My writing is not as good as I once thought. Ignorance is truly bliss. It is difficult to face old papers with a newly developed critical eye. I am glad that we are having this last chance to take a look at the way we actually write instead of solely focusing on the content of our writing. I know that this will actually have a long-term positive impact on my writing even though short-term it is driving me nuts. I can’t seem to write a single sentence without mentally calculating the lard factor and obsessing over prepositional phrases. Even while blogging, I have changed the sentence structure of the above sentences several times. It may be hard to see the improvements, but I assure you it is better than you would have read without revision.
The downside is I have slowed to a crawl developing papers. Even with the multiple strategies we have learned pertaining to writing and editing later, I put more thought into sentences. This takes time! I still think that this writing class pushes us to produce a good deal of writing, still focusing somewhat on quantity of work over quality. I believe that this course will really make a difference during dissertation writing, but I am afraid that in the interim I will fall back into my old writing habits. I am sure we will be assigned numerous papers each week during the next two semesters. Life and lack of time will dictate speed and efficiency. The idea that will improve my writing forever is the idea of “who’s kicking who”. I believe that I have learned getting to the point makes stronger sentences. Getting to the point period can be a problem if the writing doesn’t say what was intended. I would summarize my learning thus far in one sentence. Learned!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Biography Revision #1
The first memories that I have of my writing do not involve the substance and style of the words that were written on the paper. These memories center around the struggle to form the letters used to write those words and how the teacher was more concerned with my inability to display good handwriting. That was second grade and a time when I scored the lowest grade, a C in handwriting, I would receive until college.
Junior high school introduced me to an English teacher I would spend three years with writing and rewriting papers. Mr. Warren was one of those English teachers that believed diagramming sentences was a fun way to spend an afternoon. He surely had unlimited access to red ink pens, and he showed tendencies of being addicted to the smell of the red ink. Every paper that I turned in came back to me looking more like a Christmas decoration than a serious academic piece. There was no doubt that whatever the caliber of work the first draft of an assignment happened to be, the end result would be a sea of red ink and many future drafts that would have to be written. I do not jest when I say that six revisions of the same paper would be the norm.
There would be a few students in the class that could get by with four or five, but I stayed in the largest group of students that required six revisions before the paper was considered worthy of a grade. In retrospect, the biggest lesson I learned from Mr. Warren was that all writing could be endlessly revised and revamped. The end product is usually better than the initial offering. I also learned that eventually the papers would stop finding their way back into my backpack as a homework assignment. This revision process was much quicker when I became more proficient in proofreading my own work. I learned to anticipate the errors I made regularly and fix them before the paper was turned in the first time.
“Awkward- revise!” was probably one of my least favorite phrases that appeared above my sentences. I wrote what needed to be communicated but not in a succinct manner that was pleasing to the reader. I still struggle with writing sentences that include too many thoughts into one long and overdone sentence. While I despised the teacher and his incessant markings at the time, I now believe that writing in elementary and secondary school suffers because this is a lost practice. Teachers do not spend the time to adequately allow students to learn to proofread and revise their writing.
It’s odd that my high school years are fuzzy as I try to recollect teachers and class assignments that helped me grow as a writer. I know that I churned out papers in high school, but I cannot recall a single incident where I needed more than one draft to get a grade. There was a state writing test administered when I was in tenth grade. I received a score of a 2.5 out of 4. The two scorers of the paper disagreed on the score of the paper. This paper served two purposes pertaining to my writing. I learned that I do not write my best in a timed situation with a bad topic, and the quality of my writing is subject to the person evaluating the piece.
The one class in high school that probably added more to my ability to write than any others during this time period was typing class. While I would not reap the benefits of this class until college, probably no other single class in my life has helped my ability to write more than learning to type and word process. The reason that this class had little impact in high school was that papers were still handwritten. It would be several more years before I could unleash the potential of this new technology in a way that would impact routine class assignments.
