Week 3 Journal

A writer, by definition, is a person who has written a particular text. Writers do not have to be published like a journalist or a novelist. Anyone who has written a letter, a text message, or even class notes is considered a writer. I would consider all of the people of Shenandoah National Park who have letters printed in the Defending Honor chapter to be a writer. Majority of them use poor grammar and spelling mistakes as a result of their poor, nonexistent, or short-lived encounter with some sort of education. However, there are many well-known writers who were published before they even reached their fifteenth birthday. For example, a nine year old boy, Alec Grevan, published a book titled, How to Talk to Girls. Between February of 2008 and January of 2009, Alec appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Late Night with Conan O'Brien among others and even had his book make it to the New York Times bestseller list. He has gone on to publish three more books with his relatively diminutive education.  There is no required curriculum you must take nor is there any education level you must reach in order to become a writer. Therefore, everybody from Shenandoah National Park as well as everybody in existence, can be considered a writer.

Week 3 journal

Everyone has their own opinion of what they believe it means to be a writer. To me a writer is simply anyone that writes. A writer takes the time to write out their ideas and thoughts. They don’t have to publish or be paid for their writing. Their are different forms of writing like people who get paid to publish their work or people who simply write for their own entertainment. No one has to have an education to be considered a writer. It doesn’t matter who their writing to or why their writing, as long a person writes, I simply consider them to be a writer.  

The people of the Shenandoah National Park are considered writers because they were writing letters that contained their feelings about certain issues they had with the park. They were upset by the changes being made to their lives so they responded by writing these letters. Writing can be done in the form of letters because they have to be written out with words and letters. Although they didn’t have extreme knowledge in writing, they were still able to write out their feelings. They wouldn’t be considered professional writers but they are definitely still amateur writers in my opinion. 

Week 3 Journal Entry

In my opinion, it is very simple for a person to be considered a writer. Writing is a very basic skill the majority of people possess. A writer can be anyone who writes, for business or pleasure. A writer does not necessarily have to be published in order to be considered a writer. Writers is not limited to the people who write in order to obtain an income. A writer is someone who conveys thoughts, feelings, ideas, facts, or opinions with their writing. Additionally, writers do not need to share their writing in order to be considered a writer; their writing can be kept private for personal reasons. An example of this would be a person who writes in a journal or diary. Furthermore, writers do not require any special training or education farther than the most basic informal education. One can make the assumption that nearly every person with an elementary level education is indeed a writer. The people of Shenandoah National Park are writers according to my definition. Letter writing is one of the most basic and old forms of writing and communication. People write letters for many reasons. The people of Shenandoah used letter writing to express their concerns and complaints to the chief ranger. They did not need a college education to be considered writers. They are writers because they used a simple life skill to communicate their feelings and opinions. Writing is a form of expression that will always be an important aspect of society and communication.

Week Two Journal

Genres are the different types of writing and the guidelines associated with them. It is typically described as a category that helps build a rhetorical situation. Different genres elicit different responses from different people. For example, romance novels can cause the reader to be happy, while a mystery novel can cause your heart to race. A rhetorical situation is the when our writing becomes more concerned with style and effort and becomes more of an individual work. The rhetorical situations can both inspire and influence writing. It can be broken down by purpose, audience, context, tone and genre. The building blocks of a rhetorical situation allow the speaker to show the writer their situation and what to expect. Genre and rhetorical situation connected in their ability to help the reader respond to the circumstance in which the writing is taking place.

Week 3 Journal

The people of the Shenandoah National Park  may or may not be considered writers depending upon one's definition of "a writer."
Personally, I think the most commonly known meaning of a writer is an individual who writes for a living and has their work published. By this definition, the people of the Shenandoah National Park would not be considered "writers" because clearly, as exemplified by their lack of basic grammar and frequent spelling errors, they are not educated in the least, and therefore are not actual published writers. In addition, the letters that these people composed were not a part of their source of income nor their living, but instead were a method of getting through to the park officials. Due to the fact that they could not receive pay for their letters, were unpublished and lacked the skills of basic writing, these individuals would not be considered writers.
On the other hand, if "a writer" is anyone that physically writes, then by these standards the people of the Shenandoah National Park are, indeed, writers. Like professional, published authors, these people had a purpose which they were clearly passionate about and they attempted to persuade their audience (the park officials) to think in the manner in which they thought and to feel how they feel. These individuals gave examples and their version of support as to why they should be able to remain residents in that area, which is similar to the way in which authors persuade their readers and influence them in the way that they so desire. By this definition, these people would be considered writers because they did physically write, and clearly displayed a passion and goal with their writing, similar to actual writers.
I, personally consider a writer to be an individual who receives a source of income from the work that they publish and wrote themselves. However, depending upon what one's definition of "a writer" is, the people of the Shenandoah National Park could very possibly be writers as well.

Week 3 Journal

How are the people of the Shenandoah National Park writers? Or not writers?Who counts as being a writer? What does it mean to be a writer?

You don’t necessarily have to be published to be a writer to be considered a writer, but you should have some consistency of writing in your life. People who write in journals daily, write poems to show others, short stories (etc.) could be considered writers. The people of the Shenandoah National Park were being portrayed as writers when they wrote each letter to the Chief Ranger simply because of the fact that they were taking their feelings and concerns and writing then down on paper, but for them to self identify as writers, to me, wouldn’t be correct. For example we’ve all participated in a sport at some point in our lives but we all don’t consider ourselves to be athletes. The people of the park were able to convey what they needed to threw the letters, but due to their lack of grammar, improper use of the language and poor vocabulary it is clear that writing was not consistent in their life.  Writers should be able to transfer their thoughts, feelings, and concerns onto paper in a more powerful and universal way than just speaking it. Its an art that is practiced and consistent in life, to become better at, and the people of the park were just writing a letter to try and fix problems that were happening to themselves and their lives.

The people of the park expressed their concerns and issues to Mr. Lassiter and the park ranger through many letters. John Nicholson was able to apologize and explain to the park ranger why he took the windows out of his home. Also Ms. Nicholson was able to discuss her moving to another house to benefit her health and well being. One park resident stated that he was writing a book on the bible and another stated he had never attended school and learned to read or write properly. Despite these facts I believe all the people who wrote these letters are writers. They were able to convey their point properly to their intended audience.

Being a writer can mean being able to properly convey an idea or argument. The definition of a writer can include anyone who attempts to make a point by writing down what they want to say. Despite of lack of schooling it is shown that anyone can be a writer. The man who had no formal education was still able to report his problem to park officials and explain his situation to others.