My experience with formal writing has always been in an English classroom. Formal writing, in my opinion, has too many unnecessary restrictions. When I write English papers, I always feel as though I cannot fully express myself because my expressions are not within the "requirements" of the paper. I believe formal writing is necessary in the English classroom because if everyone is told to write the same, then they can easily be evaluated by the same rubric. If we were allowed to write creatively, how could one paper be judged as better than the other. In contrast, informal writing is associated with self expression. Informal writing ranges from simple grooming habits such as hair and make-up to more permanent writings such as tattoos. The thing about informal writing of the body is that it is always accompanied with preconceived attitudes and stereotypes. Before this class, I admit, I belonged to the group of people who judged others based on their drastic body modifications. I think it is because I never understood why people permanently modified themselves. In my opinion, doing one's hair and nails is simply taking care of themselves and portraying an image of cleanliness and approachability to the world. I now understand that people actually have really emotional or spiritual reasons for their modifications. They are trying to remove themselves from a certain societal group, even if that group is dirty, ugly, normal. I believe there are limits to authorship over the body. For example, I belong to the Black group, there is nothing I can do to modify my body and remove myself from this group. These limits are necessary because there are always things that are out of our control and that is how it should be.
2 comments:
I agree with you that formal college writing seems to be overloaded with restrictions. I think that students should learn how to write in this way, but also be allowed to infuse some personal expressions into their essays and compositions as well.
But I also think that "informal" body modifications still put a person into a specific social group. For example, I oftentimes don't feel "girly" enough around some of my friends because I am not into "manicures and martinis." In this way, those simple grooming habits still speak loads about someone's personality. The fact that someone wants to keep their nails and hair clean says something about their personality.
I agree with Aisha in that while formal writing may not always let students effectively express themselves, it is a necessary component to teaching. If everyone were to be told that any style is just as good as another so long as it is self-expressive, there would be no way of grading or using examples of good writing.
I also agree that there are some limits over authorship of the body. While writing my blog, I had decided that there were not, because people had complete authorship over their body. However, I was only taking into account voluntary body modifications and forms of self-expression. I did not, however, take into account body aspects that people are born with.
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