Primary Discourse Community

The way you learn to read and write in school really does lead back to your home life. In a school setting we think of writing not necessarily being creative, but more academic. In the passage, “what is academic writing?” Irvin expresses how academic writing is based on myths described as many different types of writing styles that we as students may use. These myths include, “performing certain steps to write correctly” Most writers will tell you to just write, do not worry about the incorrections afterward, worry about getting words onto the page, it’s a similar concept in blogging which I will dive into in another blog post. Another myth is “writers only write when they have everything figured out” there is not necessarily a goal sometimes you don’t know the end, as you type the end finds you. Lastly he says, “Writers figure out much of what they want to write as they write it…even with gaps or problems. You can come back to patch up rough spots” you write as you go, and you fix it afterward, a skill I’ve used in all types of writing. Irvin is a perfect example of how academic writing can be viewed as, but it doesn’t explain what real writing is. At home, learning how to read and write can be different for all of us. For me at home, we weren’t big on the whole reading stories at bedtime. I had a lot of books growing up, and even though I didn’t read a whole lot. I still really did enjoy writing stories. At 7years old I would draw up picture books, and believe it or not they were horror stories. It must be because of all the movies I would watch from “Darkness Falls” to sneaking behind the couch to catch a glimpse of “Nightmare on Elm St”, but believe it or not I wasn’t afraid of Freddy Kruger, or the evil tooth fairy. I was actually terrified of Chucky growing up. Yet that didn’t stop me from drawing up ghosts of demon girls and writing the most basic dialogue between the innocent girl character running away from the monster. I’ve enjoyed writing horror stories all from the point where I learned how to sit and absorb them from a young age. Don’t get me wrong I still get scared, but that’s the beauty of it. I do appreciate my mom supporting it. If it wasn’t for her being ok with me at such a young age loving horror movies and creating my own scary stories. I wouldn’t get as far as I am today. I wouldn’t be able to write my first mystery thriller. That even though it hasn’t been published yet, it’s the fact that I will still able to accomplish getting it done. I’ve also benefited from my mother’s knowledge of reading inspiring me to read more. One of her favorite books was “Rose Madders” by Stephen King, and I bought it not too long ago. I remember in the first couple minutes of reading I thought to myself, “…she’s right, this book is disturbing” and I loved it. I’ve always been a fan of Stephen King, but to be honest, I’ve mainly watched his movies, and haven’t read his books except for the one. In the end, I’ve learned a lot from just the one I have read. Learning to branch out and read or watch all types of horror-based projects, will help you grow as a writer or a filmmaker, which I dive into in another blog. Another great thing that’s inspired my writing was when my little sister started having playdates with a friend of hers from class, and we learned that her father was John Patrick Kennedy. He has shared advice with me and as well as signed a few of his books to help me on this journey. Another thing that I’ve learned recently is about the idea of performing writing. The article, “Performing Writing” by Della Pollock focuses on, learning how to write something that matters to your audience, that affects them. She says, “… the very act of writing, making it difficult if not impossible to make sense, to make claims, to make meaning, making writing its own object/subject, which duly un/writes itself in every figure and term, sometimes in cynical pleasure…” Finding a meaning in your piece of writing, and finding a way to bring your message across is an issue in itself. She later says, “In performative writing, you want your readers to come away with something they did not feel or know before they read your words.” Based on this it makes me look back on when I would watch films, or read stories and how some of them would affect me, and how I’ve always wanted the ability to write something that would make others feel this way. Della Pollock’s piece makes me think back on the article, “Genres and Academic writing in the disciplines” by Hyland, where he states ” An understanding of the concept enables us to look beyond content, composing processes, and grammatical forms to see texts as socially situated attempts to communicate with readers.”  Overall, a reader’s community is made up of people who like to know what they’re reading before they read it. Genres play a big part when it comes to this, if your reader wants to read your book it must match their genre. I like to feel as though I learned how to write all types of genre, based on me wanting to create stories that each of my family members would like, whether I had a cousin obsessed with horror, and another obsessed with comedy. Family plays such a big part when it comes to teaching you, they impact your knowledge and your future, from teaching you how to read and write properly. Or even in my case from supporting my goals to be a writer or even acting in my low-budget short films. I love my family, without them, I wouldn’t be where I am today.