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Welcome

If you are taking this course, you are probably just beginning your writing career in Sinclair's composition series. Kudos to you! First steps are always big steps. Our primary goal this quarter is to build on your previously learned skills.

As a young, young girl, I clearly remember studying the black scratches across the bottom of my coloring book. Mama told me, “Those are words.” She read them. In that moment, I desperately wanted to decode those secret messages. I wanted to know what she knew—how to turn scribbles into voice and story. I wanted to read. Reading soon led to a desire to create scribbles. I wanted to write.

I’ve spent most of my life reading and writing for the pleasure, desperation, comedy, adventure, tragedy, love of it, and my hope is that you will enjoy this portion of the journey with me. We all come to reading and writing in our own way, and I truly look forward to learning about your path. I'm so glad our paths have intersected.

I Believe

 that everyone who sets foot in my classroom is a writer. Some of us may have had many successes in the classroom. We feel confident about our skills, and we enjoy writing.  We might have been the young student who often won awards or always had a gold star at the top of our papers. We loved pen and paper or keys and screen, whatever it took to compose just the right sentences.

Others of us struggle. Writing is not only difficult, it is frustrating. As  young students we did not volunteer to read from our papers. In fact, we silently prayed that the teacher would never call on us to read our work aloud.  The teacher may have thought that we were staring disinterestedly at the floor during silent writing time. Really, we were interested, but blank--not quite knowing what words to write.

Whether we consider ourselves "good" or "bad" writers, we write. We email, create wedding vows, fill out job applications, write letters complaining to the landlord, blog, text, send thank you cards, and compose papers. We write to get what we want and need--in this particular case, 3.0 credit hours.

We are writers with varying skills and a multitude of purposes. I teach with the belief that we may have different feelings toward this act, but ultimately we all want to improve. Otherwise, why would be bother spending the time ad money to be here?

I also believe that all writers thrive in a safe environment. We need to have the room to experiment, make mistakes, and grow. The writing classroom needs to be a place where we feel comfortable to ask questions, showcase our work, and share our opinions.

Last, I believe firmly that words, whether written or spoken have power.  What we write changes our personal situation, our communities, and the world.  All of the activities in this course are designed with these ideas in mind.  My greatest hope is that you will not only become a better writer, but your appreciation of the craft will grow.