The Theory of Positivity

I have no clue what I'm doing in my Theory class.

Every Tuesday and Thursday mornings, I need to have two new theorists read (according to the syllabus), and then have two "reading journals" completed and ready to turn in on those readings. And I would be a liar if I said I thought it was easy or it anything in it made sense. But every week I get at least two of those journals back with all 5 points granted to me, so I shrug and think I'll just keep on doing what I'm doing.

I still have no clue exactly what that is, but apparently it's working out for me. Today at the end of class, my professor even told me, "You're doing really well with these, I'm extremely pleased to see you getting it so much."

So I mean, that kind of makes my mood a tad better when thinking about this class. I'm not really bumping around in the dark and thinking she's just giving me pity points, so it gives me a little more confidence when I turn in some other work in the same class (particularly today's in which I called two of the theorists hypocrites).

I guess the same thing goes with writing and feedback, though. Everybody wants honest feedback, and if you're like me then you send your MS to your CP and say, "Rip it apart. I want to see it bleed." At the same time, what we all need to remember is the fact that positive reinforcement is one of those things that's going to push the writer to continue; let them know what they're doing well on, as well as giving them pointers to make their writing stronger. Because, you never know: that thing you think they're excelling at (however slightly) might be the one thing that they're most unsure of.

And a really random thought of the day: I've been really confused for the past 15 or so hours. Never mind that about 7 of them were spent sleeping, but I feel foggy in the head and extremely strange. Maybe this means I need to write...

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Blogger @Rae_Slater has no clue what she's doing, but apparently she's doing it right. Why positive feedback is so important (Click to Tweet)