3
My father has always told me that one of the most important things in life is presentation. When I was a little girl I would get in trouble for whining and throwing temper-tantrums to get my way, and my father would always explain to me that people would be more likely to listen to me if I presented myself more positively. My dad, a lawyer, implanted the belief in me that if I presented myself well I would be much more successful. This lesson has been life-changing for me. Because of my presentation during job interviews I have acquired prestigious jobs, had grades changed because of how I talked to the teacher, and I have done well in school because of how I present my work in assignments, especially my writing. If writing is not presented well to its reader, it will not be well-received and will have no lasting impact on society. Composition scholars have differing views about the importance of audience, however, the fact remains that writing holds no worldly importance without adequate presentation.
4
Peter Elbow discusses his opinions about the position of “writer” being preferential in his piece, “Being a Writer vs. Being an Academic: A Conflict in Goals.”[1] One of the differences Elbow points out between the two positions is the importance of audience. He argues that writers need time away from their readers to improve their writing, just like parents sometimes need time away from their children.[2] Writers, according to Elbow, should take time to write only for themselves without considering their potential readers. Elbow advocates a classroom without teachers and freewriting exercises where students write for a designated period of time without a topic and without stopping or editing. These exercises try to encourage thoughts and voice and lift writer’s block by allowing students to simply write what is on their mind.[3] However, these exercises also encourage bad writing behavior from students such as misspellings, poor grammar, and rambling, run-on sentences. The sole purpose of these exercises is to encourage thought and expel writer’s block, something that could be accomplished by a class discussion, topic list, or simply thinking in a different direction. While practicing writing is a necessity in order to become a proficient writer, the practice should be in crafting comprehensible and quality writings, not incoherent drivel. Freewriting encourages bad habits in writing and sets a mental precedent that allows grave mistakes in the work.
3
Good teachers are necessary to teach students how to use their writing to speak to their audience, the most important and difficult task for any writer. Without being able to manipulate their audience, students are unable to write sufficiently for their teachers, professional writers are unable to find a publisher and the hard work of writers will never be read and have no impact. Writing only for yourself may be useful in the form of a journal or grocery list, but unless you’re Anne Frank or have a nosy little brother, your personal writing will not hold any importance after you remember to pick up your milk and eggs. If a writer wants to hold lasting importance and have their work read, taught, and reviewed they must write something that an audience would enjoy and could relate to.
1
Writers need to be taught many different techniques to be able to present their writing well and please their audience. One of the most important and irrefutable skills a writer needs to possess is proper spelling and grammar. No audience, especially an educated audience, wants to read something that is poorly written and indecipherable. The well-respected and well-known writer David Bartholomae writes about revising his own work in “Against the Grain.”[4] Bartholomae writes that he still does a lot of revision in his own work, completely changing his writing between the first draft and the second. Bartholomae says that before he learned to revise his work he had great ideas, but he did not present them well, his dissertation was even rejected because it was written poorly.[5] Teaching students to revise their work will instill good habits and make their writing easier to understand and less distracting. Students also need to learn how to use their voice to make their writing more interesting to their audience. Many scholars discuss the importance of voice, but personal voice needs to be tailored to make writing more readable. Many great ideas have been disregarded due to poor presentation. The Greensboro sit-in was not the first attempt to desegregate public places, but it was well-publicized because of the manner in which they did it. Although many scholars dislike the academy’s influence on a student’s writing, the academy does hold importance in standardizing the way we write so it is easier to decipher and understand academic language.
2
To be considered a good writer in the academy, among the community of writers, and according to the public a writer needs to possess a multitude of qualities. To impress the academy writers need to have an impeccable writing style, good grammar and word choice and unfaltering spelling. To be accepted by other writers a writer needs to have new ideas and a creative approach. Most importantly, to be read by the public, a writer needs to possess the quality of being a clear and comprehensible writer. This skill does not come from unrestricted ramblings which teach bad habits, but from practicing good writing skills in all writing situations. All writings, from a dissertation to a journal should follow the rules of good writing. In order to become a better writer the writing must be good, otherwise bad habits, sloppy writing, unclear thoughts and other problems will plague the work. Freewriting can be effective, but only if used to teach good writing and in conjunction with other teaching methods, the best way to learn good writing is still to be taught how to write well.
1
[1] Peter Elbow, College Composition and Communication,vol. 46 no. 1 (National Council of Teachers of English, 1995), 72-83.
[2] Ibid., 76-77.
[3] Peter Elbow, Writing Without Teachers, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 3-11.
[4] David Bartholomae, Against the Grain, (University of Pittsburgh), 19-29.
[5] Ibid., 22-23.
Posted by historymajor255 on September 15, 2008
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