For writing to be effective, I believe you must care about it. But to go even further than that, I would say for anything you do in life to be effective–to be enjoyable, to make positive change, to be worth doing–you must care about it. (Sometimes you might not care initially, but you have to find a way to care about it if you want to do it well.)
One one level, Tom Dow writes about his experience in finding a focus for his doctoral research in Chapter 3 of our book, but what he’s really talking about–on a deeper level–is finding something to care about. In your recent draft of your Live? Die? Kill? paper, you presumably wrote about things that are very important to you–important enough to live for, to die for, and maybe even to kill for. Hopefully, this initial writing experience has forced your thinking into places it doesn’t normally go. That’s a good thing. Soon, you will be learning about our next major writing challenge of the course, where I will ask you to dig deep into an social issue that is of great concern to you and to help others understand why, in fact, it is an issue and why they, too, should be concerned. This task will require–like anything worth doing–that you care about it deeply.
G.A.S.: The Secret to Accomplishing Great Things
Eric DeVilez reminds us that G.A.S. is really at the heart of writing well (and I would add living well). If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go back to chapter one of WWR?. This is true, but how do you get that G.A.S. mind-set? It’s hard sometimes. Best-selling author researcher Dan Pink has written and spoken a great deal about the importance of caring about what you are doing if you want to do it well. Check out the following video where he walks us through the surprising research on what motivates us and how motivation affects performance.
Dan Pink on Motivation
Interesting, don’t you think? I’ve found many of the points that Pink’s research shows to be true throughout my life. These ideas resonate deeply with me. In fact, in chapter 3 of
You can access this required reading from this link: “Why Money Won’t Cut It and Why Extra Credit Makes You Stupid” or embedded below. (The file embedded below is a PDF file, so you will need a standard PDF reader installed on your computer. Chances are, you already have one. If not, you can download it here.)
Right click on the document for navigation, zooming, and printing options.
Service/Activism-Learning Connection
By now you know that the work of this course will involve more than just writing and reading. It will involve doing. This semester, we are using a service/activism-learning approach to
A service-learning modeldevelop our research, writing, and overall communication skills. But perhaps some of you don’t know what this thing called “service learning” is. Check out the graphic to the right. Academic service learning combines meaningful work with your community with purposeful civic learning to enhance your overall academic experience and performance. That’s the idea. The basic principles that underpin this for our course are 1) “Action NOW, not deferred,” meaning you will put to use the things you are learning in this course immediately and in meaningful important ways, 2) “Learning by doing,” which ultimately is the only way any of us can really learn, and 3) Fieldwork research, critical thinking/writing, self-reflection, and “real-world” writing–all of which get to the heart of our academic objectives.
So as we continue to move forward with this course, I will make opportunities available for you to get involved in hands-on fashion with matters of great importance in our communities and around the world. As we are doing these things, though, I will also ask that you begin figuring out what issues are of greatest concern to you. Where do you want to contribute? Our next major draft for this course, in fact, will ask you to dig deep into a social issue that is of great concern to you. Before the semester is done, you will be doing something to address this issue; we won’t just be talking about it.
Activism or Service?
In our next writing/research project you will think, read, and research on an issue that is important to you. Part of this will include turning intellectual work into real action. As the course progresses, you may see that I reference both “service” and “activism.” To help you understand these terms as I am using them, let me offer a little explanation.
One way to possibly consider the relationship between service and activism is that the former tends to focus on individuals–on people–and the latter often focuses on structures. In other words, activism often works to address underlying causes of issues whereas service/volunteerism works to alleviate the immediate effects of such causes. So, a quick example–if we wanted to address homelessness through service as a volunteer, we might spend some time working in a homeless shelter. If we wanted to address it as an activist, we might attempt to address city planners responsible for the gentrification of neighborhoods that ultimately pushes poorer people out of their homes. Or, as another example, if you wanted to address the problem of litter on a city beach, as a volunteer you could organize a cleanup effort, but as an activist you might picket or petition local business who contribute most to the need for beach cleanup.
I read recently an article which contained the following line that helped me understand relationship better: “Activist efforts seek to change the social climate and structures that make volunteerism necessary” (“Activism and Service Learning as Acts of Dissent,” Bickford and Reynolds 238). In the end, I believe both approaches are worthwhile and can be effective to making important differences in our world. Also, these efforts can (and perhaps should) occur in combination with one another. So think about how you will orient your efforts as we move forward in this course.
