Writing in Education
ISSN 1361-8539
The NAWE magazine features lively articles on critical issues and workshop techniques, plus a wealth of news items. All members are most welcome to submit material.
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New Edition (Number 51)
Introduced by Catherine Samiei
Virginia Woolf famously wrote of the importance of a ‘room of one’s own’ for writing. Indeed for many writers, a central issue is the struggle to develop their own identity and part of that can be linked to the problem of finding space to write; the two are often inextricably connected. The search for a writer’s identity and the idea of space and a place for writing are central themes that characterize this edition of Writing in Education.
My own writing is primarily for academic purposes and I often find that changing location can help me write more effectively and can even alter the tone of my writing. The articles included in this edition feature poetry and short stories in various forms and consider issues of space and identity in both school and university based projects. Many of the articles explore the potential of physical space to act as a catalyst for the writer’s imagination.
Roselle Angwin’s article ‘Speaking for the Thunder and the Rain’ provides a captivating account of a trip to the beach to engage the creative imagination of children from a Devon primary school. The poem created by 9 year-old Billy provides evidence of an impressive writer’s voice emerging from an inspiring location. Similarly, the Brontë Parsonage Museum proves to be an equally inspiring location in Katrina Naomi’s account of her time there as writer-in-residence. The setting, the lives of the Brontës, their work and even the Reverend Brontë’s quill pen provide prompts and inspiration for writing. Paul Mills’ poems also demonstrate how the region in which you live can act as an inspiring source for subject material.
The virtual world as a potential creative space is also explored. Mandy Ross presents a discussion on the success of a Moodle-based Online Writing Community in the West Midlands whilst Philippa Cochrane introduces us to the Online Teacher in Residence, a project supported by the Scottish Book Trust. Both projects use online technology to create spaces for working collaboratively. Could these new virtual creative spaces be a view of the future for writing practices?
Four authors further explore shared space and the importance of collaborative writing offering similar but distinct approaches. Anna Jefferson in the ‘Chichester Young Playwrights’ programme provides twelve young writers with the opportunity to work with the screen and theatre writer, Suhayla El Bushra. Sarah Lucas’ school writing group provided the space for nineteen school children to jointly write and publish a fictional story called The Silent Scroll and Fiona Linday’s lunchtime writing club for primary school children resulted in ‘A Chocolate Box of Short Stories’. Moy McCrory also provides an innovative account of Writing Marathons and the creation of silent shared writing spaces. Although initially daunting, the idea of writing silently in a larger group is one that I have found surprisingly beneficial.
This need to create time and space that allows students to work together and to create their own writing identity is one which is very important in my daily work at York St John University. Many of my students struggle to find their own academic writer’s identity and this is a key concern as they embark on their courses. Many students worry that they do not ‘sound right’ and believe that to write in an academic tone they simply need to adopt a formal register or as one student put it ‘I just need to use longer words’.
This search for an academic writer’s identity is taken up by David McVey, whose article addresses the issue of academic style and engages with many of the problems that are familiar to me. Recent academic literacies research emphasizes the context-specific nature of writing and the idea that writing should no longer simply be regarded as a generic skill which can be taught using fixed rules. Rather a student’s academic writing identity is shaped through the complex interactions between identity and experience, student-tutor relationships, disciplinary discourse and institutional values. Ensuring that we provide opportunities for students to develop their academic writing identities in relation to these issues is vital.
So, Virginia Woolf’s original notion of a ‘room of one’s own’ is widening to incorporate virtual spaces, collaborative spaces as well as physical locations and these new ‘rooms’ offer the potential to provide the thinking space and time needed to simulate creativity and writers’ identities.
I will leave you to be inspired by Billy’s poem.
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