Commonplace Book
Over the entirety of the quarter, you’ll be adding to a weekly “commonplace book.” A commonplace book is a place for writers to gather their thoughts and ideas, note any interesting overheard or read things, make notes, etc.
The term “commonplace” has its origins (and is still used sometimes to mean) an argument or topic of general accessibility. For example, I could use the commonplace of “hard work leads to success.” Because it’s a well-known argument, and I’ve paid attention to and made mental notes on the usual ways it gets talked about, I can riff on that idea (both in agreement and disagreement) for minutes or hours, depending on the audience and occasion. (For what it’s worth, I’d be more likely to disagree with that commonplace than to agree with it.) This is actually the origin of how we talk about “topics” in writing. Topos (τόπος) in Ancient Greek referred to physical place, and so the “topic” of an argument is the place at which speakers locate themselves.
For your commonplace, I’m asking you to focus on language (written and/or spoken): how you hear/read people using it; how you see it working to generate or inhibit ideas; how you use it in your own work and life; how it complicates/extends/reinforces your thoughts; passages you’ve read; sentences you enjoy; inspiration you find through words; etc. Feel free to include links, images, gifs, quotes, or anything else to help you explain your thoughts.
Aim for about 250-500 words worth of material each week. You should write one commonplace entry per week to end up with ten entries in total by the end of the quarter. I’ll be checking in every week or two to make sure people aren’t falling behind.
I thought it might be useful to have a few examples to draw from, so I’m including links to some below:
My commonplace book (I kept this for reading I was doing in a graduate course in the history of rhetoric)
H.P. Lovecraft’s commonplace book
Dr. Saur’s commonplace book (also from a graduate course, I think)
