If Nothing Else

If your educational experience gives you nothing else, at least let it give you a an appreciation for writing.

Some may not have a field or future where they will use writing all the time. But think about how many things you have to read every day. The next time you're reading something, think to yourself, "does this make sense?" See if the writer has conveyed the meaning you think they meant. You will always need to know how read and write a little, so try to take away what you need.

Writing Jobs

I was given this website to look at when I asked the question, "How do you turn writing from an enemy to a friend?"(This link is a PDF, it may take a little time to download. If it doesn't work, here is the homepage for the link.)

Ten people were interviewed and asked how long they spend, each day, writing. Surprisingly, engineers, restaurant owners, Air Force mechanics, land surveyors, and math teachers spend a chunk of their day writing. And of course, so does the college student. It seems almost all jobs are writing jobs.

The National Council of Teachers of English has done some great research, finding writing everywhere in the world. Many of the people interviewed talked about how much time they spend on facebook writing. Also, many of the people expressed feelings similar to my mother in-law; they were surprised how often they had to use writing to communicate once they were finished with school.

Perhaps you can look at your own life, when do you catch yourself writing? Do you have a blog? Do you use facebook? What kind of writing are you involved in for your profession?

The whole idea behind learning how to write in college with our academic papers is to learn how to take our ideas and convey them in a way that makes sense to others. We don't want to be misunderstood. Even while you are in school, you can start applying writing to your future profession. Be prepared for whatever is out there.

What's Your Experience?

Appreciating writing doesn't always take a deep personal connection, but just a bad experience. Have you ever been reading an instruction manual that does anything but instruct?

Because of our new technological age, we must learn how to write. The internet connects almost everyone. We must learn how to speak to survive in the world. It's becoming more important to learn how to write well, simply to communicate your ideas to others with no confusion.

Not an Assembly Line

Fulfilling the assignment for the teacher sometimes makes you feel like you're a member of a writing assembly line. There's nothing personal about it. How do you put you in your writing?



At the end of the semester, I asked one of the students I TA for how he felt about his writing, or how it improved. He said, "Well, I don't know, I changed all the topic sentences to how you like them."
I failed. Somehow, this student slipped through the system, feeling like he had to meet requirements that were meaningless to him.

Keep in mind that there are many different ways to write a good paper. The teacher usually teaches one structure as an example, but if your reader can understand your new, different, or creative style and you get your point across, then you've succeeded as a writer. You don't need to fold to the mold of assembly writing.

Unexpected

I had a conversation with my mother in-law the other day, she mentioned how important she thought it was to learn how to write well.

Her husband is a good-old-cowboy. About 15 years ago, he got a job as the editor and producer of a agricultural magazine. He knew a lot about the content of the magazine, but didn't have the editing skills. Luckily, his wife knew how to write well. Once she graduated, she never expected to be involved with any type of editing or writing; it came unexpectedly. She also said there have been many times where she has had to write letters to companies or government officials that she really needed to know how to write well for.

Learning how to write well, and love it, is important for many reasons than just academic writing. Find a way that writing will benefit you in your life, and writing will be a tool rather than a head ache.

Writers Block

Perhaps you can relate to this kid. Writers block is real. I think the best way to overcome writers block is to either come up with questions that relate to the topic, and answer them; or to do something you love doing, watch a movie, listen to music. Do something to refresh your mind.

A Common Enemy

Based off a few of my TA meetings with students and the last blog post, I've concluded that we create enemies out of things we don't understand or have some sort of personal connection or value to.

Writing doesn’t have to be your enemy.