My first year in college opened my eyes to the need to become machine-like in my writing. It was not uncommon in English 101 to have 3-5 page papers due on a routine basis. Most of the papers were reflections on material that inspired me little to read, much less write about it. What these assignments did accomplish was allow me to utilize my word processing skills. I was able to use words that I could not spell with out a dictionary, find synonyms to words without hunting down a thesaurus, and use the cut/paste capabilities to my heart’s content. This was quite a liberating experience! Grammar checks found some of the awkward sentences before they could make their way onto a professor’s desk. I felt like my writing improved because I was in much more command of my ability to revise my own work more efficiently. The act of typing also has some sort of liberating quality for me. I find that when I type papers, I am much more focused on the content of the writing. I have compared papers that were handwritten first and papers that were initially created through word processing. For whatever reason, my writing is much better when I type the paper even when I know that it is a draft version.
Part of the machine-like writing I did was my own fault. I would wait until the last minute to write the paper and then rely on my lightning fast typing ability and natural intelligence to get me through. There were many late nights and early mornings where I sat down at a computer and hit the print button on a 5 page paper an hour or two later. The other part of it is the way that college is structured. All papers seem to come due at the same time. Term papers due at the middle and end of a semester. Paper after paper was typed at a frantic pace to pacify professors and fill course requirements. Most professors were not concerned with improving my writing; they were only concerned with placing a value on what the paper had to say.
One turning point in college involved my English 102 professor. He told me that I had potential to be a good writer. He actually spent some time on several occasions meeting with me to help improve my writing. Most of the conversations were centered on writing for a particular audience. His biggest critique of my writing was that I wrote the way I talked. I have never forgotten those conversations or the importance of writing for the audience that will be reading the paper. English professors are interested in a different type of writing than science or math professors. I once received a couple of points for my attempt at humor on a biology essay question, but that professor was obviously looking for substance that style and sentence structure could not overcome.
Graduate school has certainly improved my ability as a writer both because of the quantity of writing required and the quality of writings that I have read. Reading high quality writing provides me with a model that I can pattern myself after. I feel that I can, at times, write alongside of people that are published; however, sometimes I read articles and books that I have trouble typing direct quotes for papers because of the complexity of the sentences and thoughts.
As a principal, I have to write for varying audiences. I write recommendations, reprimands, newsletters, news releases, and formal observation summaries on a regular basis. I have learned to rely on others to help me with much of this writing, though some of it cannot be shared with others. I always have some teachers read my news releases and parent newsletters. They help me to see when I am writing over the heads of my parents and when I need to explain things in more detail. I find it a complement that my writing is at such a level that I am told regularly that I need to write in a way that more parents will be able to understand and use words that are not so “fancy”. I have not been accused of writing the way I talk for a long time.
Junior high school introduced me to an English teacher I would spend three years with writing and rewriting papers. Mr. Warren was one of those English teachers that believed diagramming sentences was a fun way to spend an afternoon. He surely had unlimited access to red ink pens, and he showed tendencies of being addicted to the smell of the red ink. Every paper that I turned in came back to me looking more like a Christmas decoration than a serious academic piece. There was no doubt that whatever the caliber of work the first draft of an assignment happened to be, the end result would be a sea of red ink and many future drafts that would have to be written. I do not jest when I say that six revisions of the same paper would be the norm.
There would be a few students in the class that could get by with four or five, but I stayed in the largest group of students that required six revisions before the paper was considered worthy of a grade. In retrospect, the biggest lesson I learned from Mr. Warren was that all writing could be endlessly revised and revamped. The end product is usually better than the initial offering. I also learned that eventually the papers would stop finding their way back into my backpack as a homework assignment. This revision process was much quicker when I became more proficient in proofreading my own work. I learned to anticipate the errors I made regularly and fix them before the paper was turned in the first time.
