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Dad • 02/06/05 • 2:44 PM:

I was just thinking about pressuring you to get going on your book. As somebody said, “Perfect is the enemy of good.”

For what it’s worth, I had a horrible time writing my “white paper” on heavy metals contamination. (Don’t laugh, I’m not kidding.) I kept delaying it beyond what was reasonable or acceptable, and only finished it when I got a desperate email (about the 3rd or 4th one) from my customer saying, “I need it NOW.” This was about 4 months after I said it was going to be done. (It was a 2-month job to begin with.) I finally pulled an all-nighter one Sunday to ram it home. By then, I had already exhausted the budget and was working for free. I still met a minimum quality that I could live with, but it was clearly not what I had expected to accomplish when I started out. When I finished it and sent it in, I felt an amazing sense of relief. It was immediately hard to understand why I had procrastinated so long. I have only one more thing to say. Do it now, do it quickly.

David • 02/08/05 • 8:16 AM:

I know Pat gets these daily quotes from AWAD, but I thought I’d share it anyway. I’ve often felt this way when reading Pat’s work.

“To know how to say what others only know how to think is what makes men poets or sages; and to dare to say what others only dare to think makes men martyrs or reformers—or both.” —Elizabeth Charles, writer (1828-1896)

I’d put you at “sage” level for now, perhaps reformer soon enough!

Patrick • 02/09/05 • 10:05 PM:

Thanks, David and Dad, for the motivation. I’ve been revising the central Tupamaro-escape chapter, hoping to send it off to some good journals soon. I will send the revised version for your perusal soon. As for Elizabeth Charles, she’s heading in the right direction, but truly great writers can say what others don’t even think. I hate to be cynical, but I often find students whose biggest failure is their refusal to think. They’ve modified their brains into regurgitation engines. And I think it gets worse outside of academia. That said, I don’t consider myself a great writer. And the only time I approach “sage” level is when I’m seasoning my stews or singing Simon and Garfunkel.

Dad • 02/09/05 • 11:35 PM:

Students don’t always refuse to think. My view is that they merely think poorly, or inefficiently. Writing is hard precisely because it requires thinking just to make it to the “acceptable” level where the logic is sound and coherence is achieved. Great writing requires even more; genius perhaps.

Teaching writing is also difficult because it requires knowledge, patience, and empathy. The teacher must must make a strong attempt to understand what the student was getting at and then determine why he/she missed the mark. Then the teacher must be understanding enough to provide good feedback without discouraging the student. Basically, it requires wisdom—to understand and be understanding.

David • 02/10/05 • 10:21 PM:

I imagine the hardest part of teaching writing (I only do it minimally) is the accessments - reading so much and making constructive comments/criticisms. This is probably my weakest area as an educator. Luckily the same type of accessment/feedback is not required in science. Lab reports, however, are fairly parallel. If I want the kids to learn to think and to think scientifically, I need to be a better grader. Therefore, some of the blame must fall on teachers. That being said, I do do an awful lot to work where the kiddos practice thinking logically and critically and efficiently. I guess the feedback comes mostly in the general-whole-class way, rather than the student-by-student kind. I’ll keep working.

Patrick • 02/10/05 • 10:33 PM:

I don’t have my whole theory formulated, but I agree with Mr. A’s assessment:

I attribute [students’ bad writing] to the LA classes where the grade was A+ and thank you for sharing your thoughts and here’s your smiley face sticker and I’m glad your feelings don’t have to be hurt by any criticism of your abominable writing.

Also, maybe a lot of our learning comes in the form of memorization of materials, which we don’t really need to think about much or even really know except for on a test where we can just kind of spit it back. Many of my students are afraid of the freedom I give them in choosing topics for their papers. I want them to find something that interests them, that they’re curious about, that they would want to learn even if they weren’t forced to do so for a class. This is how it sometimes is in the “real world,” I think (I’ve only seen glimpses of the “real world,” so I wouldn’t know). Anyway, their number one question is “What do you want?” (said whiningly). They want a specific topic where the game is to write down all the “correct” information about a topic, the kind of stuff they can look up in books and then quote and paraphrase back. They think the professor knows “the answer” and their job is to get as close to it as they can. Not all of them, mind you, but many.

Dad • 02/11/05 • 2:20 PM:

As a spokesman for the “real world” I would have to say that most of the time people are given assignments in which their boss/supervisor is expecting something that may not be of interest to the subordinate. Yes, often the way to approach the answer is left open, and the “answer” may not be known by the person making the request, but something specific (hopefully) is demanded. Even in high level “policy” jobs, a person is required to come up with an idea that can be sold “up the ladder” or used to advantage in a campaign or form the basis for a monetary request. Often the first step is the typical “literature search” to see what’s been done or what is already known about the subject. This, I guess, is what the students want to do. But what is more important is the next step, which asks, “So what?” And then, of course, there’s the communication, so the people you report to (or are taught by) can understand what you’ve done without having to go through the process you just did.

Patrick, you are probably most interested in the last part. Kind of like, “Tell me something I don’t know in a way that I’ll readily understand it.” As an added bonus, if the information is transmitted in a way that piques your interest, then that gets a better grade.

Maybe you could bow a little to the students’ wishes by specifying a topic, but requiring opinion as well as facts. Here, for example, is a topic that has been on my mind lately. President Clinton said that, “Abortion should be safe, legal, and rare.” Critically evaluate this statement. Why did he use each of those descriptive words? Do you agree with him? Does it raise any questions? Why is the country so divided on this issue?

You might prefer to start with a quote from Neil Peart or Mr. A, and that’s OK too. Maybe this kind of writing isn’t “creative” enough; but really, have your students mastered the expository side of writing well enough to get creative? You could also require them to write about current fads such as low-carb diets or reality TV. Or their personal pet peeves. Maybe this would generate some good rants. What about social security? Is there really a “crisis”? What should be done? What about the tax code? Steroid use? AIDS in Africa? Distribution of 9/11 funds (should the stockbroker’s family get 10x more than the janitor’s family just because he had a higher income?) Global warming? The Grammy/Golden Globe/Academy/Toni/Pulitzer/Nobel awards/prizes? People who accidentally drive nails into their heads?

As far as grading, maybe you could get the students involved reading and evaluating what others have written. Did they understand it? Were they interested? Did it delight them? Make them think? If you give them feedback, that’s just you, the authority figure. But if the rest of the class doesn’t understand what they’re talking about, maybe it will hit home that it’s their problem.

And David, what are “accessments.”

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