My first semester as an English major taught me the joys of blurbs. These are shorter (or longer, depending on the prof) written responses to readings. In every English class I took, for every separate reading, I was required to write a blurb. At first, blurbs stumped me. I'd stay up late wracking my brain for something useful to say. The blurbs I had the most confidence in tended to garner mediocre grades. The ones that were my true responses, but (I thought) somewhat coarse and lacking brought in more comments from professors and, often, better grades. After a while, writing blurbs became more natural. The way I thought as I read even changed. I started asking myself questions while reading, looking for patterns, noting seemingly useless details, and paying attention to the things that might be overlooked---these were the things that made blurbing fun; these were the skills, I suppose, the profs wanted us to develop.
Hence, mostly owing to nostalgia, I have chosen to allow 'blurbs' rather than 'comments' on my blog. Part of me, though, does long for that analytical rigor and practice of writing blurbs. I've attempted to do something similar on my own, but without the classroom discussion and the prof's feedback, blurbing just isn't the same.
Happy blurbing!
4 comments:
Dr. S.A. Ford introduced me to blurbs and they intially inticed me to think very very ugly thoughts about said Dr.Ford. I got over it.
If I understand blurbs correctly, a blurb arises out of the interaction between a reader and that which is read. So when Trey is preparing a sermon he is really making a blerb?
I think, perhaps, sermons don't fall under the category of blurb, at least, I would be afraid to put them there. That reduces God's word to literature like any other literature, and, well, it's more than that.
I LIKE BURPS TOO!!!
Post a Comment