Writing in an Everywhere Space

Like my students, I have had to transition into blog writing from a more "traditional" academic space of masters and doctoral English classes. I am fairly skilled at MLA style, argumentative structures, Toulmin's model for Argumentation, and the like. But what about writing in a 3-D space, one that invites dialogue, disagreement, and what I would like to call "live" writing (writing that has not ended because its potential through a blog and through continued potential audience interaction allows it to continue to "breathe" on the Internet)? What can students learn from blog writing that will benefit their academic life? And what from their academic life can benefit the blogosphere?

Take the advice of master fictioneer Stephen King. In his Second Foreword in On Writing, he suggests that On Writing is short ecause "most books about writing are filled with bullshit. Fiction writers, present company included, don't understand very much about what they do--nor why it works when it's good, nor why it doesn't when it goes bad" (11). I think that King could be talking about nonfiction writers in academia, too. I remember most of my work back in the day, up to and including the very recent present with my final dissertation defense. I know what environment I set to write that text (Centreville Library cubicles, laptop, a heavy bag full of books and a Diet Coke, and T-minus three hours until I was back on baby duty). But I don't know how I did what I did, really. I cannot look in on my brain and decipher step-by-step actions in the writing of academic texts. Really, all I can do is share a feeling that I was setting the stage in an appropriate way. I worked with feedback from my director, and went back to the library. I would research and read mostly at night, in bed before I fell asleep; and I would write in the mornings and during the quiet afternoons when my daughter was asleep. Sometimes at home I'd work on it with a big glass of Cabernet Sauvignon. In the end it worked out.

That text said a lot about how students writing blogs was a good thing; that students created "artifacts" that continue to speak to those who interact with those artifacts. So now I encourage students to write blogs in my ENG 112 classroom. I tell them to choose a newsworthy and researchable topic (as the best topics I've found are those that the authors are interested in but aren't experts--not yet).

So what works with these online artifacts? 

1. They can absolutely be academic. By the very nature of topics chosen, students can quickly link to current trends in IT, in neuroscience, in healthcare policy, in the environment. 
2. Students can write conventionally; they can choose academic phrasing and structure, making their texts more like academic papers than newspapers or social blogs/social media Twitter responses.
3. Blog discussion can fuel an edit and an enhancement of text, which mirrors peer-to-peer or instructor-to-peer classroom feedback on early drafts of academic papers.
4. Blog writers can learn burgeoning Web technologies that will help transition them to real-world writing experiences (because, really, not all student writers will land careers in academia).
5. Blog writing is the great equalizer: there is no peer-review, and fresh ideas can be published by anyone with access to the Internet.

Of course, there are issues with online writing, too:

1. Students can adopt the writing of the personal on the Web. Slang, misspellings, fragmented sentences, and a lack of clarity of argument can fill the spaces of a blog post. Student writers can forget audience and imagine that they are writing an online diary and not an academic text.
2. Freedom in blog design can support some students but throw other students off (those without an "eye" for pleasing design. Strange blog layouts, color combinations, small fonts (all the creative, visual things an academic paper strips from students' work are available on blogs) can distract from even the best argument.
3. When students don't research well (the first few hits on a Google search is quite different from a real in-depth research of Lexis-Nexis or other a college's educational databases), their arguments can seem trite, "too safe," or just plain ill-informed.
4. Student blog writers can find argumentative blogs to emulate that have no real substance, creating a never-ending loop of false support. 
5. While blog writing is the great equalizer, a lack of peer-review can affect not just the quality but the quantity of texts one has to wade through. Making quality works more difficult to find in a saturated blogosphere.

I'm confident that students blogging can overcome these negatives and come up with a series of texts that dig deeply enough on a topic that they will have gained benefit from their research and writing. I don't know if I can tell a student how to write a blog any better than I can tell them how to write an academic essay. Each student has to grapple with context: What is the topic they chose? What position do they take on the issue? Why? What don't they know about the issue? What can an audience be educated about so that they can be persuaded ethically? These are the questions writing professors can and should ask. But it doesn't really change when writing for the Web. Those questions are still important. The benefit, though, is that students get an audience with potential, much wider than that of a 16-week college classroom. The benefits of those online audience members, and of the potential academic artifact, expand into possibility.

