There must be some not very nice name for it. In any case, I need to be better about following my own advice. I’m thinking at the moment in particular of advice about writing.
I like the distinction that gets applied to Marx between forschung and darstellung, research and presentation. (Hence most of what I write is more of a grundrisse, because I get bored after the writing-as-thinking process is over. It’s something I want to improve on, the thinking-about-how-to-write-well part.)
I like a metaphor for this, one of hiking around in the woods. When I was kid I stayed with my grandparents a real lot, and later after my grandfather died my family moved into that house with my grandmother. It was out in the country, kinda rural. Across the street was a nice big woods. I used to tromp around there with my dogs - dig up anthills, maybe see a deer once in a while, watch ducks or geese in the pond. Writing is initially like that - tromping. One finds cool stuff. The next step, rewriting, is the process of going home from the cool stuff one finds, and taking someone else by the hand back to the cool stuff. In the process it is generally poor decorum to take the person exactly the same route one took the first time: that route generally involves walking into a barbed wire fence or thorn bush, slipping on wet leaves, getting one’s shoes wet in a puddle. It’s one thing when that happens by accident but is another entirely to do that to someone else knowingly. Writing is discovering things in the woods, a process which occasionally really sucks. Rewriting is making a decision about the things one wants to show somebody, to guide them to some of the stuff one discovered.
A condensed version of this is what I’ve told students who have come to me for advice (or just assuaging of nerves) about writing. It seems to work. The point is to say “it’s okay to write a draft that’s not a good paper, I do that too, for some of us writing is thinking so everything changes during the process” and then to get them to rewrite afterward. Good writing is rewriting. The goal’s also to get them to take more time on writing and rewriting, if possible, to say “not only should you bring me somewhere in your paper when I read it, but by the time it gets to me, when you bring me to the destination, it should be your second time there”. Which means it takes longer to do - first to find somewhere to show me, second to find a pleasant route to walk me to the spot you found.
I wish I could follow that advice better myself.
All of this is also a nice reminder that, for all its many flaws, grad school has perks. I like working with students. That’s part of why I came back to university. My wife pointed out that I had really enjoyed and been very animated about the teaching I’d done. Nice to get reminded of that sometimes.
Below is a thing I put together to give to students trying to pre-empt at least some of the things that have come up when I’ve worked w/ them on writing. Feedback welcome.
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Six General Notes On Writing
Writing is an important part of this course, and an important part of your college education. Improving your writing is personally rewarding and professionally beneficial. Improving your writing is not particularly complicated, but it can be emotionally challenging. The following notes are intended to lay out expectations on writing for this class. They provide advice to help you get the most out of this class in terms of writing while minimizing discomfort. I encourage you to talk to me outside of class about writing as well.
1. Writing intensive: This class is writing intensive. I expect everyone in this class to improve as a writer by the end of this class. This means that regardless of how you assess your writing ability, I expect you to work at writing in this class. This also means that this class will be a lot of work.
2. Writing and self image: If you finish college without improving your writing then you have been short-changed. Part of improving your writing means getting constructive criticism. Many students find that writing that was praised in high school receives less praise in college. This is often stressful and uncomfortable. I recognize this. This was my own experience in college. I urge you not to take comments on your writing personally. Please take any criticism as a healthy and normal part of your education.
3. Writing mechanics: I expect you to write grammatically correct complete sentences on all of your assignments. If you have doubts about to how to do that, please go to the university’s writing center. If you do not have any doubts about how to do that, please go to the university’s writing center. In other words, go to the writing center!
4. More on the Writing Center: You are paying for the writing center with your tuition dollars. If you don’t use it, you’re not getting as much for your money. Plus, it is very likely that you will never again in your life have access to people who actively want to help you become a better writer. After you finish college, most likely no one will ever again take an interest in making you be a better writer - at least not without charging you! The writing center is like a free physical trainer. If you don’t take advantage of it now, you will regret it later and you are not getting the most out of your tuition dollars.
5. Thinking and writing and starting: Many students have what I call “the printer myth” about writing. The printer myth is the idea that writing involves two steps: getting our ideas clear in our heads, then committing them to paper. This is a myth. It is not reality. The printer myth leads to bad writing habits. Writing is not the second step after a first step called thinking. Your ideas will change as you write. This may make you uncomfortable but it’s a good thing. If you don’t know what you want to say for an assignment, start writing. You will write your way to something you want to say. In short: DO NOT WAIT to start writing for your writing assignments. Do NOT tell yourself or someone else “I’m thinking about my topic before I start writing.” Start writing right away. Then rewrite.
6. Rewriting, discovering and guiding: Writing is a process of thinking. Therefore, writing is also a process of rewriting. When you begin to write for an assignment, think of yourself as writing to figure out what you think. You are discovering something you want to say and a way to say it. As with any process of discovery, you will sometimes backtrack, change directions, and encounter accidents. That’s fine. When you are done, rewrite what you wrote. When you rewrite, think of your self as guiding someone to what you have previously discovered. Guiding should not include backtracking, changes in direction or accidents.
That is to say, plan to rewrite what you write for this class. Before you turn it in. And in some cases, I may give an assignment back to you and ask you to rewrite it. When this happens, it is not because what you handed in was bad. It is because I want you to rewrite it so that what you rewrite will be even better.
Most of the craft of writing is in revision. Everyone makes better prose and better argument in revisions than in earlier drafts. Part of what we will do in this class is practice revising in order to improve your writing habits. I urge you to begin thinking about what you hand in to your instructors as rewritten papers rather written papers. If you are not used to thinking about writing this way then writing will probably take more time than you expect. Budget generous amounts of time for writing as you plan your lives. If you think you can finish a paper quickly, you’re probably wrong.
Comment by Nate — May 17, 2007 @ 3:55 am