“Awkward- revise!” was probably one of my least favorite phrases that appeared above my sentences. I wrote what needed to be communicated but not in a succinct manner that was pleasing to the reader. I still struggle with writing sentences that include too many thoughts into one long and overdone sentence. While I despised the teacher and his incessant markings at the time, I now believe that writing in elementary and secondary school suffers because this is a lost practice. Teachers do not spend the time to adequately allow students to learn to proofread and revise their writing.
It’s odd that my high school years are fuzzy as I try to recollect teachers and class assignments that helped me grow as a writer. I know that I churned out papers in high school, but I cannot recall a single incident where I needed more than one draft to get a grade. There was a state writing test administered when I was in tenth grade. I received a score of a 2.5 out of 4. The two scorers of the paper disagreed on the score of the paper. This paper served two purposes pertaining to my writing. I learned that I do not write my best in a timed situation with a bad topic, and the quality of my writing is subject to the person evaluating the piece.
The one class in high school that probably added more to my ability to write than any others during this time period was typing class. While I would not reap the benefits of this class until college, probably no other single class in my life has helped my ability to write more than learning to type and word process. The reason that this class had little impact in high school was that papers were still handwritten. It would be several more years before I could unleash the potential of this new technology in a way that would impact routine class assignments.
My first year in college opened my eyes to the need to become machine-like in my writing. It was not uncommon in English 101 to have 3-5 page papers due on a routine basis. Most of the papers were reflections on material that inspired me little to read, much less write about it. What these assignments did accomplish was allow me to utilize my word processing skills. I was able to use words that I could not spell with out a dictionary, find synonyms to words without hunting down a thesaurus, and use the cut/paste capabilities to my heart’s content. This was quite a liberating experience! Grammar checks found some of the awkward sentences before they could make their way onto a professor’s desk. I felt like my writing improved because I was in much more command of my ability to revise my own work more efficiently. The act of typing also has some sort of liberating quality for me. I find that when I type papers, I am much more focused on the content of the writing. I have compared papers that were handwritten first and papers that were initially created through word processing. For whatever reason, my writing is much better when I type the paper even when I know that it is a draft version.
Part of the machine-like writing I did was my own fault. I would wait until the last minute to write the paper and then rely on my lightning fast typing ability and natural intelligence to get me through. There were many late nights and early mornings where I sat down at a computer and hit the print button on a 5 page paper an hour or two later. The other part of it is the way that college is structured. All papers seem to come due at the same time. Term papers due at the middle and end of a semester. Paper after paper was typed at a frantic pace to pacify professors and fill course requirements. Most professors were not concerned with improving my writing; they were only concerned with placing a value on what the paper had to say.
One turning point in college involved my English 102 professor. He told me that I had potential to be a good writer. He actually spent some time on several occasions meeting with me to help improve my writing. Most of the conversations were centered on writing for a particular audience. His biggest critique of my writing was that I wrote the way I talked. I have never forgotten those conversations or the importance of writing for the audience that will be reading the paper. English professors are interested in a different type of writing than science or math professors. I once received a couple of points for my attempt at humor on a biology essay question, but that professor was obviously looking for substance that style and sentence structure could not overcome.
Graduate school has certainly improved my ability as a writer both because of the quantity of writing required and the quality of writings that I have read. Reading high quality writing provides me with a model that I can pattern myself after. I feel that I can, at times, write alongside of people that are published; however, sometimes I read articles and books that I have trouble typing direct quotes for papers because of the complexity of the sentences and thoughts.
As a principal, I have to write for varying audiences. I write recommendations, reprimands, newsletters, news releases, and formal observation summaries on a regular basis. I have learned to rely on others to help me with much of this writing, though some of it cannot be shared with others. I always have some teachers read my news releases and parent newsletters. They help me to see when I am writing over the heads of my parents and when I need to explain things in more detail. I find it a complement that my writing is at such a level that I am told regularly that I need to write in a way that more parents will be able to understand and use words that are not so “fancy”. I have not been accused of writing the way I talk for a long time.
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