It’s Anybody’s Guess: “Teaching Writing Was Such Fun” – Thursday, October 28th, 2021

This past week, on Tuesday, when the writing group got together, we were talking about several members’ writings they’ve recently done. And the conversation went in multiple directions. However, I was able to chime in when they hit certain topics, and I shared some of my experiences over 33 years as a writing teacher. As I sat and listened to their conversation, I began to think…I’ve never really explored this area in any of my writings here for the past six-plus years. Consequently, I’m exploring it tonight. I think it will be more amusing than it might sound at the moment. Stick with me.

In most cases regarding writing an essay, regardless of what the essay was, I had several steps in the process. First, I taught the paper, be it a literary analysis or a research paper or possibly a personal essay. Whatever the purpose, it had to be taught. Once I felt the kids had enough of my information regarding what the assignment was, then the writing began. Ultimately, the first product I saw from the kids in most cases was a first draft. In many cases, until the later years, the paper was hand written. That was delightful…receiving 100+ sophomore essays in individual hand writing. When the day came where the drafts were in-hand, we’d have a peer editing session. Students would pick other students to read their paper. I gave them a bit of a map to follow as what to watch for in the first draft. Once we were through that process, (I usually gave them three days), they’d bring in the first draft with student evaluation sheets and a second draft. I usually requested the second draft be word processed/typed. The peer editing continued with NEW readers so, before they handed in the final draft, they should have had six pairs of eyes reading their papers. I gave student editing forms for the student readers to follow and on which they could give the writer input regarding thesis or supporting information or grammar or whatever. The students, before the process was done, would have handed in two different drafts with six peer editing sheets. Points were given for EVERYTHING. Points motivate students. The points were minimal but students still killed to achieve these points.

The day before the final drafts would be due, I would try to give the kids final advice regarding their work. One of the most important steps for me as a teacher who had to read these papers was “PROOFREAD YOUR PAPERS!” Seriously…when I had to read well over a hundred multi-page papers, I did NOT want to waste my time or have my reading time slowed because of errors the students COULD HAVE CAUGHT on their own if they cared enough about their final product. I told them to print out their final draft when they believed it was “perfect.” I said, “Then, read your essay out loud. Do it in your bedroom with your door closed so there’s no distractions. Read it slowly.” My reasoning for that was they could catch a lot of careless errors (missing words, obvious spelling issues, confusing sentences, etc) that they didn’t need ME to tell them existed in their work. I got to where I told them I’d give them TWO proofreading errors but then, a third and more would cost them ten points on an essay worth 75 points or more. I hated proofreading errors! Was that clear in what I just wrote? lol

One of the areas where I told the kids they could improve their writing, especially if it was a personal essay, was to avoid certain words. For example, the word “very.” We use it in our speech all the friggin’ time. And because we talk it, we write it. Most people use conversational tone in their writing. That might be fine for some assignments, but it’s not what you’d want in a literary analysis or a research paper. I’d try to help the kids understand. “If you write, ‘She was VERY pregnant,’ exactly what does that mean? She wasn’t JUST pregnant, but she was VERY PREGNANT? Oh my,” I’d say, “That’s REALLY pregnant.” The kids would laugh and I’d get my point across. I told them if she was the size of a house, then say it. But one person’s “very” is not another person’s “very.” The word “pretty” is used in the same fashion. “It was pretty cold.” Really? Wow. That’s really cold, dude. Ugh. I did what I could to help the kids work on their word choice and to improve their writing by being more descriptive. It sometimes came down to SHOW US, DON’T TELL US. Show us how cold it was; show us how pregnant she was…be specific. I often would take their graded work when it was all said and done and I would go through various examples of writing that needed attention. I usually tried to do it with a bit of a tongue-in-cheek approach so kids wouldn’t be upset. I never identified who the writer was and I’d tell them NOT to reveal their writing when I was sharing or it was their fault. I always got away with it and I think it was effective for kids to hear their mistakes. I also did the opposite with strong sentences and passages from the essays.

A college professor once told a class I was in that the word “that” is 99% of the time unnecessary. Of course, we were put on alert when we had to write anything for him. But it seemed he was right. Usually, the word “that” wasn’t even necessary. Sometimes, it was the wrong word. “She was the person that ran the business.” I told the kids as we were told, people aren’t thats. They’re whos. “She was the person WHO ran the business.” I have had kids over the years write me to tell me that was something they couldn’t shake in their adult years and professions. They always caught themselves when they used the word needlessly. I would laugh when I’d get those emails. As I said, we write like we talk. My Nightly Reflections are all that way. I’ve said it numerous times. I write not for you but for me. I need to write every day to stay in tune with my writing skills and it disciplines me to be the writer I want to be. I’m proceeding on my screenplay because I’m disciplined to do so. I credit that with my daily writing exercises.

When I wrote my weekly column in the newspaper, my writing was totally different. This time I was writing for an audience. And I needed/wanted it to be decent writing, especially considering I was an English teacher on display for all to see. Each week, I’d take my final draft and send it to an English colleague of mine. She can do grammar rules in her sleep. If there was going to be an issue within my column, she would catch it. Usually, the column was clean, but often, she managed to help me save face because of something that was easily fixed. I appreciated her for that every week for years. I guess she was my copy editor. 🙂

Teaching writing is NOT something I miss. Not because I didn’t like teaching it. I did. I hated, however, that it would result in a ton of papers that needed grading. And of course, there were students who had inflated opinions of their writing. And moms who had no training in writing, yet they knew far more than I did about evaluating a piece of student writing. I’d grow weary of that after a while. Actually, I have a great story about that I will share with you. It was the worst parent phone call I have had in my career. And that’s saying something 😛

There’s so much more I could say about this writing at the high school level, but it’s been a long day and I’m kinda over it now, so I think you get the idea. 🙂 Tomorrow night, a special treat. For both of us. Tomorrow night I’ll be ON LOCATION and I don’t mean Beaver Dam. Stay tuned. Until then, enjoy the heck out of your Friday. The sunshine is supposed to return and the weekend, ending with Trick or Treats, promises to be great autumnal weather. Then, next week, Brrrrrrrr…….. Now I have to mentally prepare for what promises to be a tough Packer/Cardinals game. The Cards haven’t lost a game, it’s on their field and we have key players out of the lineup thanks to Covid. Time to pray. (lol)

The Inspirational Quote of the Night: “How quick and rushing life can sometimes seem, when at the same time it’s so slow and sweet and everlasting.” – Graham Swift, author

G’Night!