"Dreams and Inward Journeys," 6th ed. J & M Ford
Another College Writing Textbook Reviewed
Mar 28, 2009
This is a beautiful book. Its collection of essays is unlike most college readers. With the emphasis on the interior, thinking life rather than the social, action life these essays are more dense and challenging for the younger college writing student than others. Of course, this all depends on the group of students one is working with as well as the teacher’s own predilections. There will be some in every class that revel in this book; there will be others who find it more daunting.
Not for Everyone: Slim on Strategy
There is one aspect of the book which might be considered a weakness, especially for those students and teachers for whom texts like Reading Critically, Writing Well or The Bedford Reader remain the ace of all college writing text books. This concerns the slim amount of discussion or discourse on writing strategies. What is given is well-written summary at the beginning of each chapter addressing the main points of that genre.
Although it is written with clarity and a certain style, it lacks the details that other such books would afford. In other words, some might like things more spelled out with various topics, headings, step by steps approaches such as seen in the other reviews here. For those who feel comfortable navigating this terrain with less guidance, and who are adept at supplementing their own teaching material, this book is excellent. As a reader, for the more sophisticated reader, it is highly rewarding.
Emphasis on Process View
After and brief introduction of the philosophy of the book to both teachers and students respectively, the first chapter lays out a process view of both reading and writing. Like the rest of the book, this is a little unusual. Not that it hasn’t become almost mainstream to talk process theory of the literary arts, but the focus here is as much on how the writer and reader thinks and experiences their process as the basic writing techniques being given to the student. This theme of addressing the interior life of the reader and writer is carried throughout.
Essays Reflect Inner Experience
The essays chosen for the text illustrate this theme in some fashion. Beginning with Stephen King’s illuminating essay The Symbolic Language of Dreams in which he sites his own writing process coming directly from his interior dream life, the discussions aroused by this essay of student dreams is rich indeed. This focus continues throughout, building to the chapter 4 entitled Dreams, Myths, and Fairy Tales whereby, and this is indicative of the book’s emphasis, the Compare/Contrast mode is taught using various versions of fairy tales and myths. For the one chapter that teaches a student the compare/contrast essay, this seems barely adequate. Again, for the teacher comfortable in supplementing with his or her own material, it is highly credible.
Chapters in This Book:
- Discovering Ourselves in Writing and Reading
- Places in Nature: Observing Nature and Writing Description
- Journeys in Memory: Narration, Memory, and Self-Awareness
- Dreams, Myths, and Fairy Tales: Comparing and Contrasting: Strategies for Thinking and Writing
- Obsessions and Transformations; Definition: Word Boundaries of the Self
- Journeys in Sexuality and Gender: Causality and the Inward Journey
- The Double/The Other: Argument and Dialogue
- Pop Dreams: Research Writing
- Voyages in Spirituality: Creativity, Problem Solving, and Synthesis
Alternate Arrangements
There is also an arrangement of the content by strategies: Description, Narrative, Process Analysis, Example and Illustration, Comparison and Contrast, Classification, Definition, Casual Analysis, Argument, Interpretation and Evaluation, Research Writing, Literary Fiction, and Poetry.
Essays Included Are:
- Ursula Le Guin’s A Matter of Trust
- Amy Tan’s Mother Tongue
- Diane Ackerman’s Deep Play
- Donvan Webster’s Inside the Volcano
- Patricia Hampl’s Memory and Imagination
- Linda Seger’s Universal Stories
- A Collection of Creation Myths
- Four Versions of Cinderella
- Annie Lamott’s Hunger
- Sigmund Freud’s Erotic Wishes and Dreams
- Robert Johnson’s Owning Your Own Shadow
- Fran Peavey’s Us and Them
- Jane Goodall’s In the Forest of Gombe
For another informative article on college writing see How to Write a Strong Beginning.
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