Rhetorically hiding behind words

Well I just finished today's reading assignment and for the first time in 10 days of the new semester I am reading a couple somethings I DO know...how to size up a topic for a research paper. I get the process, having written for a few decades. My mind is rather relieved, having just finished my first math homework just minutes prior, to get a rest. The part not remembered is the how I am supposed to blog or journal about today's reading. So brb...

here it is:

Over the semester it will be useful for you to keep an ongoing journal of certain topics and ideas. These journals can be electronic, audio, video (your phone for example may serve as your video log), written, etc. You will be required to "submit" your journals periodically throughout the semester to receive credit for your work; this should be a copy, not the original.

There are four areas this journal should cover on a regular basis (in whatever order works for you):

• terminology > while the texts do provide a glossary to explain some terms listed in bold, many other terms will come up that you should keep track of. You may choose to simply list definitions and/or you may choose to track different ways the term gets used in different contexts and over time.
• commonplaces > you read in ARCS chapter 1 about commonplaces and how they are embedded in different communities and with different values. Track commonplaces as you notice them in the different communities in which you participate. What are the values associated with them? Are they contested? By whom? Have they always been common? And other such questions should guide how you track and reflect on these commonplaces.
• composing to learn > taking the example from DK p. 15 on "composing to learn," reflect at the end of each reading assignment on those things that you have learned using the questions on p. 15 to guide you. Not only will you want to do this for reading assignments, but also for the assignment sheets you receive for our different projects in class.
• Questions > this will, perhaps, be the most useful component of the journal in that you will want to note the questions that come up for you while reading the various class assignments. When you do this, it provides you material to use in the follow class period's discussion of those readings. Thus, you'll want ready access to this part of your journal each day in class.
  

There were two aspects of today's reading I did enjoy (were new) was differentiating between writing to learn and writing to communicate and using Google as a test of whether something is ready to write about.

I am at the stage of my life, although I am in school, learning...I actually want and need to write regularly so I know what I think. I have never understood the aspect of my brain that, when I sit quietly think how I am feeling, I go 500% blank. Give me a blank piece of paper, an empty screen and a keyboard...lo...there is no quieting me. Hiding behind words.

And...because a good son in law works for Google in adwords...hey yes!! I want everyone to Google everything...thank you, that is all...