of the crew. Our very first assignment was the ‘About Me’ blog and to be honest I had no clue what to write about. It looked like a harmless assignment at first but got harder and harder as I typed on. As a stat major, writing has never been my best subject and I never liked writing in general. But for this class and this assignment, I decided to let that way of thinking out of mind. I wrote what came to mind and found out how easily it was to finish the assignment. As I’m writing this, one reading that comes to mind is Elbow’s article on first and second order thinking. To finish my last assignment I used mostly first order thinking or what Elbow describes as, “intuitive and creative,” thinking. It certainly got the job/assignment done. I think it helps to think of writing as finding the right balance between ‘rules’ and ‘fabulousness’ or first order versus second order. From the readings and one week’s worth of classes alone, I have seen the importance of first and second order thinking in my own works.

Also from one week of Writing 2, I have a deeper understanding of the word ‘genre’. One example that made it very clear, were the ransom notes Kerry Dirk described. Each note had the same message but in a different tone that really didn’t fit the situation except for one. All three notes were part of the same genre but all had completely different meanings and interpretations. I’m barely scratching the surface when it comes to the word ‘genre’ but I know by the end of this quarter I will have better idea and beyond. What a week it has been, I look forward to learning more about genre next week.