Murray & Strasser

              According to Murray, all writing is autobiography. The reason for him  to say this is because whenever someone writes anything, they write it in their own individual way. The words they chose, the tone they take, the way they see the world, and the way they think. It's all their own, personal way of writing, neither right nor wrong. If one had to categorize the separate reasons, it would probably end up being a split between things that readers can actively see, such as the words that are chosen and the tone taken, and things that are important and noticeable to the writer, like the way the world is seen and how they think.
              Murray's arguments probably wouldn't change the way I write all too much, if he's correct about them, since changing it would be doing the exact opposite of what he's saying is writing. However, they probably would change the way I think about it because, as of now, I really don't purposefully put too much of myself into most writing assignments, though it obviously does happen.
            As for the last few papers, texts, what-have-you, that I've written, most of them are considered autobiographies in the way that's described, because I always write things in my own way. What I mean by that, is of course that I write everything from my own point of view and state of mind, without trying to back up and act like someone else.


         She says this because, if you're not enjoying what you're writing, then you're not properly using your skills in writing. The reasoning that I think is behind this, is that you can't write anything truly good, something that's worth being acclaimed and praised, unless it's something that you actually enjoy researching and writing about. Personally, I can agree with that. It's incredibly boring to write about something that doesn't interest you, and there's no way you can use your skills to the fullest doing it.
           There is nothing stated directly that Fish's students won't be able to create "meaningful" writing, but I can see why she would believe that. If you constantly pound something into some one's head, like Fish seems to be doing with Grammar, they will end up memorizing it, but at the same time, they'll hate it because they've had to do so much of it, and so much of the same thing at that, over and over. In short, she probably is right to assume that at least some of Fish's students won't be able to get anywhere writing, but others probably will at the same time, if only because of how people work.

Finally, from personal experience, I can say that school does indeed separate your mind, body and spirit. It's so droning, so repetitive, that by the time you're finally finished and ready to move on, you've been taught, even if it was unintentional, that school must always be something that you resent.