Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Give Yourself a Little Credit

Here I sit, in front of the ol' computer screen, mere moments after finishing a group tutoring session with two capable and intelligent students, each of whom wrote a rough-but-promising first draft of an essay describing a memorable event in their lives. As I reflect on the session, however, the content of their papers becomes fuzzy; all I can remember is unending self-deprecation.

"Yikes! That was a terrible sentence," one client blurted out in the middle of reading her paper.

"Whoa...this is so badly written. I'm sorry," the other said when reading her draft.

And those aren't the only examples I could give. There were many other times at which both students interrupted their reading, apparently to let me and the other group member know how aware they were that their first drafts were not sterling and polished. It's almost as if simply reading the draft without the commentary would label them not only bad writers, but frighteningly unaware bad writers. The running commentary seemingly passed from one student to the other, as they each seemed too self-conscious to focus on reading their papers. The most common phrase uttered for the hourlong session was, "I'm sorry."

Somewhere between the fifth and tenth apology I got to thinking...self-deprecation is not uncommon among writers at any level. Personally, I couldn't tell you which sin I have committed more: thinking my writing was complete garbage and being wrong, or feeling like I wrote the perfect piece of genius literature and being...not quite right.

Self-doubt--and, occasionally, self-loathing--fits the artistic mold like a glove, and whether you love to write or hate to write, whether you are enrolled in writing-intensive English or are merely writing one 3-4 page essay for a history class, being a college student means adapting to the artistic mold, too. As a result, even students who don't fancy themselves "writers" fall prey to the same self-doubt that plagues those willing to label themselves with such a dubious distinction.

Taking all these thoughts into consideration, I arrived at a very simple conclusion, one cleverly disguised as a question: Why apologize?

If ever there was a unified message of this blog, it is that writing is a process. The road from first draft to final draft may vary in length, but there more than likely will be a road. You cannot expect to bloom precious literary foliage after only one try. The idea is to plant the seeds...or lay the groundwork...or whatever other mixed metaphor you can think of. In time, your ideas will fully bloom.

So give yourself a little credit...and a little time. Your masterpiece is merely in progress.

Now, if only I could have said that to my clients....

A little of this, A little of that

I know what you're thinking, "Who's this girl, and why is she blogging now?" Well, the truth is, I have spent most of this quarter trying to think of something to blog about. I came up with a few ideas, but none seemed blog-worthy. I suppose I'm somewhat of a perfectionist.


Let me start with an introduction. I am a tutor at the University Writing Center, and a freshman at Wright State. You may be wondering how a lowly freshman can get a job at a wonderful place like the Writing Center, right? It was simple, really. As a senior in high school, I participated in a program called PSEO (Post-Secondary Education Option), which enabled me to take college classes for free, recieving high school and college credit at the same time. In this program, I took the first two English classes in the General Education Requirement along with a few others that I got to bypass here at Wright State. It was a very good experience, and I recommend it to anyone who is still in high school.



I guess now I'm supposed to talk about writing, right? One thing I found that has made me a better writer is reading. I'm a very active bookworm; I read about a book or two per week. I've found that in reading, I have greatly improved my vocabulary, as well as grammar. I have even found myself noticing grammatical mistakes in published books. Reading a lot really familiarizes you with the english language; you start to learn how to figure out the meaning of words based on their context.



For instance, you read a sentence that has a confusing word in it, so you want to find out what that word means in order to understand the sentence better. Nine times out of ten, you can look at the rest of the paragraph or even just the rest of the sentence to find the meaning of that one word. Once you have an idea of what the word means, you can replace it with a synonym and store it for future reference. If you do this often enough, with enough words, eventually it will build up your vocabulary, which will greatly improve your writing.
So there it is. A little about me, a little about writing. More to come soon.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Random Blurts

We've all heard it happen, I'm sure. Everyone is sitting, talking, having an enjoyable time, then, suddenly and without warning, someone randomly blurts out something that seems to be completely disconnected from the previous topic of discussion. Chances are, you’ve been in one of those situations, or perhaps you caused it. You’ve given, or received one of those puzzled looks, and you’ve felt the awkward silence.

This unfortunate situation not only happens in speaking but in writing as well. The main problem is that, while you can explain yourself for random utterances in person, you can’t always be there to explain the random things in your paper.

Transitions are a crucial part of speech and writing. Without them, it is nearly impossible to maintain a decent flow of ideas. The point of a transition is to effectively connect two ideas. Just like when you are speaking, when writing, don’t just give an idea. Connect one idea to the previous one. Your paragraphs in an essay are your ideas. To be effective, start with a topic sentence to show the relationship of the paragraph to the one preceding it. At the end of each paragraph, give a sense of completion, and end on a note that leaves the door open for a smooth transition to the next paragraph.

