Good Old American Essay?

How do you write an essay?  Did that grab your attention? Was that a good "attention getter?"  I suppose I could have used a quote or a startling statistic, but I went with a question.  I hope it went over well. 

I can remember sitting in my sixth grade English class, red pencil in hand, listening to Mrs. Hill jabber on about how to write an essay.  There was a specific formula we had to follow, and we had to label every last piece of our essay in order to receive full credit.

The first part we had to master was the "attention getter."  Mrs. Hill encouraged us to use questions, but allowed us to branch out into using quotations or statistics that stunned the reader.  I had no experience writing a structured essay, so I had no reason to question the formula being shoved down my throat. 

After we learned to transition to thesis and form a thesis, we learned how to construct a body paragraph.  And, of course, there could only be three body paragraphs in this essay.  The first sentence of a body paragraph was a topic sentence.  These topic sentences normally started with transitions such as "first," "second," "next," or "also."  It had to be perfectly clear that something new was being introduced.

The second sentence in a body paragraph was called a "concrete detail," which was a fact that supported the previously stated thesis.   Two sentences defined as "commentary" followed.  These were meant to expand on the concrete detail and expand upon each other.  Each body paragraph had to have three concrete details along with commentary.  Repeat these steps two more times.

No worries, you're almost done!  We then learned that the basic purpose of a conclusion was to restate your thesis without sounding repetitive.  Easy enough, I suppose?

When we wrote essays, Mrs. Hill passed out papers with each part of the essay labeled.  Next to each label were two blank lines waiting to be filled with details, commentary and attention getters a plenty!

At some point during our sixth grade year, Mrs. Hill finally allowed us to write our essays on blank pieces of notebook paper--paper free of labels and guidelines.  However, when we got to class, essays in hand, Mrs. Hill passed out three different colored highlighters to each person in the class.  Details and commentary had to be distinguished with color-coded highlighting. 

While the structure she provided us with made it fairly easy to write an essay, Mrs. Hill never taught us how to maintain our unique voices within the essays we wrote.

As I continued my education into high school, and eventually college, I learned how to slip voice within the structure of a traditional essay.  Luckily, I no longer adhere to a three-body-paragraph essay when a teacher assigns a 10-page paper.  Can you imagine how long those paragraphs would be?  Each write has his or her own personal style hidden somewhere beneath the format assigned to a paper.  Each person has a unique voice that deserves to be taken seriously.  Although structure is almost always a necessity, regurgitating form and style form the past is not.  I urge everyone to find ways to allow their voice to be recognized, heard, and taken seriously in any writing assignment.    



Natalie Hughes








 

Myths of the Writing Center

Myth 1: "I don't need help with my writing."

Truth 1: No one is the perfect writer. It takes a lot of work to create good writing habits that lead to good writing. Regardless of how good of a writer you perceive yourself to be, there is always room for improvement.

Myth 2: "Writing Center tutors are faculty/professionals/English majors."

Truth 2: Tutors at the Writing Center are students, just like the writers who come in. The emphasis of our work at the Writing Center is to create dialogue between students. This dialogue is what we believe leads to better writing.

Also, not all of the tutors are English majors. There are a variety of majors showcased in the Writing Center staff. Each person is, however, trained to be a tutor and trained to help to the best of their ability by providing resources, advice and insight.

Myth 3: "The Writing Center is there to edit my grammar and punctuation line-by-line."

Truth 3: Tutors are happy to point out reoccurring mistakes in grammar or punctuation. The point, however, is to provide the writer with a stronger understanding of the rules so that, in the future, they can catch these mistakes on their own. Tutors are trained to focus on content, organization, the thesis, clarity and focus.

Myth 4: "I can't go in because I need an appointment."
Truth 4: False. We are happy to accept walk-in sessions. Making an appointment, however, will guarantee you time with a tutor. When you walk in, just keep in mind that there may be no tutors available right away.

Myth 5: "I don't have time to go in to the Writing Center, so I can't possibly use their services."

Truth 5: The Roosevelt University Writing Center has resources online that writers can use to answer questions they may have about writing.

Writers who may not have time to visit the Writing Center can also schedule an online appointment. These take place in a chat space provided by Black Board. The tutor and writer meet in the chat space to discuss, in real-time, the issues the writer is facing with the assignment. These are the same discussions that would take place within the Writing Center, just imagine more emoticons being involved. It is awfully hard to convey tone within text. :P

Myth 6: "The people in the Writing Center are boring and I wouldn't go there other than to get help with a paper."

Truth 6: This is so false! We have a lot of personalities running around this place. There is always someone fun and interesting to talk to, so please feel free to stop by! :D I mean, do you see these friendly, inviting, emoticons AND the Pirate Puppy?!

Sam Becker & Natalie Hughes

Clear and Concise Gets Point Across

Hello, Followers!

This is my first post on the Writing Center blog, and as the only aspiring journalist among its ranks, I thought I would share some writing tips that are followed by writers in print media. 

In studying, I found there are parallels between academic writing and journalistic writing.  The most important of these similarities is writing clear and concise sentences.  In journalism, we are writing for the public and use a more conversational writing style, while in academia there is pressure to use complex vocabulary, but this is not necessary.  Fellow blogger Mario Perez recently wrote an entry about just that.  As long as the main point of the piece is conveyed to the reader, the prose seems to fall to the wayside.  Stay within your comfort zone when writing and it should go smoothly.

Revisions are also a very important in the success of a piece of writing.  The finished product should be polished, excluding unnecessary words and sentences.  Successful writing is all about precision.  Mark Twain said, “The difference between the right word and the almost-right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”   Some easy ways of catching errors in your writing are to step away for a while and come back with a fresh set of eyes; read your paper aloud; or ask someone else to read your paper.  We use all of these strategies in the Writing Center, and I know I have had success in the past using these same techniques. 

Write in a way that is comfortable to you.  Use your own voice and don’t feel pressured to impress a reader using words you are not familiar with.  If the writing is clear and precise, the reader should leave informed, with a clear idea of what you were talking about.

--Natalie Hughes