One of my first meetings as a TA, a student came, plopped down in the chair next to me and said, "Can I just say how ridiculous I think this is. The teacher grades so that there is no way you can get a good grade the first time through, making it so I have to come in here."
I didn't quite know how to handle this. So I tried to reassure him that this whole revision process was going to be useful.
Weeks down the road, during our last conference, he said "I see how this can be beneficial. Sitting down with someone to figure out what's wrong with the paper is like having your own personalized grader. It's hard for the teacher to make all the grades for their students fair, but having someone help you one on one focuses more on each person’s needs."
I was stunned when I saw this person's transformation. I asked him a few questions to find out more of how he felt about the whole process. The conversation basically concluded with the idea that he always thought writing was annoying and not for him. But now he feels like it has purpose, and that it doesn't have to be a horrible experience.

One key point to this story is that he found a personal way to connect to writing. Hopefully the revision process can do this for you. If you don't understand, find some way to make writing important, meaningful, and/or useful in your life, and it won't be so bad.

Redfine the Thesis

When we have to write a paper, it's easy to scare ourselves. You've loathed writing since the day you were introduced to the words: sentance fragment, comma splice, topic sentance, and thesis.

This video teaches a great point. We need to redefine what we learned in grade school. This guy tries to redefine how you look at the concept of a thesis statement.

Deliver

When you get a letter in the mail, the mail man doesn't have to stop and explain the situation. You know that someone, a company or a friend, has sent you something. You take the letter and open it, no additional instructions needed. This is such an ordinary process; it's hard to imagine that it would be difficult.

One of the main purposes of writing is to clearly communicate ideas from one person to the next. Many times you won't be there to explain what you meant when you wrote your paper, or when you wrote a "how to" manual for some software. Hopefully there will be no oral explanation necessary.

Again this emphasizes the idea that you need to revise your paper as much as you can. Have someone read your paper to themselves. You could email it to them and ask them to read it before you come to talk to them about it. When you talk to them, ask them what they felt your main ideas were. If they explain what you were trying to say, you've done a great job. This is a great and helpful process.

Pot Holes

They plague the streets of Rexburg; you can't avoid them. Pot holes are everywhere. Once, for a photography project, I scouted out and took pictures of some of the worst pot holes in Rexburg. Before I began looking, I wasn't sure how I would find some of the worst ones. I quickly learned that just by driving around the city, it wasn't hard to find them.

Trying to find all the little problems in your own paper after hours of reading it over and over again can seem near to impossible. Give your friend the steering wheel of your paper. As they read it out loud, you will undoubtedly find all the little pot holes.

I have been doing this as I work as a TA. The student will sit next to me, we put the paper between each other, and then I read the paper to them out loud. With a pen in their hand, they always find something to mark and change. Don't be afraid to have someone help with your paper. The more eyes that read the paper, the more mistakes you'll find.

Snow?

Snow in spring is disheartening. We've sloshed through snow for three or four months now, haven’t we had enough?

Trying to take what's in your brain and put it on paper so that others can understand what you're thinking can be very difficult. The revising process can seem like a never ending winter, but revising will help your paper considerably. Not many people can learn how to ride a bike on the first try, the same applies to writing. Not many people can write a perfect paper the first time they sit down at the computer. But over time, your skills improve, you learn how to organize your thoughts in a comprehensive way, and it becomes easier to recognize your audience's needs.

Next time you write a paper, set a goal to finish it one week early. Finishing the paper means you have done all the research, established all the points you want to make, and have an attempted organization. Then take the remaining week that you have and revise the paper.

Have a friend read the paper out loud to you, this will help you discover areas for improvement.

Try to map out the organization of your paper in outline style to see if it makes logical sense.

Compare old drafts of your paper to the newly revised and see if you have improved.

These tips will hopefully make the revising efforts you put into your paper be worth it.

Unbiased Opinion

Becoming persuasive when writing an argument paper is a typical pitfall. Often, you will choose to write about an argument that already exists. There may be more evidence that supports one side than the other and you may feel very strongly about one side more than the other. This leads to an unbiased opinion.
To present a good argument, bring both sides out equally. Develope reasoning and find evidence to support both sides. Being able to bring out both sides equally shows an educated argument, validating your points.

