Why "Alchemical Compositions"?

Because recently, I've begun to think of writing through the metaphor of alchemy. 

What is alchemy? Great question.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary provides three definitions of "alchemy," each of which is relevant to the purposes of our course:

1 : a medieval chemical science and speculative philosophy aiming to achieve the transmutation of the base metals into gold, the discovery of a universal cure for disease, and the discovery of a means of indefinitely prolonging life 

2 : a power or process of transforming something common into something special

3 : an inexplicable or mysterious transmuting 

Source: "Alchemy." Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Web. 15 Jan 2011. 

Harnessing the aspirational qualities of alchemy --  its desire to transform the mundane into to the magical*, and its search for a cure for disease -- Alchemical Compositions will serve as a space in which we will expose the writing process for what it is, a process, and we'll be doing so by exploring texts written about health and disease.

My philosophy is that the more we show our work, the more we demystify writing itself. Don't get me wrong; there will still be magic. We'll simply have greater access to the magician's sleight of hand, which will help us become better writers.

*or rusty first drafts into sparkling, golden final papers

Welcome!

"Sigh" is right.

Welcome to Alchemical Compositions, the course blog I've created for ENGL 101S (1202): Introduction to Academic Writing!

Before I get to telling you about the purpose of this blog, I want to start off by keeping it real. Let's face it: most of us can probably empathize with Jorge Cham's comic depiction of what it's like coming back to school after a long winter break ("visually quoted" above). After that terrible race-to-the-finish of papers and exams in the Fall, we all needed a break to de-stress, and now it's time for the ice-cold return for the "Spring." Back in my day (not that long ago!), before laptops were common in class, I found myself barely able to hold a pencil right, let alone write anything coherent my first few day in school after vacation.  

Therein lies the purpose of this blog. 

Writing can be tough. In fact, writing can be frustrating, exhilarating, stressful, liberating, and many times, lots of fun. But as we've probably experienced before, the hardest part can often be getting started, and that's why we're going to be blogging throughout the semester as a way of starting up the writing process. 

At times I'll ask us (yup, I'll be blogging, too) to write about the challenges we face as writers or about the topics we're interested in exploring, all in order to get us thinking about where we want to be by the end of the semester. At other times I'll suggest more directly paper-related prompts, such responses to class readings, research logs, and annotated bibliographies, so that we practice fine-tuning our voices to fit the goals of each assignment.

So, as you can tell, we'll be doing a lot of writing this semester. It is my hope that by working at it together, we'll uncover the great fun of the process along the way. 


Source of Comic: Cham, Jorge. "Net Effect of a Vacation on Work Productivity." Piled Higher & Deeper, 10 Jan 2011. Web. 15 Jan 2011.