We all write. We write all the time. We write letters, lists, proposals,
memos, resumes, workshop notes and lesson plans, student evaluations,
evaluations of other teachers, responses to student writing, teaching logs,
reports, email to listserv groups and to individual correspondents, notes to
other family members, journals to ourselves, and countless other forms of
writing.
One of the problems with academic life is that it denigrates all these other
forms of writing, making them invisible *as writing*. But we write, oh yess
weee doooo.
You might ask yourself, are you a model for your students of someone who
writes as a matter of course in daily life, who uses literacy as a
significant tool for communication, problem-solving, and community
membership? Almost undoubtedly you are.
You might also ask yourself what forms of writing are important to you, help
to support you in reaching your personal and professional goals, or make a
difference to the people who read your writing. Almost undoubtedly you
could make quite a list.
I propose that everyone make a list of professionally significant forms of
writing you have been engaged in over, say, the last month, and post it.
Then we can all see quite literally how much writing we do and how important
it is.
Here is my list--I'm sure others' lists will be very different since I'm not
teaching this year.
cover letters and vita for teaching positions
cover letters and resume for non-teaching work
workshop notes for literacy council presentation
email correspondence
postings to NCTE-Talk and WPA-L
dissertation
brochure for a client
memo to a client
brief description of my tutoring services
Karin Evans
Purdue University
karinevans@aol.com