blog novice

I am pleased to have 'broken into' the blogosphere. Much of the research I have been supposed to have been doing over these days off has been somewhat trampled in the wake of me going on an information rampage through the world of blogs.

But I think that could definitely be construed as research; in fact, I'm sure it could. So I'm not going to feel guilty about sitting at this computer for untold hours, searching for information for my upcoming abstract (and hopefully paper) for Technoculture. It will be my first abstract ever for a journal, so I am keeping my expectations realistic. It's the inaugural issue of the journal and I know the editors want it to be very hard hitting. I'm trying to acquiesce to that expectation - but I know I'll be in competition with a good many other brilliant scholars, so I'm keeping it real with myself over here.

I just read my blog from yesterday and I wasn't very pleased with it. That's actually what caused me to write this post and what prompted the title. I suppose the best way to get better at this kind of writing is to do it. So here I am, blogging. I should be working on a paper evaluating the benefits and detriments of abolishing the first year writing requirement. I'm sorting through a multiplicity of voices, not the least of which is that of Louise Wetherbee Phelps, who in a recent interview told me that it would have been disastrous to abolish the requirement when it was being most vehemently called for. I see Louise's point, but I can't ignore the inherent disparity between our purported overarching mission (democratic education) and the hegemonic implications dominating the institutional situation of the course which has organized our field. 

So I'm working through all of that right now. Or at least I'm supposed to be; evidently what I am actually doing is blogging. Hmmm. I think I'm starting to see the draw.