Discursive

Writing is a form of communication. Scholarly works, essays, e-mails, text messages, 3rd grade notes in class...they are all forms of communication. While reading ch.7 in Keith Hjortshoj's "The Transition to College Writing" within the first few pages millions of ideas flooded my mind. A couple of weeks ago in class we discussed why teachers assign essays and other such writings. My own response was that since it had always been done, naturally the cycle would continue, but also because when language first began and all things were new people did not have technology so they used what they had. This led my argument to communication as well. People wrote notes and letters and essays and books because they could not call their peers or friends on the phone and relay the information. I also said how it allowed information to be dispersed between generations. How writing in the past enables today's world to read the ideas of Freud or Nietzsche or Shakespeare or anyone else. On pg 139 of his book Hjortshoj writes how, "The great power of writing includes the freedom to converse with readers in the future and, as a reader yourself, with other writers in the past, including those who are no longer alive. Instantly, I felt like such a genius! When I first stated my point in class I felt as if people heard my and understood what I was saying but thought I was going too far with the question. In reality what I said made total sense. Writing does allow us to transcend time and space in a way. Things I post on this blog obviously cannot be read in the past but future generations maybe 200 years from now may find this post. And even when I write a paper describing Richard II's histrionics in Shakespeare's Richard II Shakespeare himself will never read it, but I am in a sense discussing his play with him. Writing is a very personal activity but once it is shared it becomes a means through which communication is created.