If students know what quality is why is their writing so bad?
There are many reasons. Some are square. Some do not care.
Some, because of poor instruction, do not know that they know what
quality is. Many students have been brainwashed into believing that
only instructors know what quality is. Often when a student realizes
for the first time that he really does know what quality is in writing
he also begins to care for the first time.
A third reason why student writing is so bad even though
students know what quality is, is that an ability to recognize good
writing comes much easier than an ability to produce it. Usually
students can discern between good and bad writing without being able
to write well. But if a student cannot discern quality in his own
writing there is no hope for him -- no method in the world will ever
help him learn how to write. That is why I believe pure quality should
be taught before any methods of producing it are taught.
[Robert Pirsig's 1961 Letter to Professor Edith Buchanan]
Pure quality is the wind that pushes us along. In order to teach pure
quality, consider the wind. It's invisible. No one has ever seen it.
But it's always there, pushing us, compelling us onward. And there is
no going back. Within the framework of the MOQ, we call it Dynamic
Quality. And, once named, it is easy to understand it. That's the
mistake... the naming. That is a logical absurdity.
How does one teach that which is pre-intellectual? How does one think
about that which precedes all thought? It is easier to recognize
quality than it is to produce it. Pure quality is neither patterned or
un-patterned. To know quality is recognition but to produce quality is
cognition. In other words, producing quality writing requires the
application of knowledge and the ability to change preferences within
differing contexts.
To know pure quality is to learn the wind. There is no pattern to the
wind but that doesn't mean it is un-patterned. There is only
nothingness until we feel the push. There is only emptiness until we
become filled. Experience is the beginning with the wind pushing
irrevocably toward the end. Know this, and know pure quality.
Thank you,
Dan
Moq_Discuss mailing list
Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
Archives:
http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
http://moq.org/md/archives.html
