Contemplations, Creations and…well it’s a blog.

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Writer vs Academic- One of Elbow's views

I believe that one of the major differences between the roles of the academic and the writer, to Elbow, is that the academic more or less is told exactly how to write whilst the writer is less restricted and is able to put more of themselves into their pieces. Unlike Bartholomae who argues that true writing can only come from scholars and must be emulated, Elbow believes that those scholarly writings can be reviewed and utalized, but only as a sort of added bonus. He encourages writers to do their own writing; by putting themselves into it and ignoring traditional holdings and restrictions they will grow and succeed.

This is illustrated in how he describes that he believes it is fair to let a student get a big head about their writing even though, in the past, their subjects had been written better by another. By doing this, it is encouraging the writer to proceed with their writings in a not-so-restricted manner and to help build confidence and in the end, leave room for a masterpiece to be erected.

Bartholomae believes that a writer, is in a sense, only one who strives to write as a scholar does. This is acknowledged to Elbow that it is a form of writing but in no way the only correct way to go about it. All in all, he views that the writer is the person holding the pencil, not the tentative student sweating over the latest prized scholar and wondering how they could possibly measure up to that capacity.