Organization/Strategy

The flow of the paper depends greatly on the organization you choose. For different papers, different strategies can be used. There is no right answer in deciding what strategy to use. Just make sure your strategy is clear.
When someone reads your paper, will they know that you focus on the positive aspects of going to Schliterbahn waterpark the first half of the paper, and then the second half will be the negative? Or will they see you skip back and forth from good to bad every other paragraph, as if playing tennis. These strategies, if visible, helps the reader stay focused, and the flow of your paper is smooth and directed.

Sandwich Quotes

Sandwiching your quotes is key to writing a good argument paper. After narrowing your topic, finding support for both sides of the argument will be important. Begin and end each paragraph with your thoughts. Trail and sandwich your thoughts with quotes from authorities on the subject. Think of a sandwich, there are many layers: the bread, meat, tomato, and more. The meat and tomatoes are the quotes from authorities, the mayonnaise, mustard, bread, and salt and pepper (the elements that combine the flavors) are your words. Sandwiching your quotes connects your ideas to the authorities, establishing validity and creditability.

Narrowed Topic/Thesis

Without trying too hard, writing a paper can become a jumbled pile of thoughts on paper. Your ideas are great, but how do you focus your topic? Asking questions that help you narrow your thought process is always a good idea. Here are a few examples: What is the issue or topic I’m discussing? Is there two sides? Are my ideas clear? Is there evidence for this topic?
A narrowed thesis should state the main question you’re considering on the subject. It should also introduce your reader to your ideas and sub-topics that will prove or argue both sides of the argument. If you’re struggling with writing your paper, ask yourself if you have a narrowed enough topic, or ask yourself if you have too narrow of a topic.

Content and Organization

A common pitfall for any writer is to focus grammar and mechanics. Unfortunately, grammar and mechanics, though important, will not make you a great writer. It is content and organization that will make you a better writer. Content refers to what you're writing about, what sources you're using, what ideas you're tying together, and what conclusions you’re coming to. Building your content and making it flow well will be the organization of your paper. Introducing your ideas and having a clear strategy throughout your paper will keep your readers reading.

A Common Paper

Undoubtedly at some point during your college career you will write an argumentative research paper. Below are a few points to focus on to help your argument become valid and credible.

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1. Content and organization are most important.
   
2. Have a narrowed topic/thesis
   
3. Sandwich quotes within each paragraph
   
4. The organization/strategy should be clear
   
5. Walk a the tightrope of an unbiased opinion(treat each side equally)
   

Note: Following the link on each topic will lead you to more specific information about each point.

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Learning how to write this type of paper will improve your writing in every other setting. Although other types of writing require different organization, writing this paper will teach you to be concise, tie together your ideas, be in control of your writing, and teach you how to research which is key to good writing.

Blockage from Brain to Pen

Perhaps one of the number one problems students face in their academic writing is the dreaded writers block. This derailment from brain to pen can happen for many reasons, but how does one deal with it? Some physically remove themselves from their current workspace, changing gears for an hour or two. Others take a more technical approach: when the words stop, down shift their idea, making a new level of thought. The technical approach is based on Francis Christenson’s book on discursive prose. If you lack ideas and need a break, check out this blog.

New Focus

Many students out there in the academic world find writing papers for their classes difficult, boring, and sometimes even pointless. But writing should be the contrary. Writing, even for school, is an opportunity for you to voice yourself. Writing reflects you; it is a product of what makes you, you. I hope to reach students who enjoy and don't enjoy writing, offer suggestions on how to improve, and actually enjoy what they are doing, especially in their scholastic work.

The First

With this blog I hope to attract those who love to write, like to write, and those who want to learn to like to write. Writing can be fun and worth your time whether you do it creatively, professionally, technically, scholastically, or even as a hobby. With this blog I hope to share and discuss any ideas that make people want to write and help people want to write better. We can talk about the latest and greatest books, the latest and greatest jobs that have to do with writing, anything that will help those who love to write become better, or those who hate to write to learn to love it. Even for school assignments, writing can be worth it.