Is authorship dependent on training?
This is a good question. Is one’s ability to write dependent on training and schooling?
Part of me would like to say that writers are just born writers. That they can’t learn how to write, but rather it is already instilled within them. As I started to write this blog I remembered something that I had read when looking into graduate schools for writing and I came across this statement from the
“Though we agree in part with the popular insistence that writing cannot be taught, we exist and proceed on the assumption that talent can be developed, and we see our possibilities and limitations as a school in that light. If one can "learn" to play the violin or to paint, one can "learn" to write, though no processes of externally induced training can ensure that one will do it well.”
I agree with this assertion by this school. I don’t think writing can be taught, but I think the skill that is inherent can be developed and this skill is developed through training and school work. The talent is there, now through class work the skill can be honed, challenged, stretched, molded and brought even more to life.
1 comment:
Interesting post, Meghan. In some basic sense, of course, writing can only be taught. That is, people don't naturally become writers--it is a thoroughly socialized and culturalized activity. If this were not so then all cultures would be writing cultures, but they aren't. So this lends a peculiar turn to your take. How is it possible for someone to have a natural gift for writing when writing itself is so obviously not a natural activity but a thoroughly learned activity. Not that I'm disagreeing with your assertion, but our ideas about giftedness are often fuzzy and ethereal. Perhaps giftedness is simply a combination of desire, opportunity and reward.
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