Writing has always been a necessary evil and yet ultimate expression of creativity for me. I hate it and love it at the same time. I have written a forty-page paper in a week and in the same time barely managed one page. It has always been a temperamental art to me, and dependant on the topic, so to me, my strengths and weaknesses fluctuate.
Concise-ness, if that is a word, has always been a strength of mine I believe. I have never believe in writing useless, meaningless sentences just to take up space and meet a length requirement. The great thing about writing is that it is there, permanent, for a reader to go back over, so I believe in making a point and moving on. Readers can chose how much repetition they need. A good vocabulary should accompany concise writing, but I would say that it is one of my weaknesses. I am always looking to expand my vocabulary, and this semester I really want to accomplish that in this class. Vocabulary is also dependant on the topic, content, style, tone, and intended audience of the writing. I learned from J. Cole, a rapper, http://www.jcolemusic.com/ that good vocabulary doesn’t always mean a good message and vice versa. If you ignore the not so classy language, his message is really powerful and he has inspired me to think about the content and meaning of the words I write more.
Another strength and weakness combination that I believe I posses as a writer is that I write almost exactly as if I were talking. That can be good in a casual sort of essay, but most of the time, it doesn’t come off the right way when read and can in my own criticism of myself, make me sound less educated and credible than I really am. The strength of this quality though is that I am very straightforward and honest with my writing, I don’t try to hide anything with flowery descriptions or wishy-washy phrasing, I just say what I have to say and mean it.
I would really like to improve my writing ability a lot with this course, and even after one class it really seems like I will have the potential to. I really hope to become a more credible, professional sounding writer, which will no doubt help me further in life as I begin job interviews and resume writing. I also want to improve the organization of my writing, and really look into editing, not merely just go over the grammar and spelling components. To aid in those goals I have, I really want to expand my vocabulary, plan my pieces, do research in my topics, and in general just immerse myself more into my writing. A huge goal that I have for myself this semester is to make my writing more exciting, to really grab the reader’s attention, which my favorite book, The Marathon Man by William Goldman (http://www.amazon.com/Marathon-Man-William-Goldman/dp/0345439724/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1294793852&sr=8-2)does.
It is such an exciting page-turner, and even though it is pure fiction, it has some history behind it, and I wish all my writing would be like that. With help and criticism from the class I am hoping it will be.
Lauren:
ReplyDeleteI'm really glad you brought up the point of "conciseness" (and yes, that is a word, without the dash even!). Being concise is crucial in all types of writing -- narrative, scholarly research papers, journalism, etc. Being concise is really about being as clear as possible -- the aim of all good writing. Sometimes, when students are first introduced to scholarly writing, they notice that the sentences are longer, seemingly wordier, and more obtuse, generally. Unfortunately, in attempting to mimic this voice, they often fall prey to awkward sentence structures, repetitive statements, and the plague of misused jargon. That is a common mistake that most students make at the sake of conciseness in their attempt to "sound smarter," which really isn't to sound smart at all.
I'm glad to hear that you don't fall prey to this trap and that you value your ability to be concise above all else. That's hugely important.
The only reason why academic writing is seemingly more long winded is because the ideas being expressed are more complex and, inherently, the sentence structures and vocab follow suit. However, the goal still is and always should be to be as concise as possible, to avoid repeating oneself, and express our ideas as succinctly as we can.
I look forward to reading your work and I'm sure you'll see that this class puts a big emphasis not only on conciseness, but on the big picture editing process as well.
Thanks!
-Denise