20190106.0430

As I continue to work to post in this webspace daily, I find myself considering the things I have already written. I note that much of what I have put into words where others can see them, however few may look at them, consists of responses to others. That is, I look at what others get published and write about those publications, whether as summary and response or as review, rather than putting forth my own ideas and expounding upon them. It is not only in this webspace that I do so, either, as shown here. And I have to wonder what kind of writer it makes me that the writing I do is of such sort, that most of what I do is engage with others' words without any attempt at hiding or adapting my sources.
I tend to think it is not wholly to my credit that what I write takes the form it does. I still do it because it helps me process my own thoughts and feelings about things, and there is value in that--though I am not sure that value transfers to other readers than the actor animating the writerly persona I adopt when I am working through such exercises. And my students do benefit from the examples of doing so that I offer; a class I often teach has summaries as explicit assignments, and almost all work with summaries and responses to them to undergird the intellectual work actually intended as the courses' projects. But while being present as a teaching tool is a better thing than being only an onanistic exercise, that I do it as much as I do suggests I am doing it for more than the purposes of teaching. And I generally do not pull from here into my classroom, in any event. (This is perhaps the most notable example of what I do explicitly bring into my teaching from this webspace. And it does seem to help. But it is a rarity.) So I am not sure it helps much that I write what I do.
Then again, much of what this webspace is for, for me, is the opportunity to practice. Reading and writing about what I read is what I trained to do, certainly, and doing the one helps me do the other. Doing them where others can see offers me accountable practice; if I go too far away from what I ought, I will hear about it, I'm sure. (It's happened a time or two already, though not often. I'm not sure if that means I've generally done decently or that people aren't paying enough attention to note it--or if they see and do not care.) And doing them, generally, helps me when the time comes to make examples for my students' use--which I know they and others see. (Readership statistics are available, which is nice. I like to feel like I'm doing some good.)
Too, occasionally, I come up with something that seems to be worth reading on its own here, whether in responses or in what making the responses clears a path for. I do not know that it happens often, but I know it does occasionally happen; people have told me so. So if I get to do this on the way to making that happen, well, it is inside work with no heavy lifting, so I oughtn't complain too much about it...