At the beginning of this semester I wrote a paper detailing my relationship with writing. In that paper, I contrasted my relationship with writing to my relationship with my dentist. Dr. Li, my dentist, is a very fine man whose office I enjoy visiting a couple times a year or as often as needed. My relationship with him is a good relationship that is respectful, professional, and pleasant. My relationship with writing is exactly the opposite. Although I recognized that writing is a very important part of communication and of culture in general, at the beginning of the semester I would rather have teeth pulled by Dr. Li than have to write a paper.
But now that the semester has progressed and I have learned much about writing, researching, and formatting, my relationship with writing remains just as spiteful as the day we began! Although my relationship with and enjoyment of writing has not improved, I believe my writing abilities have improved in at least a couple ways.
The first, and probably foremost, way in which it has improved is my ability to write about topics in which I have no interest. The never ceasing torrent of assignments coming at us this semester has caused me to write many a time about something that I didn’t care one bit about. It is easy for my to write about things that I like or feel passionate about, but find it very difficult to muster up the discipline or desire to write about something that I believe doesn’t matter. This semester has helped me to see that writing about these things isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but can be seen as an exercise in writing ability. I have begun to see that just because I don’t want to write about something or don’t feel any interest in the subject, it doesn’t mean that there is no value in writing about such things.
A practical way in which I believe my writing has improved is in the ability to accurately summarize research in a paper. This may not seem like the most rewarding thing to have gained, but I believe it will be very useful in my life in the future. To be able to understand and accurately repeat what someone else has said in fewer words is a skill that will serve me well in the future. I am not the most proficient person in the world by any means, but my understanding of summarizing and quoting has drastically improved.
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Jason, you are truly an intelligent, wonderful writer and you do not give yourself enough credit! I have really enjoyed your blog and working on our group projects. I am very grateful for all of the writing you did - however tortuous it was! I have to completely agree with you one hundred percent that writing is agony! I thoroughly dread it and am so thankful that I do not need to take one more semester of English ever again! Hooray! I had to laugh at your illustration of how you likened writing to being much worse than getting your teeth pulled by your dentist! Not only was it thoroughly entertaining but I can totally relate. I feel exactly the same way! At least the dentist only causes a little physical pain for a few days - this class lasted sixteen brutal weeks!!! ;)
ReplyDeleteI am glad, however, for what I have learned in this class, and I know you are too. I hadn't thought about it until you said it, but one of the most important things we learned was how to summarize what we've read. I think that's something that we can use in just about any career ahead of us. It's a skill that can help us relay information to someone else in a concise way. It was definitely helpful to me in the essays we wrote.
Whatever you do in life, I am convinced that you will succeed. You are a very bright and kind person and I wish you all the very best!
Your first paragraph was written so well because of the comparison you make between writing and the dentist. Who knew that the dentist is actually more enjoyable than anything? Even though your relationship was not changed during this semester, at least you took away some helpful techniques. One of the techniques you mention is summarizing. This is one of those techniques that will never get old or become obsolete. Summarizing another person’s words is very important in everyday life. Also, you mention gaining the ability to write about topics that have no value to you. I completely agree with you here! Every time we got an assignment to write about something, well pretty boring, it always seemed so hard. Unless it directly affects me, some topics are just not fun or enjoyable to write about. It is good to see that some aspects of your writing improved though. I know that I learned a lot in this class and it is interesting to see how other people responded to the teachings. Great blog Jason, it was great to see how you were doing in the class and hopefully your writing skills continue to build.
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