Thanks to the COM352 students for contributing a bunch of new pages! I'll be moving these pages into the main area of the wiki soon.

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[edit] Response to "The Poems Came Late"

So far, English 112 has been classes full of confusion and chaos. There are always questions about the wiki, unusually personal assignments, and vague directions. It has not been a rare occurrence for almost the entire class to leave Goodell not knowing a single thing that took place over the past hour and fifteen minutes. I’m sure I’m not the only one that has also sat down in order to attempt English homework after class and not had a single idea about what Steph is even looking for or how to go about the following assignment.

At the same time Steph has led a class of laughter and respect of each other and our writing. We’re forced into discussions and ideas that are not typical to a classic writing course. We are also given an amount of freedom in our speech that is not typical to a normal class.

As each class passes, certain themes are really beginning to make sense. The idea of identity is a main concept in the class. Who are you speaking to in your writing? Why? What is your position, argument, and identity? These are all questions that I have never even considered before entering this class.

The article, “The Poems Came Late” by David Wallace has the similar idea of personal identity in writing. Let’s try to find his position, argument and identity…

Identity: a gay man, intelligent, self-conscious, teacher, religious, white, changed, open, honest

Argument: Literacy is not always about perfect grammar, spelling and run-on sentences, but about using your true voice and true identity. You’ll never completely be literate unless you can speak about your own personal experiences and habits. This is where you find your true voice.

Position: The author is bias because he categorizes himself as one of the “others”. He displays an attitude of being discontent with the acceptance of gays, lesbians, transgender, etc. as well as the system of high education. At the same time he doesn’t bash education because he values teaching people about how to become truly literate.

This article matches the arguments Steph makes in class about becoming a writer. Through all of the drafts of our recent paper due, she forces us to try and pry out deep parts of our identity and character that we are normally reluctant to display in a classroom. Most of the class gets frustrated because we’ve never been asked to perform such a task. It becomes apparent through this article and reflections of past lectures that Steph is trying to break the class of writing only what the teacher, or specific audience wants to hear. The wiki is a good example of this. Although it is frustrating and confusing, is forces us to honestly dissect and look at each other’s work. This both allows us to better understand individuals in our class by their writing, as well as be more aware of what we are writing and who may read it. Nobody in the class wants their identity or character to be misinterpreted due to their writing in the wiki. Again, I think the whole class is in agreement that when it is known that a piece of writing will be posted on the wiki, they are more aware of what they are writing.

This article also makes sense of Steph’s position as a writer herself. When we first read through the wiki on one of the first days of class there were many free writes and essays written by Steph. These essays were personal and displayed a strong sense of her dynamic personality.

Another important part of the article that I found was that the author stresses how important it was that he shared the fact that he was gay, in order to help open the class up to sharing facts about themselves they would never normally share. The fact the Steph picked this article over any other article explaining the importance of self identity through writing says something. First of all, as I mentioned, it directly correlates to lessons Steph has been trying to teach the class about developing personal identity, argument and position throughout any piece of writing. Also, it could imply that Steph considers herself as one of the “others”. Whether it is lesbian, transgender or any other characteristic not always excepted by present day society. By choosing this article Steph could be exposing a part of herself to the class in order for the rest of us to open up in our future writing.

MarieKate 00:19, 10 October 2006 (EDT)