Smooth transitions ensure that the flow of ideas will be understood more easily by readers. Using transitions effectively in writing, and with speech, help put a stop to those awkward moments caused by Random Blurts.

________________________________________________
Now check the transitions in what you’ve just read:
Title: Random Blurts.
Opening sentence, paragraph 1: connects title to the reader.
Closing sentence, paragraph 1: describes the situation.
Opening sentence, paragraph 2: connects the situation to writing.
Closing sentence, paragraph 2: shows the way poor transitions affect writing.
Opening sentence, paragraph 3: presents the importance of good transitions.
Closing sentence, paragraph 3: gives ideas of how to make a smooth paragraph closing.
Opening sentence, paragraph 4: brings up the benefits of smooth transitions.
Closing sentence, paragraph 4: relates transitions in speaking and writing back to the title.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Who Cares About Writing Anway?

Words are like children. Great care must be given to them when they come into existence.

In the years that led me to become the writer that I am today, I started as someone who didn't really like writing. It took far too much time. It was tedious and tasteless. I didn't care for it, but it was a necessary evil. Reports were tolerable, but essays left a bitter taste in my mouth--as if I'd been drinking unsweetened lemonade.

I didn't honestly enjoy writing until I took English 101 during my freshman year at Wright State. I can still remember writing a vivid narrative of the time my brother and I made a silent film. It all led up to the moment that I stood on a rooftop and jumped off, landing on a dilapidated trampoline that did nearly nothing to break my fall, but it was for the camera--and it looked great. I had fun writing it, and the "A" I got on it was nice too.

During freshman year I also began writing poetry, which I understand may sound strange since I was a Computer Science major at the time. I found that poetry allowed me to express myself in ways that C++ code could not. Poetry was personal. Besides that, ordinary people had greater appreciation for reading a page of poetry rather than code. Before I'd gotten through the middle of my sophomore year, I decided that English was for me, and I changed my major to Technical Writing.

Writing is, and perhaps always will be, a tedious task for me. It is a challenge, but I have never been one to back away from a challenge. Words, like children, must be tended to. You can't just let them run wild. Looking after your words is something you will do for the rest of your life. I once thought that writing was an isolated task, something that had no use outside of a writing class. Over the years I've seen otherwise. Words and writing are a major part of our lives. Choosing your words carefully when you write trains you to do the same thing when you speak, and unless you are awesome at saying the right thing the first time and every time, writing is something that will be useful for the rest of your life, in school and out of school.

If you don't believe me, stay tuned for more. I'll prove it!

(Did you see that? I just created a thesis. I plan to prove that writing affects every aspect of our lives. The funny thing is, I wasn't trying to form a thesis. You'll see, we use the conventions of writing every day without realizing it.)

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Don't Expect a Creative Title

Since most of the other blog contributors have introduced themselves, I figure I ought to do so as well. But the problem is, I’m not sure where to start. Unlike many of my fellow tutors, I am not creative. I can’t remember the last time I’ve written a story or a poem or really anything even somewhat entertaining. And there are plenty of writing assignments that I flat-out loathe.

But, I’m an English major.

Sometimes I’m not sure how it happened. I changed my major a million times, and I finally realized I better decide on something. But now it’s funny—everyone has an opinion ready when I tell them I’m an English major. Some people laugh. “Wow, must be hard to study the language you speak.” Others are actually somewhat impressed. Someone once told me he thought studying English for four years would be the equivalent of spending four years in prison. I took it as a compliment, and I was rather smug the remainder of the day.. or year.

But in the back of my mind, I know how it happened. Without writing, I think my brain would explode. The problem is, I think too much. All the time. I analyze, I worry, I plan, I obsess, I daydream. And most of it is useless. However, sometimes I stumble upon a gem. A great idea that I just need to get down on paper before I forget. Other times, I have to write down what I’m thinking just to get it out of my head and be done with it. But most of all, I write to understand and organize my thoughts—I couldn’t live without lists.

So how does this relate to anyone other than me? Maybe it doesn't. But basically, I’ve realized that writing is so much more than fulfilling an assignment. Of course writing can be painful, but it can also be liberating. A few years back, I found a quote that pretty much sums up how I feel about writing. So when I’m sitting in front of computer screen grudgingly typing an unwelcome essay, I remember why I write:

"I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means."
—Joan Didion

Monday, February 4, 2008

Developing a Writing Process

In order for writing to be the helpful thinking tool I know it can be, I’ve learned that I need to give myself plenty of time to think, read, and write about the subject at hand. Through years of practice of writing long papers that deal with complicated ideas, I’ve found the most helpful way to work my way through these papers is to rely on the writing process I’ve discovered works best for me.

