Post by xShadowLordx on Aug 26, 2009 20:25:53 GMT -5
Not really a story, just a little something I wrote in my spare time.
Some Insight on Good Writing
Today I’m going to talk about one of the most misunderstood and poorly-taught arts of the modern world. And that is, you guessed it: writing. You may ask, why the heck am I writing about writing? It may sound kind of silly to some. But I hope to share with you some of my insight and thoughts on writing, school writing in particular.
Ok, so here’s the scenario: Your english teacher gives you an extremely vague prompt that you don’t give a damn about, to write about. He/she dictates to an even more vague idea of what to write, how to write it, and how to make it (their idea of) good writing, or else you’ll get a bad grade (Isn’t that nice?). And on top of that, they tell you it’s due a certain day. Lovely. Just lovely.
It happens to all of us. And then you go home, you sit at your desk, and you just think for hours and hours and get nowhere. Personally, it angers the hell out of me. And I’m sure it angers you too. Anyway, eventually you think of something to write about, you finish it in a hurry, and it turns out crappy. But you don’t care because you just want to get it over with.
Well, this is exactly what happens to me all the time. It happened to me today, and I decided that was one time too many. I decided I just had to tell someone about it. So here I am writing this, and here you are reading it.
The way writing is taught in schools these days enrages me. English teachers force students to write stuff they don’t want to write. And they expect them to actually do a good job! That’s insane! And that goes for all aspects of life. Anyone who forces someone to do something they don’t want to do, and expects them to do a remotely good job is out of their mind! And even if someone does do a good job, it’s only an infinitesimal fraction of what they’re capable of.
And to make matters worse, they also expect them to write like real authors. They expect you to use “descriptive adjectives”, “imagery”, “diction”, “sensory details”, blah blah blah, and all that other stuff. First of all, this forces students to throw away their individuality by trying to write like someone they’re not. It removes their personal connection to their writing by depriving them of their own style. And second of all, teachers seem completely oblivious to the fact that real authors write because they want to, not because they’re forced to, and they take their own sweet time (months, or even years) to perfect their work.
Now, don’t even think about telling me that I’m just some immature kid who just doesn’t like school. I actually love math, science, and history, just not english. And, in fact, I absolutely love writing. It's one of my hobbies, and I do it in my spare time. Most kids today probably think writing sucks. (Am I right, or am I right?). But the truth is, it only sucks because their incompetent teachers force them to do it, and they deprive them of any opportunity to pour their soul into it. I, on the other hand, am one of the privileged few who has discovered how much fun it can actually be if you do it the way you want to.
You’ll probably notice from this work you are reading, that I write very casually and I write with an attitude. You’ll notice I have my own personal style. The reason for this is that this is something I wanted to write about. Whenever I have something important on my mind, I like to write about it just to unleash my emotions. In this case I’m unleashing my anger. (In fact, I wrote this completely on impulse, as I do with all my writing. I didn’t have any prior planning whatsoever.) Conversely, if you were to look at the things I have written for school, you’d notice they’re excruciatingly bland and hideous.
You know, if an english teacher read this, they’d probably point out all the many “bad” things about it, that supposedly take away from the writing. They’d probably point out these things: not very organized, profanity, starting sentences with “and”, blah blah blah, and a bunch of other things I didn’t even realize (Heck, I’m not an english teacher).
But you know what? I don’t care. I like it that way. I don’t care if my writing is “technically” bad. Because you know what? I pour my soul into my writing. And that’s all that matters. It’s all about writing what you want, when you want, how you want. You don’t need any fancy-schmancy words, literary devices and whatnot. You just need your emotions. And if you have that, you can easily make beautiful writing.
It’s all about breaking the norm, fighting the power, and stickin’ it to the man!
It just goes to show how much of a failure our education system is today.
Thank you.
Some Insight on Good Writing
Today I’m going to talk about one of the most misunderstood and poorly-taught arts of the modern world. And that is, you guessed it: writing. You may ask, why the heck am I writing about writing? It may sound kind of silly to some. But I hope to share with you some of my insight and thoughts on writing, school writing in particular.
Ok, so here’s the scenario: Your english teacher gives you an extremely vague prompt that you don’t give a damn about, to write about. He/she dictates to an even more vague idea of what to write, how to write it, and how to make it (their idea of) good writing, or else you’ll get a bad grade (Isn’t that nice?). And on top of that, they tell you it’s due a certain day. Lovely. Just lovely.
It happens to all of us. And then you go home, you sit at your desk, and you just think for hours and hours and get nowhere. Personally, it angers the hell out of me. And I’m sure it angers you too. Anyway, eventually you think of something to write about, you finish it in a hurry, and it turns out crappy. But you don’t care because you just want to get it over with.
Well, this is exactly what happens to me all the time. It happened to me today, and I decided that was one time too many. I decided I just had to tell someone about it. So here I am writing this, and here you are reading it.
The way writing is taught in schools these days enrages me. English teachers force students to write stuff they don’t want to write. And they expect them to actually do a good job! That’s insane! And that goes for all aspects of life. Anyone who forces someone to do something they don’t want to do, and expects them to do a remotely good job is out of their mind! And even if someone does do a good job, it’s only an infinitesimal fraction of what they’re capable of.
And to make matters worse, they also expect them to write like real authors. They expect you to use “descriptive adjectives”, “imagery”, “diction”, “sensory details”, blah blah blah, and all that other stuff. First of all, this forces students to throw away their individuality by trying to write like someone they’re not. It removes their personal connection to their writing by depriving them of their own style. And second of all, teachers seem completely oblivious to the fact that real authors write because they want to, not because they’re forced to, and they take their own sweet time (months, or even years) to perfect their work.
Now, don’t even think about telling me that I’m just some immature kid who just doesn’t like school. I actually love math, science, and history, just not english. And, in fact, I absolutely love writing. It's one of my hobbies, and I do it in my spare time. Most kids today probably think writing sucks. (Am I right, or am I right?). But the truth is, it only sucks because their incompetent teachers force them to do it, and they deprive them of any opportunity to pour their soul into it. I, on the other hand, am one of the privileged few who has discovered how much fun it can actually be if you do it the way you want to.
You’ll probably notice from this work you are reading, that I write very casually and I write with an attitude. You’ll notice I have my own personal style. The reason for this is that this is something I wanted to write about. Whenever I have something important on my mind, I like to write about it just to unleash my emotions. In this case I’m unleashing my anger. (In fact, I wrote this completely on impulse, as I do with all my writing. I didn’t have any prior planning whatsoever.) Conversely, if you were to look at the things I have written for school, you’d notice they’re excruciatingly bland and hideous.
You know, if an english teacher read this, they’d probably point out all the many “bad” things about it, that supposedly take away from the writing. They’d probably point out these things: not very organized, profanity, starting sentences with “and”, blah blah blah, and a bunch of other things I didn’t even realize (Heck, I’m not an english teacher).
But you know what? I don’t care. I like it that way. I don’t care if my writing is “technically” bad. Because you know what? I pour my soul into my writing. And that’s all that matters. It’s all about writing what you want, when you want, how you want. You don’t need any fancy-schmancy words, literary devices and whatnot. You just need your emotions. And if you have that, you can easily make beautiful writing.
It’s all about breaking the norm, fighting the power, and stickin’ it to the man!
It just goes to show how much of a failure our education system is today.
Thank you.
[M:7000]
[M:-7020]