Aimee and Tess

Aimee:

This NPR piece on the veterans writing group was really interesting. I think that veterans are definitely overlooked in our class as we haven't really attacked writing for people who have been through war. This is obviously a huge opportunity for writing an healing, as veterans are often severely affected by their times in combat, and they're also a group of people that is usually expected to bear their pain silently. Especially with the advent of the Vietnam and more modern veteran generation we can see the long term emotional effects of PTSD and war in general, and things are never really looking good.

I think this writing group illustrates the main point that we've been hitting on for a long time now, the best type of feeling in the world is when someone else "gets it." I think veterans probably have a tough time finding a place to heal amongst their families and other civilians, as none of them would have been through the unique experience of war. A writing group like this seems like the perfect opportunity for veterans with their specific brand of experiences to come, share, and heal.

I also liked this piece from creative nonfiction magazine. I'm not really sure where the line between workshop and therapy is drawn, but I can certainly say I've had some troublesome experiences in classes here when playing with that line. I agree that perhaps workshop is the same thing as therapy, but I think it's also important to understand that professors are not psychological professionals, and I envision a lot of misguidance if professors were to take on that role in writing classrooms more often. But, I also think it's harmful to gloss over therapy that might be happening through class writing. It's tough to say what the right decision is.

Tess:

I'm really fascinated by the idea of transactional writing in contrast to expressive writing. I think we focus a lot on the expressive nature of composition in this class because it's a background we're all familiar with, but transactional writing seems a lot more accessible to the general public actually. I think the tenants presented are a great foundation for writing and healing. To me the idea of a transaction is inviting, the idea that you might get something in return for your writing instead of expressing and just being done. This also solves the problem of audience in expressive writing, I think a lot of times I've wanted to write about something emotional but I wasn't sure who exactly I was writing to or for. I like the idea of transactional writing because I think it could be really successful with people who might not consider themselves "writers," and honestly those are the people who probably need the most opportunity to write.