Excitement About Writing

     One of the things I've been thinking about since last class, considering both our guest speakers and the reading we did for Monday is the need for interest in one's writing. When one of our speakers was talking about writing in general, explaining the process of issuing writing assignments, she mentioned the professorial goal of "finding a way to care about the topic through a writing assignment." I thought this unveiled a truth (or at the very least what should be true in an ideal situation) about writing assignments that we as a class have not yet talked about explicitly. When I think about interest and writing, I often think about things that actually interest me, which usually means it is not a part of a class writing assignment. I have taken classes at U of R that I thought might be a little boring (but the time slot was perfect, or I needed to get the prerequisite out of the way, whatever). I have found that in these classes (Western literature, for example), I became interested in the topic only after I was forced to generate a new idea about the material. This is, of course, through the process of writing. Thus, it is important to be excited about what we write (because what we have to say is original, interesting, proves something new, etc.), but also, writing itself can facilitate excitement and interest in a topic we may have previously considered "boring."
      I plan to keep this in mind this Saturday when we as a class tutor Richmond high school students for their college essays. It is of prime importance that the students care about what they are saying. And if they do not, they can begin by writing (an early draft) and see what interest might come.