I have to point out, however, that I don’t believe there is one “correct” writing process for every writer to follow. Each writer should experiment to find out what works best for him/her. For some people, that might include a lot of time researching and analyzing what others have said. For someone else, it might include outlines and diagrams or color-coded drafts that symbolize different organizational patterns. And this process will likely change in some way from paper to paper or depending on how much time you have to deliver a final document.

It took me a long time to find a process that works (for me), and I’m sure I will constantly modify it, but here’s an overview of the process I currently use:

  • Overall, I need to leave myself ample time to think, write, and rewrite building off what I learn along the way. In other words, I can’t wait until the last minute.
  • I usually need to begin by actively reading what others have said about the topic I want to write about. Then, I compose responses to what I read, allowing myself to question what I read, summarize what I read, add my own thoughts, and decide what I still need to find out.
  • Then, I keep files of these responses and other notes I write, and these files serve a similar role to rough drafts – they give me a place to work out my thoughts.
  • All throughout the process, I constantly move back and forth between what I’m reading and thinking and writing, and I document as much of it as possible so that I have plenty to work from when I’m ready to write my final draft.
  • One thing I find most helpful during this process is talking about my ideas with others. Having someone who will listen to my ideas and tell me when they make sense and when they don’t can make a big difference. Not only am I forced to put my thoughts into words (which I may not have had to do yet at that point), but I am forced to acknowledge my shortcomings, such as holes in my logic or ambiguity in what I’m trying to say.
  • Finally, I need to leave myself time to write something, let it sit, and then come back to it (an hour later, a day later, a week later – it just depends how long I have to complete the paper) with fresh eyes and perspective. When I do this, I often find that my argument has changed a little or that there are parts of what I previously wrote that aren’t as clear as I thought they were.

So while I’m not implying this process will (or should) work for everyone, I thought it might be helpful to share what works for me. Of course, what might be even more helpful would be for others to add to this conversation and share what they’ve found to work.

Friday, February 1, 2008

eat your way to good writing... reading diet works!

I am imagining that we are not trying to duplicate a "Writing for Dummies" blog. I also imagine that if you are reading this, you care about your writing skill.


I am a sociologist, not a professional writer or novelist. But, regardless the profession, everyone ought to pay attention to the effectiveness of her or his writing. A maybe less than obvious reason for effective writing is that the words are “singing” a cappella. They stand alone to convey and connote meaning and intention. You do not have the luxury to be standing over the reader’s shoulder able to make “You know what I mean” kinds of comments and clarifications. In this era of instant messaging, text messaging and short order communications involving nearly real time give and take, we sometimes forget that formal writing is NOT a conversation. In a very real way, it is a monologue -- a single channel, one-way communication.

Thinking of our writing that way, we clearly see how effectively communicative it has to be. Hmmm... the list of such "things" could include resumes, term papers, snail mail letters, and e-mails. Okay, let's concede agreement. How can we tweak and fine-tune our writing skills?

I am not attempting to blog you to a best-seller, but here are some grounded, earthy ways to help get the polish and effectiveness you crave:

1. Monkey see, monkey do. Include quality in your reading diet. Without getting too psychological here, the brain thrives on pattern and reinforcement. What we read helps shape the way we speak and write. Reading quality written work (books, articles, literature related to your major or career) cannot help but contribute to improved writing skill.

2. Learn a new tongue. One of the best ways to learn the grammar, syntax, and other intricacies of our own language is to learn a new one. Not only does that force us to know the mechanics of our own better, but can also increase our English vocabulary. Our language is built upon several languages (Latin, Greek, and a good chunk of the Romance Languages). In fact, it is estimated that 40% of English comes from French and its related Romance languages. Even if you knew no French, you would be able to recognize and figure out a goodly portion of the words in a French book. Additional languages also provide alternative and perhaps even new world views and expanded mindsets.

3. Say it. Do not separate your language skills by partitioning them into speaking time, writing time, and reading time. Use your language skills regularly. Do the talk. Gradually increase your vocabulary by retiring or augmenting worn out phrases. After all, if everything gets the label of "awesome" then everything is somehow cheapened and truly less than awesome. Then, when it comes to writing something, you do not have to spend so much time trying to dredge up the words, phrases, and structures that have been lurking but left unused in your mental filing cabinet. Like Darwin said: "If you don't use it, you lose it!"

Three is a good number to stop at. More than that will be forgotten as soon as you leave this blog. Try one. Better yet, share a technique you have mastered that seems to contribute to your writing skill. After all, our goal is better writing for all (including us).