The second day brings with it a second chapter of the Writing To Learn book. To be completely fair, I had read about half of this yesterday and have finished it up this morning. To be even more fair, it will be highly probable that I'll read chapter 3 and add more to this post today as well. Let us find out what has been digested this go round, shall we?

Gustavus Adolphus College #

Right out of the gate I learned something. While even the author, Zinsser, did believe that everybody should be able to write - he did literally write the book on the subject - the idea of Writing Across the Curriculum came from the small Midwestern College of Gustavus Adolphus. Or, at least as well as I can tell according to the text. Even at that point in history (jeeze, only 1985) the professors had a need and a want to move the responsibility of teaching students to write away from the "English" Department. Which makes complete sense to me. We write - or should write - about more than just, well, previously written materials (books, plays, what have you). Noted within this chapter are numerous other great sources of written material - from beautiful mathematic proofs, to how the periodic table of the elements are arranged and why.

A puzzle of the humanities #

An interesting point was brought up during my reading today. If one's mind likes to work though puzzles, finding solutions to whatever has been presented to you, then perhaps no matter what the subject matter is it could be possible to find an intriguing route to write about said solution. As an example, the author has noted multiple times that they did not care for chemistry in school. Maybe if some of the work had been phrased the way that D I Mendeleev had worked out the Periodic Law and creating a version of the Period Table of the Elements, then that challenge would have had a more positive effect on him. If there is some way to find a human element to whatever subject matter is being studied or written about, that seems to help a great deal.

A feeling of rambling #

I'm doing it again - I feel like I'm just kind of rambling on. I should tighten this stuff up. Meh.

Let us finish up with a couple of quotes from the chapter that have kind of stuck with me:

Students should be learning a strong and unpretentious prose that will carry their thoughts about the world they live in.

and

...every subject is interesting if an avenue into it can be found that has humanity and that an ordinary person can follow.

These ring well with me. I'm no journalist, no professional writer for sure. But I have read a wide variety of subjects, books, magazines, articles...those that leave the best impression are of the style that don't belittle or "talk down" to the reader. I find it sad that today we are losing a large amount of written work that may never be. Amazing magazines that have stopped printing. Journals that are no longer around. Yes, I am aware of the irony that any readers of this material are doing so on a media that involves a screen. It's easier, but only in so many ways.

The challenge is finding it.

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Published 02 May 2024