What I have learned about my writing

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!