IIIII have the power!!!

Yep, that was a He-Man reference. In light of Mem Fox's article I hope everybody will appreciate my lame attempts at humor. After all, "the most delicate transactions are best dealt with through a sort of self-effacing humor which makes one's point without causing offence" (Fox 122). I hope nobody's been annoyed too much by my feeble attempts to spice up the blog a bit.

In connection with the subject line, one of my favorite lines from Fox's article was this one, which I'm guessing everybody highlighted: "Those of us who write best have most power and therefore have most control over our lives" (123). I thoroughly enjoyed her realist and playful view on writing and language, though it may be a bit idealist at times. Students, after all, need to learn serious academic writing, even if occasional humor would be a welcome respite to many pieces of writing (or over-dry blogs).

The other section of Fox's article with which I identified was her bit on reaction: "I want to be published more than I want to be paid...it's the reaction to my piece that I long for. Publication is merely the first hurdle along the road to response" (119). In my two years of sports writing for a small town newspaper, I definitely found that the response was the most gratifying part of the job; in fact, a large part of why I left the position was that I rarely received feedback on my work. During the rare instances when a parent or coach would comment directly to me, I felt greatly rewarded.

Much of the time, however, I would go to the newsroom, write my articles, and go home, seldom hearing anything from my editor or anyone else. Once I began to notice this lack of affirmation the job lost much of its appeal. This is an important factor to remember when responding to student writing: your reaction is going to have a huge impact on how appreciated they feel and how motivated they are to continue and improve their writing. But that's the point Fox made. I suppose I don't need to make it again. I just want to emphasize that it's been very true in my own experience.