Students are often put in a "straight jacket" with regard to communicating their real feelings when writing in school. They have been instructed so extensively in watching out for run-on sentences, split infinitives, comma splices, and a multitude of other possible mechanical errors that they are fearful of what they write at all. Each sentence is so carefully constructed that it often says nothing of the very thought the student originally wanted to convey. They type of writing is so consciously done that it can hardly avoid being dull. True, mechanics are important, but even more important is the other element—content. The best way to achieve content that is creative is to write from the inside, to write what one feels.
Dr. Rockwood's course, Advanced Composition EH 301, is so structured that the student learns to write from the inner self. Ideas begin to glow freely and take a form of their own. In order for this to happen, though, one must get to know oneself from the standpoint of the unconscious. The unconscious mind is the most honest part of the human psyche. One way the course teaches the student to get to know the "inside" is by recognition of the importance of dreams. Everyone dreams so everyone has had a life-long experience with the intricate fantasies characteristic of this level of the mind. These fantasies our unconscious produces are the basis for a number of papers required for this course. The relating of dreams and attempts at analyzing them invariably bring out a part of the self that the person never knew existed. Many times dreams are so clear that when setting them down on paper it is easy to write vivid, concrete descriptions. This kind of imagery is the essence of good writing.
As an aid to analysis of dreams and understanding the unconscious, this course required the following three books:
In addition, the student was required to keep a dream diary. This is a record of dreams one has from day to day. This dream diary is useful in helping to recall the vivid imagery one might want to tell about in a paper and it also enables the student to detect any kind of pattern existing in the dreams themselves. Recurrent patterns often tell us that something may be bothering us or reveal problems with otherwise hidden aspects of our personalities.
Augmenting dreams as a basis for expository compositions are memory and emotion. A contrast and comparison of memories and dreams lay the groundwork for still another paper. We dealt with various aspects of emotion in still another. Memory and emotion both, like dreams, produce a reaction that we can then analyze in order to probe more deeply into ourselves. Understanding what lies behind our feelings provides data that can contribute to conclusions of sometimes startling depth.
All the various topics for papers are ones for which the writer has an overwhelming store of information, since most of it comes from within. If one uses these inner resources correctly, allowing the conscious mind to find meaning in the data from the unconscious, one becomes a more profound and creative person. The first place, where the transformation becomes evident is, of course, in one's writing. I, myslef, have gained more from this course than any other writing course I have ever taken. This course gave me a chance to explore an area of mymself that otherwise I might never have been aware of. To write with the penetrating honesty that Dr. Rockwood's method makes possible liberates us from the shackles that the conscious mind so delights in constructing around us, in order to make us forget what our souls are really like.
© Copyright 2002 by Robert J. R. Rockwood. All rights reserved.