BE CREATIVE!

“Inventing the University” ~ David Bartholomae

David Bartholomae, the author of the article argues that the moment the writer achieves EUREKA is the moment they have learned to invent the university. He states, “Every time a student sits down to write for us, he has to invent the university… the student has to learn to speak our language, to speak as we do, to try on the peculiar ways of knowing…our community.” We as writers must learn how to write for our audience; we need to learn how to grab their attention and keep it, and also how to gain their respect for us as writers. Therefore we have to write about things that will interest them and give them new insight into something they are already familiar with.

We as students do this every time we write a paper for our professors, we try to look at the camera lens and give them what they we think they may desire of us. I think this is a problem trying to write for someone to give them exactly what you think they may desire of you seems really pointless to me. You may as well not write for them, because they already know what you are going to write for them. The author’s argument of creativity as key is contradicted by his argument of writing for your audience through a camera lens. He states, “Teaching students to revise for readers…will better prepare them to write initially with a reader in mind. The success of this pedagogy depends on the degree to which a writer can imagine and conform to a reader’s goals.” Writing for a reader in mind is okay on some levels in my opinion, when applying for a job, school or writing for a teacher, it is wise to keep the reader in mind since this may be the only time they get to form some opinion of who you who are and in return you get a favor. It is a business transaction but when it comes to writing a book, short story or a poem for instance one does not have to keep the reader in mind.

The author states, “once you have your purpose clearly in mind, your next task is to define and analyze your audience…a sure sense of your audience is crucial to the success of your rhetoric.” This is not what writing is about; writing is about self expression about one’s exploration of the world. You cannot be graded on how you view it, there may be some people out there that agree and disagree with you so you have to be true to yourself and your mind and your craft. This is one of the things that the writing center at the University of Richmond is trying not to promote. Writing is empowerment; it is not about writing for one specific subject teacher and then not using it again. It is about developing your skill and being able to use for later references. You will not be able to use your writing experiences if you write for specific readers. How are you supposed to learn anything about yourself and your writing? The only thing you would accomplish is learning how write for one audience and thus narrowing your horizons and limiting your writing skills. Writing is not about limitations it is fluid, like water it is everywhere, it cannot be boxed in.

One student states in an essay, “creativity to me, means being free to express yourself in a way that is unique to you, not having to conform to certain rules and guidelines.” This student has the right idea, this is the problem with society today, we’re so used to everything being technologically charged and everything imagined for us that the youth have lost their sense of imagination. I do not remember the last time I saw a child just look up at the clouds and saw imagines of their favorite bedtime story characters, heros, enemies etc. The last time we just appreciated nature for its natural beauty, we’re too busy doing us and doing this and doing that that we become lost. And sitting down to write something creative becomes a chore and everything that is assigned and prompted become routine. Students begin to complain when a professor says come up with your topic instead of rejoicing for being an opportunity to express your original thoughts and not be confined to a box of normalcy and unoriginality.

Bartholomae states, “The moment of eureka was not simply a moment of breaking through a cognitive jumble in that individual writer’s mind but a moment of breaking into a familiar and established territory- one with insiders and outsiders; one with set phases, examples, and conclusions.” Yes indeed, don’t limit yourself to the box, think outside of it, unoriginality is never rewarded only moments of eureka or else there would not be so many brilliant authors out there whose books were once banned. Originality is key.