Blog 1: Harris and Writing

Dustin Ginsburg

Eng 254, 035 

Green

I am a sophomore criminal justice major with a minor in psychology. Last semester I was enrolled in the class ‘rhetoric as argument’, which is the only English class besides this one that I have taken since high school. As a writer, I like to write about topics and prompts that I can relate with in terms of past experiences and similar interests. That way I can easily input my own voice into the story at hand. I write to communicate with others. I write to remember past events. I write to study for classes. I write to entertain myself. I write because I am told to. I write to become better at writing. I am the kind of writer who slowly and meticulously forms each word on paper, rather than pouring them all out at once. I write to stay updated with current events in the world. I write to see how far I can take a story. I write to support and defend certain ideas. I write to oppose and reject other ideas. I write to analyze. I write to summarize.

A community is unified body of individuals with common interests or characteristics living in a particular area. Being a part of a community can offer a great deal of positive outcomes. For one, communities bring people with similar interests together. As a result, they are able to bounce ideas off of each other and practice together in order to continually evolve and become better as a whole. Communities also bring a sense of security to those that are a part of them. By having a group of similar people and ideas together, their motives and actions will be understood. Communities allow for comfortableness as well. As part of a community with similar attributes or interests, a person can easily become relaxed and feel free to speak their mind without fear of backlash. Communities bring people together. By having a common trait with others, people become connected through ways they otherwise would not have been. For example, I am a part of the community of students that attend the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. What makes it a community is that each student is either attending classes on city campus or east campus for a common goal of higher education. Writing and language plays a big role in making the university a community. Taking notes allows students to take out the most important information taught to them and write them down to remember for later. Assigned readings allow for students to learn about topics in an in depth context that explains and defines key terms and ideas. Tests and quizzes are written out as a way to measure a student’s knowledge of the subject being taught. These forms of writing and language are all functions of the university that serve their part in making it a community.