#2 p.159

Learning to write in school is a continuing process that seems to be repeated forever. Similar to Min-zhan Lu I learned to speak English over what would have been my first language. Though I never had to switch between languages at home and school I was always hearing new words and paraphrases that I would try to develop them into my own writing and speaking skills. Through elementary school I was placed into a group of students who had difficulty with writing. Through this specific class I made my biggest gains in writing. The assignments in this course were usually silly dreams or past experiences, but their purpose was to get us to write. After I finished I would meet with the teacher and we would go over what I had written. Throughout middle and high school the teaching of how to write was nearly always the same. The first week of class we would go over brain storming ideas and outlines and many other methods to begin your writing. The five paragraph system was often introduced as the way to write all of our papers in class. Peer revision was supposed to help students by seeing other people’s papers. These small groups never did much for anyone since it was never taken serious and people only commented by saying “yeah it was good”.
Min-zhan Lu speaks of a more complex and dynamic social and historical scene out of the classroom. She calls our attention to the voices in our head that don’t seem to have a purpose. It is these voices she believes are the ones that are responsible for bringing us into a closer connection with our ability to learn to write. By encouraging people to listen to these ignored voices we hear new ideas and theories which develop us as people and writers. Through my years learning to write I was always in instructed to us these systematic methods to create your writing. When we go through these protocols it is the time to let the voices in our minds run free. These voices are responsible for bringing up the items and thoughts we want to put into our papers.
The system I’ve be taught doesn’t seem to ever work wonders for me, but I have never been big on writing. I was never happy to sit down and try to brainstorm ideas for a essay, I found just sit down and start writing from start to end and hoped it made sense and was good enough to receive a decent grade. This method for me probably won’t work in college but I have a feeling I won’t change much. I might try to develop some ideas before I start writing and I will certainly at least go over it once after I’m done.