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Excellent quotes:
Full citations are below each entry.
The following are
excerpts from Julia Cameron’s book: The Writer’s Life: Insights
from The RIGHT to WRITE.
“In our culture,
writing is not forbidden; it is discouraged. Hallmark does it for
us. We shop for the card that is ‘closest’ to what we wish to say.
Schools drill us about how to say what we want to and the how-to
involves things like proper spelling, topic sentences, and the
avoidance of detours so that logic becomes the field marshal and
emotion is kept at bay. Writing, as we are taught to do it, becomes
an antihuman activity. We are forever editing, leaving out the
details that might not be pertinent. We are trained to self-doubt,
to self-scrutiny in the place of self-expression” (2).
“We put a lot of
bunk around the notion of being a writer. We make a big deal out of
putting words on paper instead of simply releasing them into the
air. We have a mythology that tells us that writing is a tortuous
activity. Believing that, we don’t even try it or, if we do, and if
we find it unexpectedly easy, we stop, freeze up, and tell ourselves
that whatever it is that we’re doing, it can’t be ‘real’ writing.
What if there were no such thing as a writer? What if everyone
simply wrote? What if there were no ‘being a real writer’ to aspire
to? What if writing were simply about the act of writing?” (6).
“If we didn’t
have to worry about being published and being judged, how many more
of us might write a novel just for the joy of making one? Why should
we think of writing a novel as something we couldn’t try—the way an
amateur carpenter might build a simple bookcase or even a picnic
table? What if we didn’t have to be good at writing? What if we got
to do it for sheer fun? What if writing were approached like
whitewater rafting? Something to try just for the fact of having
tried it, for the spills and chills of having gone through the
rapids of the creative process” (8).
Cameron,
Julia. The Writer’s Life: Insights from The RIGHT to WRITE.
New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 2001.
ISBN:
1-58542-103-0
“People need to
feel some degree of influence in a group (McClelland, 1975). When
they feel ignored, discounted, or impotent, their ability to achieve
group goals suffers accordingly (Wlodkowski 182).
There is no
question that feelings of incompetence lead to serious motivational
problems for adult learners (Knowles, 1980). […] But wanting
something, believing in its value, and having the self-confidence to
achieve it makes discomfort an acceptable and bearable reality.[…]
Therefore, the
goal of instructors is not to make learning painless but to make
learning worthy of the discomfort it may require and to
provide those motivational influences, emotional and otherwise, that
support and nurture people through the difficulties inherent to
excellence in achievement.
With this goal in mind, affective
responses of adults during learning can be seen as having at least
four different sources: (1) emotional reactions influenced by
personal mood, (2) emotional reactions influenced by the instructor,
(3) emotional reactions influenced by the learning process and
materials, and (4) emotional reactions influenced by the learning
group. Although these four sources of emotional influence have been
listed separately for the purposes of discussion and strategy, they
operate as a holistic ensemble (Watzlawick, 1977). This means they
have a combined impact on learner emotions all the time
during learning.
For the
instructor, this means keeping these four sources of emotional
influence moving in the most positive direction possible during
learning so that they systemically enhance one another for optimal
learner motivation. Adults who are in a good mood when they enter a
cohesive, supportive learning group led by an empathic, competent
instructor are much more likely to feel optimistic about the
learning task they receive and, therefore, motivated while they work
on it” (183-4).
Wlodkowski,
Raymond J. Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn: A Guide to
Improving Instruction and Increasing Learner Achievement.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1993. 182-4.
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