Work Cited

King, Stephen. On Writing. New York: Scribner, 2000.

Blog Writing: Coming up with a Workable Idea

This semester is another one in which my students are diving into blog writing for our semester in ENG 112 (second semester composition). I have seen a variety of topics over the years, to include politics, the environment, cultural differences ("fish out of water," stories, for example). The paranormal, movie reviewers, and South Asian entertainment have also been tackled. What drives students to these topics? How do they choose them and sustain them over the course of a semester? Some students key in on a topic they're comfortable with, something that they read about or watch or study in their spare time. That was true when I did my semester blogs on home improvement and personal finance. Others choose a topic they want to learn more about, allowing them to benefit their personal interest by tying it to an academic assignment.

One of the main goals I try to drill into students is that when they have a choice in the topics they write, they should choose a topic that has personal interest to them. But I also want them to be challenged. If a student is into fashion, I don't want a basic fashion blog. I want each student to challenge their understandings and assumptions of fashion and write about what they don't fully know about. For example: for the fashion student, how hard would it be to get a design off the ground? What time, tools, education, connections, luck, finances, and skills would a designer need? This student could also research how fashion magazines key in on trends; how having celebrity spokespeople helps or hurts a brand; even the commodity of fashion could be discussed. 

Any blog writer must be determined to build their archive of posts to show a depth of discussion, time studying the topic, an understanding of a dual audience (classmates and those interested in their topic), both academic and real-world writing conventions (citations/references for academic-style posts, and hyperlinks and clear citations for the blog-oriented posts). Writers should encourage discussion and debate and build additional posts based on these dialogues. 

Remember: blog writing is community-oriented writing. Your audience will appear; they'll make themselves obvious through their comments, and they'll let you know what they think about your content. You can make that a benefit and continue to grow as a writer through all of that interaction. Take a chance with blogging and see what comes of it...

Back to the Grind...

My husband and I are in a competition for April: whomever does the most running/walking mileage wins. I don't know what we're shooting for, but I think he wants a Kinect and I want to get bikes so we can cross-train. Either way, we're still working out. But I realize now that I, at least, have to be working out differently so that I can continue to run throughout and beyond this time of injury.

What keeps athletes going through an injury? Is it desire to win, or an addiction to the "runner's high"? That's not even a fiction. According to Gina Kolata, in her article in The New York Times, she suggests that

The runner’s-high hypothesis proposed that there were real biochemical effects of exercise on the brain. Chemicals were released that could change an athlete’s mood, and those chemicals were endorphins, the brain’s naturally occurring opiates. Running was not the only way to get the feeling; it could also occur with most intense or endurance exercise.

The problem, though, was that to test runners on this, researchers would do spinal taps (think epidural but testing fluid from the spine, not injecting numbing medication), which for some reason cannot be performed immediately prior to a workout. But Kolata notes that German researchers 

using advances in neuroscience, report in the current issue of the journal Cerebral Cortex that the folk belief is true: Running does elicit a flood of endorphins in the brain. The endorphins are associated with mood changes, and the more endorphins a runner’s body pumps out, the greater the effect.

The more some people run, the better they feel. Kolata reports in her article that the researchers, who studied long-distance runners, could "even see it in [the runners'] faces"--that the runner's high was not only psychological but manifested physically as well. But not all researchers interpret the "high" in the same way. According to Lenny Bernstein in his article "Endorphin-Fueled ‘Runner’s High’ Is Taken as Fact in the Gym World. But Is It?" in The Washington Post, he notes that

Researchers then blocked endorphin receptors in some subjects but found no difference in the effects of exercise on mood changes. Others tested the blood of subjects after strenuous exercise and discovered lots of endorphins, which are also produced by the adrenal glands, Raglin said. The problem is that these hormones don’t effectively cross the barrier that keeps most of the blood supply out of the brain. And there are other hormones, as well as temperature and blood pressure changes, that may be part of unusual feelings after a hard workout.

