Hmmm....
I'm getting a little tired staring at the computer. Last response then, I shall get going. :)
Another article that really inspired me was Janadas Devan's "Good writing is not about sticking rigidly to fixed pattern" in the Sunday Times on the 28th of October, 2007.
The response to this article was so good, Janadas followed up on it in this online article:
http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Story/STIStory_182522.html
Basically, he challenged the way students are taught to write essay in the thesis-proof-conclusion model. And questioned whether this limited the student's ability to think. I will quote from him:
That is the best way to teach writing: Encourage students to think for themselves; encourage them to use their writing as a tool for thought and expression, a tool that they can use. Why would students want to learn to write well if they see no purpose in it? Insisting on the template for every occasion, for every variety of essay - way beyond the training-wheels stage - is of no aid in giving them a purpose in their writing.
Finally, let me end with a thesis statement: The purpose of 'essays' is contained in the word's etymology. The noun 'essay' derives from the Old French essai, 'trial'. Its original 16th-century meaning in English was 'an attempt, an endeavour'. The verb 'essay', meaning 'to test the quality of', 'is an alteration of assay, by association with Old French essayer: this is based on late Latin exagium 'weighing', from the base of exigere 'ascertain, weigh',' as The Oxford Dictionary Of Word Histories explains.
Essay: to weigh facts; to attempt an argument; to ascertain and probe; to place thought on trial.
The template - thesis-proof-conclusion - tends to squelch the trial phase. It encourages students to jump straight to judgments without trials. It misses the point of this extraordinary invention, the essay - a trial in writing.
I really like that: essay: to weight facts; to attempt an argument; to ascertain and probe; to place thought on trial.
To place thought on trial.
It sounds so alien to me. I really hope to read the book he recommended by Susan Horton - "Thinking Through Writing" but I have some problems. It's quite an outdated, out-of-print book, published in 1982. So I doubt if the bigger bookstores here still have it. It's not in NUS library, nor in National Library bookshelves. It's found in Singapore Polytechnic library and is borrowed till 24th Dec, and that's a bit inconvenient for me to try for. It is sold through Amazon but my Mum is unhappy as that would mean pretty costly shipping fees.
Hmmmmm...
I guess, I can wait. :) And exercise my brain in some other ways till then! :)
Friday, December 14, 2007
I have not updated this blog in a long time
Hmmmm...
I recently read an article by Maryanne Wolf from the Review of Straits Times on the 28th of September called "Will kids lose ability to think"? And it was a very good read.
Articles of this nature never fail to stimulate me because I often feel like a victim of my circumstance in this area. I am someone who is unable to sieve through knowledge to gain something out of it. Rather, I'm like a sponge that keeps on absorbing and never making sense of what I absorbed.
It may be because of the information explosion? That caused me to be lost in a world where there's so much to read. Sometimes I'm afraid to buy magazines or books to read, knowing I've already have so much at home to read and afraid that I can only gain very little from the much that I read.
It may be because of my inclination not to think as much? I am not sure how I developed this habit, probably because of the lack of time that has caused me to cut short certain processes, such as thinking. The way I approach issues is "give me the solution, and I will apply it instantly" often skipping the thinking and evaluation process. It has worked well for me until recently, when I realise, I do not value add to the knowledge that I pass along, often I'm just a channel who dilutes knowledge and doesn't input much wisdom.
Whatever reason, I am rather shocked and disgusted about the lack of use of my brain. And pretty upset. :( And I would like to change this? How? God, help me manoeuver through this unfortunate circumstance. That when I slowly weaved my way through it, I might realised, it was a blessing in disguise and I actually learn much more!
Snippets from the article:
To Socrates, only the arduous process of probing, analysing, and ultimately internalising knowledge would enable the young to develop a life-long approach to thinking that would lead them ultimately to wisdom, virtue and "friendship with (their) god".
To Socrates, only the examined word and the "examined life" were worth pursuing, and literacy short-circuited both.
How many children today are becoming Socrates' nightmare, mere decoders of information who have neither the time nor the motivation to think beneath or beyond their googled universe? Will they become so accustomed to immediate access to escalating on-screen information that they will fail to probe beyond the information given to the deeper layers of insight, imagination and knowledge that have led us to this stage of human thought?
...
The act of going beyond the text to think new thoughts is a developmental, learnable approach towards knowledge.
...
Children need to have both time to think and the motivation to think for themselves, to develop an expert reading brain, before the digital mode dominates their reading.
The immediacy and volume of information should not be confused with true knowledge.Knowledge creation. A chance to break out of this trap I am stuck in. I am lost in a jungle of information. And I either stand still or scramble in all directions, getting nowhere. God, I want to move out of this predicament I am in.
I don't want to remain shallow in thinking and knowledge. I want be be able to integrate, analyse, judge, sieve, THINK.
I recently read an article by Maryanne Wolf from the Review of Straits Times on the 28th of September called "Will kids lose ability to think"? And it was a very good read.
Articles of this nature never fail to stimulate me because I often feel like a victim of my circumstance in this area. I am someone who is unable to sieve through knowledge to gain something out of it. Rather, I'm like a sponge that keeps on absorbing and never making sense of what I absorbed.
It may be because of the information explosion? That caused me to be lost in a world where there's so much to read. Sometimes I'm afraid to buy magazines or books to read, knowing I've already have so much at home to read and afraid that I can only gain very little from the much that I read.
It may be because of my inclination not to think as much? I am not sure how I developed this habit, probably because of the lack of time that has caused me to cut short certain processes, such as thinking. The way I approach issues is "give me the solution, and I will apply it instantly" often skipping the thinking and evaluation process. It has worked well for me until recently, when I realise, I do not value add to the knowledge that I pass along, often I'm just a channel who dilutes knowledge and doesn't input much wisdom.
Whatever reason, I am rather shocked and disgusted about the lack of use of my brain. And pretty upset. :( And I would like to change this? How? God, help me manoeuver through this unfortunate circumstance. That when I slowly weaved my way through it, I might realised, it was a blessing in disguise and I actually learn much more!
Snippets from the article:
To Socrates, only the arduous process of probing, analysing, and ultimately internalising knowledge would enable the young to develop a life-long approach to thinking that would lead them ultimately to wisdom, virtue and "friendship with (their) god".
To Socrates, only the examined word and the "examined life" were worth pursuing, and literacy short-circuited both.
How many children today are becoming Socrates' nightmare, mere decoders of information who have neither the time nor the motivation to think beneath or beyond their googled universe? Will they become so accustomed to immediate access to escalating on-screen information that they will fail to probe beyond the information given to the deeper layers of insight, imagination and knowledge that have led us to this stage of human thought?
...
The act of going beyond the text to think new thoughts is a developmental, learnable approach towards knowledge.
...
Children need to have both time to think and the motivation to think for themselves, to develop an expert reading brain, before the digital mode dominates their reading.
The immediacy and volume of information should not be confused with true knowledge.Knowledge creation. A chance to break out of this trap I am stuck in. I am lost in a jungle of information. And I either stand still or scramble in all directions, getting nowhere. God, I want to move out of this predicament I am in.
I don't want to remain shallow in thinking and knowledge. I want be be able to integrate, analyse, judge, sieve, THINK.
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