A college professor on writing – be succinct, multiple drafts, and more

Some “truths” about writing that Rob Jenkins, a veteran composition teacher at Georgia Perimeter College, tells his first-year composition students.

1. “If you think you won’t have to write anymore once you’re done with your English classes, you need to think again. As a junior and senior, you’ll probably have to write term papers for most of your classes. And this is the last time anyone will ever spend an entire semester showing you how to write those papers, so you’d better pay attention.”

2. “If you think you’re going to be done with writing when you get out of college, you need to think again. It doesn’t matter what field you’re going into. The minute you get one step above fry cook, writing becomes part of your job. The higher up the ladder you climb, the more important writing becomes. And there’s an inverse relationship, too: The better you write, the higher you’re likely to rise.”

3. “Writing is not a magical ability that some people just have and others just don’t. Writing is a skill, and like any other skill — playing the piano, learning a sport — it can be acquired through hard work and dedication. We’re not all going to write the Great American Novel, but anyone with at least average intelligence can learn to write reasonably well.”

4. “If there is a secret to good writing, it is this: multiple drafts. Writers are not people for whom a piece of writing always comes out right the first time. They are people who realize that it never will and have learned how to cope.”

5. “Good writing comes from having more to say than you have space in which to say it, so that you’re forced to say it as well as possible. Bad writing comes from taking a few meager ideas and puffing them up to make them sound like more than they really are. College students aren’t the only ones who do this.”

None of these are absolute truths, but they are good general principles for students.  From what I read about the declining standards in higher education, #1 may not be true in many cases.  My favorite is #5, probably because writing succinctly is often such a challenge for me.

As for #4, I suspect most students are like this “Lazy College Senior”.

Mark Cuban on the higher education bubble

MARK CUBAN ON THE HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE:

This comparison between higher education and the newspaper business seems apt.

The Higher Education Industry is very analogous to the Newspaper industry. By the time they realize they need to change the costs to support their legacy infrastructure and costs will keep them from getting there.

Easy loans

Its far too easy to borrow money for college.  Did you know that there is more outstanding debt for student loans than there is for Auto Loans or Credit Card loans ? Thats right. The 37mm holders of student loans have more debt than the 175mm or so credit card owners in this country and more than the all of the debt on cars in this country. While the average student loan debt is about 23k. The median is close to $12,500. And growing. Past 1 TRILLION DOLLARS.

We freak out about the Trillions of dollars in debt our country faces. What about the TRILLION DOLLARs plus in debt college kids are facing ?

The point of the numbers is that getting a student loan is easy. Too easy.

You know who knows that the money is easy better than anyone ? The schools that are taking that student loan money in tuition. Which is exactly why they have no problems raising costs for tuition each and every year.

Purpose of college

As far as the purpose of college, I am a huge believer that you go to college to learn how to learn. However, if that gaol is subverted because traditional universities, public and private, charge so much to make that happen, I believe that system will collapse and there will be better alternatives created.

Reading this on Cuban’s blog, I was amused by his writing errors.  I’m sure he writes quickly and eschews basic spell checking.  Somehow, it’s entertaining to see “its” and “thats” with missing apostrophes in a billionaire business magnate’s writing.  The lesson might be that perfect grammar and correct spelling are not always essential for good communication.  There are probably a few other self-made billionaires who can’t be bothered to know when to use “it’s” instead of “its” *.

* Actually, I think the more common mistake is to add an unnecessary apostrophe.

Related articles

• ‘Higher Education Bubble May Explode in Taxpayers’ Faces’ (costofcollege.wordpress.com)

Step 1 of the Kerrigan method of ‘Writing to the Point’ – SUBJECT & PREDICATE

I’m backtracking to cover some basic elements of  Kerrigan’s Writing to the Point Step 1, omitted in my previous posts. (For new readers, this is my project to study and learn the entire Six-Step method, explained in my initial post in this series.)

Here is Kerrigan’s first step in writing an expository essay:

STEP 1. Write a short, simple declarative sentence that makes one statement. (Chapter 1, page 6)

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The Step 1 sentence is what Kerrigan calls the X-sentence, and it should have a SUBJECT and a PREDICATE.

First, a review of some basic grammar:

The subject is the person or thing that acts or is described in the sentence. The predicate, on the other hand, is that action or description.

At a basic level, the X-sentence will look like this:

Subject———1———1———1—–Predicate
Somebody or something …………… is something
Somebody or something …………… was something
Somebody or something …………… does something
Somebody or something …………… did something

Examples:
Subject———1———1———1—–Predicate
Oxygen ………………………………………. is essential for life.
George Carlin …………………………….. was funny.
Power …………………………………………. corrupts.
Grandma …………………………………….. taught us valuable lessons.

Subject and predicate – both must be parts of the X-sentence.

The X-sentence is the thesis of the essay.

A subject without a predicate is a topic, but not a thesis. For expository writing you need a thesis, not just a topic.  This is an essential point in the Writing to the Point method.  The supporting details for the thesis flow from the X-sentence, creating the structure that makes the essay concise, clear and to the point.

Here are a few more examples of X-sentences:

X  Autumn is an exhilarating time of year.
X  Hosting a teen party can be nerve-wracking.
X  The Penn State scandal is a tragic event. 

Other characteristics of the X-sentence:

• Short and simple
• Declarative sentence – a statement, not a question or a command
• Should make only one statement

All this is basic stuff, right?  Sometimes kids don’t learn (or remember) basic stuff.  I’m sometimes surprised at what kids are not taught in school.