So it could be endorphins, or it could be "an increase in body temperature" (Bernstein), or any of a variety of factors. The truth of the matter is that "runner's high" is a combination of our present mood, succeeding a difficult workout, body temperature, endorphins, and the natural mixture of our very individualized chemical make-up. 

So no matter what the combination, if you feel better after a workout, you can call it whatever you like. I prefer to keep mine "runner's high," and I'll probably never know the exact reason it happens, just that it does often enough to keep me working out for 6-8 hours a week in my laundry room. I think "runner's high" brings injured runners back to the sport, including myself. There is something to be said about getting up, going into my laundry room, and running for two hours a pop that doesn't generally make a lot of sense unless there was a reward of some sort. The lighting is dingy and fluorescent; I stare at shelves; the laundry is often loud and knocking around. And it's pretty hot in there, too. But I run, now, 20+ miles a week (last distance: 9 miles). If it's not runner's high, then, what could it be?

Works Cited

Bernstein, Lenny. "Endorphin-Fueled ‘Runner’s High’ Is Taken as Fact in the Gym World. But Is It?" Washingtonpost.com. Washington Post. 14 June 2011. Web. April 7, 2012.

Kolata, Gina. "Yes, Running Can Make You High." Newyorktimes.com. New York Times, 27 Mar. 2008. Web. 7 April 2012.

There Are Plenty of Options...

Yesterday I had my MRI review meeting with my orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Andrew Parker. I brought in the MRI, and we went over the radiologist's interpretations before Dr. Parker showed me the actual MRI images of my right knee.

There are multiple issues at play: (1) bits of cartilage have broken off and are floating around (but they're quite small at the moment); (2) I'm losing cartilage, esp. behind the kneecap; (3) I'm developing osteoarthritis; (4) I have a lot of fluid build-up all around the patella; and (5) I have scar tissue buildup from my previous 1,984 other knee surgeries (slight exaggeration on the number), in addition to some calcification of tissue around the kneecap. 

Dr. Parker suggests that this means: my knee is an utter and absolute mess. But I have options. They are: (1) knee replacement (not quite yet--like "killing an ant with a bazooka"); (2) arthroscopic surgery to clean out debris, calcification, and some of the scar tissue (but this won't guarantee lessening of swelling and/or pain); (3) injections of OrthoVisc, a "joint fluid treatment" that treats osteoartritis for months at a time; and (4) taking Glucosamine Condroitin and Aleve (for inflammation). 

As you can see with the above list, I've organized it in order or horrendousness (worst first). But the good news is that I start with (4), move to (3) in a few months, and keep repeating (3) for the next few years. I have been told I can continue to run. But, alas, I cannot run "a lot": maybe 20 miles a week, or 25. But I'll never marathon or ultramarathon, the real hope I had when I started blogging on this topic. 

It's funny: in the last ten years I've had no problems with my knees whatsoever. I knew I had these surgeries and I have the scars to prove it. But I had bounced back, and I felt a bit bionic. I laughed when my mother cringed as she asked me, "how many miles did you run today?" As if it was all a dream, the previous injuries. But at my age (38) it was just a matter of time. Those injuries would eventually come back. I think this is akin to hearing my grandfather-in-law, at 93, just this week was diagnosed with lung cancer. He quit smoking in the 1950s, but it eventually caught up with him.

In my research I've found plenty of articles on overuse injuries for ultraendurance athletes. Consider the article by O'Toole et al.: Overuse Injuries in Ultraendurance Triathietes from the American Journal of Sports Medicine. The injuries to the athletes were common and random (not all athletes had the same injuries). The bad news is that I am not an Ironman competitor: my last actual elite sports competition was in 1994. 

The good news is that these athletes, who do dangerous and outrageous sports feats, keep doing it. So I might have to get injections with a horse needle into my knee every couple of months to keep running. And I will.

