A Love Affair with Words

As an instructor of writing, I have a love affair with words. I regularly shift roles with regard to words, from reader to writer, professor to consumer, and I see tremendous value in teaching my students how to do the same.  Because composition is my discipline – and words are everywhere! – I find myself constantly editing the world around me. I find typos on billboards, hear grammar errors on the radio, and I have to force myself to put away the red pen when I read a novel. I’m not ashamed to admit that the revisionist hat is on even when I read letters from my young children (in these times, I believe wholeheartedly in censorship).

I have a world view that puts rhetoric on the center of the map. Because words and messages are coming at us from all directions, we must be very much in tune with how these words can be used, misused and abused. We must be mindful of the power that words give us and the weaknesses our words expose. We must learn how NOT to be manipulated by other people’s words. If we are ever to distinguish ourselves in society, we must be effective and proper in how we use words. Words must be our ally.

In order to be effective writers, we must hone our skills of observation and analysis and evaluate how others use words, both correctly and incorrectly. I teach this concept by having students read…a lot! We read from a variety of genres, styles, purposes and periods, which gives students a solid foundation of language. I even ask them to imitate accomplished writers sometimes.

Reflection is another meaningful way for students to sharpen their critical and analytical skills; we reflect on what we read, on what we’ve written, and on our experiences beyond the classroom. Through reflection, students can find meaning in everything, often in ways that they otherwise might have missed. Once students have linked meaning with course objectives, then they are invested and motivated to grow. My hope is that my students will fall in love with words as I have, but most of them simply choose to use words in a way that effectively serves their own interests, and that’s ok with me, too.

(Recent) History

I teach English. Not as in English to people who don't speak the language (well, sometimes, but that's a topic for another blog altogether). In fact, I teach English composition, creative writing and literature at a local community college. One of my favorite assignments each semester in my creative writing class is called an Auto-Summarize Me poem. It's based on the MS Word function that condenses an entire document into a digest version. If you've never done this, you should try it. Discovering what the computer deems most important in a document is always humorous. There have been entire dissertations written on this Auto-Summarize function and how it "summarizes" literary classics, such as Dante's Inferno. I digress...

In the Auto-Summarize Me poetry invention, the goal is to take the last few years of our lives and put them into as abbreviated a version as possible, all while still containing some elements of creativity. These poems are expected to be choppy, frenetic.

As any good writing teacher knows, we must write alongside our students. It's considered a practice-what-you-preach pedagogical strategy, but really I think we do it to dispel the myth that "those who can - do, and those who can't - teach" (H.L. Mencken). In any event, in keeping with this strategy, here is my Auto-Summarize Me poem:

(Recent) History

Thirteen months of chocolate-covered divorce.

I find I love theory and can't spell on the iPhone.

My kids love me more (I lie!), 

but I loved them first.

Surprisingly, revenge sometimes tastes like funnel cake.

It's ok sometimes for my friends to flake on me,

but I will pay them back with babysitting requests.

P.S. Found out my divorce was final today...finally!

Not a Harlequin Romance Novel

My life is certainly no romance novel. I am a 36-year old mother of two, and I'm divorced...well, almost. It's been a process. 18 months, so far. My marriage was a disaster, and the addiction, adultery, and general absurdity that led to it were painful; but in the process, I seem to have found a way to make light of it all. In fact, my life isn't all that different from yours. I come from a divorced - but very loving - family, have a college education, am a responsible (though somewhat bitter) taxpaying citizen, and I watch crap on TV...often!

Don't get me wrong; it isn't always sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes, my days feel really dark and I feel like I have to dig out of Alcatraz in order to see some light, but it's always there. Sometimes the light finds me. So long as there is something to giggle about, however insignificant or immature, I am reassured that all will be ok.

I don't intend to be inspirational or motivational (in the traditional sense) by writing this blog. I just want others to squash the old assumption that we either have the fairy tale or we don't. Instead, I think we need to work on our definitions a bit. If life is feeling a little heavy, make light of it.