Previous posts in this series:

• The Kerrigan method of ‘Writing to the Point’
• Step 3 of the Kerrigan method of ‘Writing to the Point’
• Step 4 of the Kerrigan method of ‘Writing to the Point’ – being SPECIFIC
• Step 4 of the Kerrigan method of ‘Writing to the Point’ – being CONCRETE
• Step 4 of the Kerrigan method of ‘Writing to the Point’ – going into DETAIL
• Step 4 of the Kerrigan method of ‘Writing to the Point’ – using EXAMPLES
• Step 4 of the Kerrigan method of ‘Writing to the Point’ – ABSTRACT vs. CONCRETE
• Step 4 of the Kerrigan method of ‘Writing to the Point’ – FUNCTION OF A PARAGRAPH

‘Writing, writing, writing’ – a skill lacking among too many college graduates

Jeff Selingo wrote in the Chronicle of Higher Ed about what he learned from employers who are having a difficult time finding qualified employees to hire among recent college graduates.  This was just one problem he found.

Writing, writing, writing. We keep throwing around the word “skills,” but it seems the one skill that almost every job requires is the ability to write well, and too many graduates are lacking in that area. That’s where many of the recruiters were quick to let colleges off the hook, for the most part. Students are supposed to learn to write in elementary and secondary school. They’re not forgetting how to write in college. It’s clear they’re not learning basic grammar, usage, and style in K-12.

Why are students not learning to write before they get to college?  Maybe a different type of writing instruction is needed?

Related:  The Kerrigan method of ‘Writing to the Point’

(Cross-posted at Kitchen Table Math)

Step 4 of the Kerrigan method of ‘Writing to the Point’ – using EXAMPLES

The use of examples is covered in the next assignment in Step 4 of the Kerrigan method of Writing to the Point.  (This is part of my project to study and learn the entire Six-Step method, explained in my initial post in this series.)  For a recap, here are Steps 1 through 4.

STEP 1. Write a short, simple declarative sentence that makes one statement. (Chapter 1, page 6)

STEP 2. Write three sentences about the sentence in Step 1—clearly and directly about the whole of that sentence, not just something in it. (Chapter 2, page 18.)

STEP 3. Write four or five sentences about each of the three sentences in Step 2—clearly and directly about the whole of the Step 2 sentence, not just something in it. (Chapter 3, page 31.)

STEP 4. Make the material in the four or five sentences of Step 3 as specific and concrete as possible. Go into detail. Use examples. Don’t ask, “What will I say next?” Instead, say some more about what you have just said. Your goal is to say a lot about a little, not a little about a lot.  (Chapter 4, page 43)

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D. USING EXAMPLES:
Another definition of detail is “short example”.  An example is something taken from among a number of things like it, and used to stand for them.

• Examples tend to be concrete and specific.
• Examples are not analogies, which are fine but get us away from facts.
• Use these kind of words:  ”like, such as, for example, for instance”
• Use lots of examples to bring a matter vividly before the mind’s eye of a reader.

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THE ASSIGNMENT
Write a theme in which you use examples liberally.  Mare sure each paragraph has at least one sentence that beings with “For example” and then is followed by a sentence that is a long example.

For this assignment I re-used my “Autumn” essay, but added “for example”  in several places according to assignment instructions.

Here is my essay, using the Kerrigan format of starting with the X-1-2-3 sentences.

…
X  Autumn is an exhilarating time of year.
1. It is a time of colorful foliage.
2. It is a time of crisp weather.
3. It is a time of fun-filled activities.

—————————————————————————————————————————————

X  Autumn is an exhilarating time of year.

1.  It is a time of colorful foliage. For example, during this time of year maple trees turn bright red and oak trees become golden. Ferns become a rusty copper color. As they fall to the ground, beautifully colored leaves cover paths and roads like a rainbow. Mountainsides and roadways become brilliant works of art.

2.  It is a time of crisp weather. It usually starts in late September when people will comment that there’s a touch of fall in the air. They bring out their sweaters to protect against the slight chill of early fall. As the season moves on, the first hints of frost appear on some early mornings. Even on days with full sun, the atmosphere feels different from typical summer days. For example, going to the beach on a sunny fall day is a sharp contrast to spending a long July day there when the sun is high in the sky.

3.  It is a time of fun-filled activities. Many families spend weekends picking apples and pumpkins. The next few days may find them baking pies and carving jack-o-lanterns. Preparations for Halloween are as much fun as the actual trick-or-treating. For example, people enjoy designing and creating costumes while anticipation builds for the big Halloween night when children roam the neighborhoods trying to fill their bags with candy.

WHAT I LEARNED
Besides the basic lesson on the importance of examples, this assignment also reminded me that the Kerrigan method teaches writing by systematically moving through a hierarchy of skills.  In this case, instructions to use specific words (“like, such as, for example, for instance”) serve to nudge the developing writer into adding examples.  Later on, as the student’s writing becomes more sophisticated, it becomes unnecessary to use these specific words every time.

Since my original essay already included many examples, following instructions and adding at least one “for example” phrase to each paragraph did not appreciably enhance the final product.  In fact, I think this step made the essay a little clunky.   But it was a valuable exercise to show a technique for explicitly teaching a developing writer to use examples.  (In hindsight, I realized I should have started from scratch and not re-used my old essay, but I was trying to save myself a little time.)

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Previous posts in this series:

• The Kerrigan method of ‘Writing to the Point’
• Step 3 of the Kerrigan method of ‘Writing to the Point’
• Step 4 of the Kerrigan method of ‘Writing to the Point’ – being SPECIFIC
• Step 4 of the Kerrigan method of ‘Writing to the Point’ – being CONCRETE
• Step 4 of the Kerrigan method of ‘Writing to the Point’ – going into DETAIL