All the Excuses in the World...

All the excuses in the world won't get a runner ready to be an ultrarunner. Excuses of mine so far: injuries. Time. Dissertation. Family. But there are plenty of runners out there with families and jobs and injuries who become world-class (or even just consistent) ultrarunners. For me, injury has been the key interrupter in my training.

Roy Stevenson, an exercise physiologist and writer for ultraRUNNING online, says of DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness), "It is very common for out-of-condition or beginning runners to experience DOMS. Its severity depends on how much and how intensely we exercise, and whether we have performed that exercise before. But it’s not just beginning runners who are susceptible to DOMS – even well-conditioned runners who’ve been training consistently for several years can experience DOMS after a race or vigorous training session, especially a lengthy downhill-running workout."

I can attest to having suffered DOMS. And Stevenson is right that those of us who think we're conditioned but are not. I was only running 25 miles a week when I pulled my right calf muscle, and that's not nearly enough mileage to consider a marathon, let alone an ultrarunning event. 

One of the most important things I can learn from Stevenson is that the actual damage done to muscles is real. Stevenson says, "Traumatized muscle is a war zone! Your leg muscles are under siege after repeated eccentric contractions and the descriptions of the damage sound horrifying. Here are some of the main protagonists: disruption to the muscle sarcomere; breaching of cell membranes; swollen muscle fibers; wear and tear on connective tissues (ligaments and tendons); calcium spillage from muscle tubules; cell inflammation and increased production of superoxide free radicals..." The pain we feel has a cause and can be medically identified; and so my month off, while it might not be the length of time required for full rest, was one of the smartest things I've done for my ultrarunning dreams.

Stevenson finishes by suggesting that "Apart from using the modalities recommended above as preventative methods (warm-up, ice, compression, some antioxidants, and post-training carbohydrate/protein mixtures), stimulating DOMS to a minor degree in training will prepare the runner better for DOMS muscle trauma." And this makes sense: runners, like all athletes, need to be fully prepared for the difficulties of DOMS during training and events. Knowing how muscle soreness feels and how to mitigate the damage will help me keep running even when DOMS flares up.

International Herald Tribune Blog about China and Censorship

Check out this article by Mark McDonald.

The Waiting Game

Some good news on the medical front: my injury to my knee is not major; so minor, in fact, that I've run twice this week. But the good news isn't great for one reason: I still have a scheduled MRI on Thursday. What the orthopedic surgeon saw on X-Rays and through mobility of my right knee is that it could be a small amount of scar tissue that makes me feel the "pop" behind my right knee when I climb stairs. That would be great news. The tissue will dissolve eventually and won't harm me in the long run.

But the potential bad news: it could be loose cartilage, in which case a minor surgery would be needed to remove any cartilage that's hanging out in there but not in place. As cartilage is the "cushion" for the knees and absorbs the impact of contact sports and the stresses of running, I need all I can get. So for many reasons I'm crossing my fingers for scar tissue. When in the world will I ever say that again?

There is also hope for me in that while I was informed that, at 38, I have arthritis in my right knee due to all the trauma of previous injuries/surgeries, that arthritis will not limit my running. "They're not incompatible," says Dr. Parker. And, if you think about it, running and staying healthy will help my joints by limiting weight gain (a real bear on the joints), creating endorphin rushes to help with mood, and work on my cardiovascular system, which supports overall health. 

The most amazing thing I learned at my appointment last week was that there is a new treatment for runners (NFL players, basket ballers, basically anyone who is super active and tough on their knee joints) called Synvisc. Synvisc is a joint lubricant that an athlete can get (injected into the knees, yes) once or twice a year to work in sync with the cartilage and to work as a "shock absorber"; it also does wonders for pain relief.

Now, the question is, to research Synvisc and runners; who uses it? What have been their results with it? Also, will my insurance cover the costs?

Health care is expensive; but I think it would be more expensive, in the long run, not to run...

References Cited

Parker, D. Andrew. Interview: March 9, 2012. http://commonwealthorthocenters.com/