Cross-fertilising…

There are some really nice synergies and cross-fertilisation between what’s taught in this unit and other unit I’m taking (MNG03011-Business Research Project). As part of my assignment for that other unit, I have to come up with ways to address my written skills (narrative, reflective writing sty;le) as well as self management skills! and the journal that I’m keeping as part of this unit’s assessment, has very much helped me to work on those two aspects quite nicely.

As part of that other unit’s recommended reading list, we were given these three books to read:

• Holly, M.L. (2002) Keeping a Professional Journal. Sydney: UNSW Press.
• English, L.M. & Gillen, M. A. (Eds.). (2001) Promoting Journal Writing in Adult Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Moon, J. (1999). Learning Journals: A Handbook for Academics, Students and Professional Development. London: Kogan Page.

I have borrowed all three from the library to have a look at what they have to offer. I must say my favourite was English and Gillen’s book titled “Promoting Journal Writing in Adult Education”. So much so, that I even bought my own copy. Much of what is touched upon in that book is relevant to this unit, so I’m keeping it close and refer to it often as part of this journal writing experience (thanks Kath!).

Journey into journaling…

Part of what we’re asked to do for this unit, is to record our learning experiences as a journal or diary – perhaps more suited to write in the first person narrative form….so hard to do! I find it extremely hard, especially when my thinking can sometimes be way faster than my typing. But nonetheless, there are some positives to this style of writing – I feel there is a sense of freedom in that I can be myself through my written expression – I find this quite liberating, not sure exactly how, but my best guess is because in using “I” I can really just express what is on my mind without trying to find justifications, because these thoughts just ‘are’. Writing in the third person is certainly quite different, in that one is somewhat external to what is being said and so the need for having some evidence for what is being written about – not sure, but this is just my first thoughts on why I feel so much more liberated in the first person – there cannot be any right or wrong, because it just ‘is’.