As I was writing into the day this morning, I was writing about why a person would throw away unused writing, and I landed on why I have such an aversion to doing that; I would feel like I was throwing away bits of myself because I connect my identity so heavily to my writing. So, now I am wondering why I do that. Is it because I'm passionate about writing and, therefore, put everything I have into it? Is it just a desire to have my passion, time and effort honored and valued? Even when I write something that has nothing to do with me, I have to fight feeling insulted when someone gives me constructive criticism on the piece. It is so easy to make the leap from "They are critiquing my writing" to "They are critiquing me." Why is that? What links writing to identity?
Also, once that connection is realized, how does that affect the way we respond to writing? How do we help students improve their writing without making them feel like we are telling them to improve themselves. Especially if we change the language - as recommended in Choice Words - to get students to make "writer" part of their identities and tell them that "this is what writers do," what language can I use when responding?
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