Blog #1

Patricia Duncan

English Blog

First off I am Patricia Duncan, I am a senior here at UNL, majoring in Criminal Justice with a concentration in Communication Studies. I enjoy spending time at home in Chadron, Nebraska with my family and friends and I always am a little disappointed when I have to return back to Lincoln for the new semester.  I share a cute little apartment with my cat, Willie, and two guinea pigs, Bear and Butter.  I hope to attend law school after obtaining my degree in December 2015.  In regards to who I am as a writer I would say that I write because it’s required of me in order to be successful and I write because it’s the thing to do in the college setting.  I write to express feelings and ideas that I cannot say.  I write to remember and I write to forget.  I write to organize and alphabetize, and I write to thank and to console.  I write to celebrate and I write to give thanks.  I am the kind of writer who will spell check everything a million times because I am a terrible speller and I don’t want anyone to know that.  I am the kind of writer who will doubt my work because I once had a professor who used me as an example in the class as the worst piece of writing.  I am the kind of writer who will spend hours brainstorming before I’m able to put any words down on the page.  I’m the kind of writer who will go the extra mile and write the extra page in order to get the better grade.  I’m the kind of writer where I never feel like I’m quite on the same page as everyone else.   

Harris’ idea of community really relates to having many different communities and being a part of various communities and not just one.  He also believes that in order for a writer really to have anything to write about there must be some sort of community surrounding him in order for him to have issues to address.  He believes a writer is never strictly alone within himself and that there is always a community surrounding him. Based on his readings and my own understanding of community I would say that community is being connected to something outside of yourself, to A network of people and ideas, norms and values. Being in a community means that you are connected to others in order to share these ideas and to those who may share similar thoughts and beliefs with yourself.  Some communities that I am part of would include the Immanuel Church community, the community of writers within my class room, and finally living in a small community of people back in Chadron. The Immanuel Church community came from people coming together to worship and sharing similar beliefs and therefor coming together as a group.  The community of writers in my class room came together because of the need to expand knowledge, all yearning to expand their knowledge In the field of writing, and my community in Chadron came from people wanting to get away from other places so they all moved to one spot where we have come together as a small town to form bonds and create a community. These are communities because of the bonds and connectedness within its members that they create.  Language and writing is an important part within all of these communities such as through scripture, through ordinances and laws within the town and all of the writing and communication that will take place within our classroom community.