The desire to not write...[or writin skillz]

Ironically I do not have any desire to write today, but bear with me because this blog is my experiment to try and force me to sit down and write, write, write. As such, instead of being nonsensical about it, I will try to uncover this need for writing.

As grad students in the social sciences, we are basically reading and writing all the time, with little to no feedback on our writing skills. It is expected that we know the subtle and obscure science of academic, grant and public writing in the same way that Habitus imbues us with the social structures that generate further systems...? (Ignore this if you don't know). I don't assume that all graduate students have the same writing skills, but I do know that not being a native English speaker has its drawbacks when trying to get a graduate education in the US. I'm not complaining, just stating a fact that 'it's hard out there for us non-English speakers grad students'- but this is what we signed on for; a linguistic adventure of sorts. I have noticed that in the past two years I am mastering English in different and better ways that when I arrived here that August afternoon of 2008.

I wish I had a greater command for words in English, as I do in Spanish, but again this is why I must practice. One of my plans is to start a writing group this next fall with my fellow graduate students in my program to see who is interested to look over each other works and give feedback. This is the answer to the expectancy that our professors have towards our writing, without clearly stating so. Professors do not feel in a position to teach their apprentices the magical world of writing as a graduate student. My answer to this is to teach ourselves, in a very Dumbledore's Army kind of way; I will learn my curses and charms from my fellow Ravenclaws then.

For some reason, I love the idea of writing and trying to explore new ways in which I can further hone my skills. The anthropologist in me is always curious about novel ways in which I can achieve this. My latest adventure is this blog in which I am trying to be more disciplined, academic (in the sense that I am critically thinking about a topic) and logical while not boring myself. I guess this post should serve as an introduction to this blog...but that's the beauty of the writing exercise, at least Ideas are flowing somehow, and hopefully they will get better and well developed. My goal is to write as well as some of the people I currently am reading, let's see how that goes.