Welcome again! You might want to read the earlier welcome I wrote for last year's students. What I have said there still stands for this class. What is presented today is new for this year.
Yes, I have been reading, but these are some things new for me. The first involves an extended essay, How Reading Changed My Life by Anna Quindlen that began with a quote written by Thoreau, someone you will learn to love or hate this year: "How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book. The book exists for us perchance which will explain our miracles and reveal new ones" (Quindlen 1). Think about what she means here. Why read? Because it is true that the more you read, the better you write. Your reading actually trickles down into your writing.
The second book I'm currently reading is Long Quiet Highway: Waking Up in America. While this book can be classified as a memoir, Ms. Goldberg also talks about the process of writing, not in the sense of analysis or the type of writing you'll be doing next year to an extent, but rather it talks about the process of writing and what it entails. For instance, she begins the book connecting writing to annual actions "of an order of Buddhist monks in Japan whose practice is running. They are called the marathon monks of Mount Hiel" (Goldberg ix). Their annual run is likened to the process of writing, an ongoing process through many revisions. Thoreau is known to have revised Walden at least 10 times.
Such is your introduction to this course. Some of you may read this over the summer, some may not. Hopefully you are reading this summer. If you have any comments about any of it or just the process of reading the suggested texts, feel free to leave a comment. I will respond.
Yes, I have been reading, but these are some things new for me. The first involves an extended essay, How Reading Changed My Life by Anna Quindlen that began with a quote written by Thoreau, someone you will learn to love or hate this year: "How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book. The book exists for us perchance which will explain our miracles and reveal new ones" (Quindlen 1). Think about what she means here. Why read? Because it is true that the more you read, the better you write. Your reading actually trickles down into your writing.
The second book I'm currently reading is Long Quiet Highway: Waking Up in America. While this book can be classified as a memoir, Ms. Goldberg also talks about the process of writing, not in the sense of analysis or the type of writing you'll be doing next year to an extent, but rather it talks about the process of writing and what it entails. For instance, she begins the book connecting writing to annual actions "of an order of Buddhist monks in Japan whose practice is running. They are called the marathon monks of Mount Hiel" (Goldberg ix). Their annual run is likened to the process of writing, an ongoing process through many revisions. Thoreau is known to have revised Walden at least 10 times.
Such is your introduction to this course. Some of you may read this over the summer, some may not. Hopefully you are reading this summer. If you have any comments about any of it or just the process of reading the suggested texts, feel free to leave a comment. I will respond.
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