So, I'm sensing a trend here on the blog.
When I sat down to write yesterday's post, I didn't intend
for it to be another post about the dark history here. It was going to be
about our walk down Steingasse and then our walk around Kapuzinerberg.
Then, I started writing and that's what I came up with.
As an English major in college, the number of essays I had
to write was seemingly endless, and although I tried my best to plan out what I
wanted to prove to the reader, sometimes I would get stuck. Like in this
essay prompt for my pre-17th century British literature class:
5. How is our understanding of Ferdinand’s murderousness and
madness with regard to his sister colored by our understanding that they were
born twins? In what ways are they metaphoric twins? How does thinking about
this issue color your overall understanding of the psychological issues that
shape the tragedy?
As you can see, this was the fifth prompt. I
could choose it or I could let some of my classmates tackle it
instead.
But, the most beautiful choice came in the directions before
the list of essay topics:
"Choose one of the following topics or devise one of
your own."
Sadly, I didn't devise my own topic for this particular
assignment and I wrote about the difference between praise and flattery in Ben
Jonson's poetry.
.
.
.
My thoughts exactly.
Then, student teaching happened and I gave students choices
in what they could write about, and knowing that I had the power to free
students from topics they weren't inspired by inspired me to devise my own
topics when I returned to college for my last semester before graduation.
And, academically, it was my best semester.
We write better when we like what we're writing
about.
We write better when we don't force it.
We write better when we start writing and then try to mold
what we have into coherent, grammatically correct, and organized ideas.
Despite your good intentions, what you really want to say
will come out in the end.
So let it.
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