Reflecting on Reading Boice

There is something to be said for Boice and his ability to work in useful bits of knowledge. Often times, when I am reading Boice, I feel as though much of the material overlaps. I find myself constantly asking, “Haven’t I heard this before?” Although what I find interesting about this reflection is that part of what I am responding to is not necessarily what I have previously read in this book. Much of his ideas, including balancing our time and work and spending equal time pre-writing as writing, are not entirely new. So, in this sense, Boice does a nice job of pulling directly from real world concerns and issues that have proven to plague both the new graduate student, teacher and scholar.

Nonetheless, what is interesting about reading Boice is that, despite being aware of many of these issues, he still manages to catch you off guard at times force you to rethink some connection you previously had established.

This book clearly has an emphasis on rethinking our daily tasks as writer and teachers in terms of our habits. Rather than directly asserting advice, as the title denotes, the book seems to be challenging us to rethink our habits and our expectations. We are placed in both the personal and the familiar, which can create much resistance. However, as stated previously, the book’s reading experience still manages to surprise, in that it seems to take what we know but refuse to accept and explain it in a way that dissolves past resistance.

If I take this week’s reading for example, I might look at his statement: “As mindful writers, we think about what needs doing and what can been done now, while doing it” (154-155). Boice exemplifies here this idea of being aware of our mindsets as we write and, in this example, demonstrates the way in which we evaluate accuracy and efficiency as we work. However, what is useful about this statement is not only the emphasis it places on being aware of our processes, but the way in which it also directs us to be reasonable about our expectations. In other words, Boice crafts his suggests in a two-fold manner, where one aspect is looking to assess how we function and the other aspect is aiming to reflect why we act in this manner. Therefore, if I follow through on this reflection, I would say that I was drawn to this example because it was rooted in something I was familiar with. It was real, or, at least, I was poignantly aware that I do in fact think this way. But this insight also enables me to see past this initial perception and understand that I also find this example useful because it speaks to the need to be aware of our expectations as well as their realities.