As much as this article wanders, with both hits (communication between professors & students = good!) and misses (nobody taught me how to write = bad!), it's co

As much as this article wanders, with both hits (communication between professors & students = good!) and misses (nobody taught me how to write = bad!), it's covering some familiar territory to me and some friends. A buddy wrote his MA in Education thesis about how, in short, technology assistance by way of spell check, auto correct, and social casual conversation degrading into emojis that long-form thinking and writing are certainly suspect for an incoming college generation. Attention span, composition, and rote discipline are assumed to be low for incoming Freshmen as a hypothesis (untested, though a consistent complaint it seems both by students and faculty, re: poor writing skills). His methodology to improve was centered around slowing down the process, forcing attention to detail by using antiquated tools - difficult to use ones as well. A quill, then a pencil, then a ball-point, eventually a typewriter. The point being active, engaged thought is needed to avoid making mistakes, and in the case of the quill, a mistake requires a full re-write (in the course design). Quite the opposite of spitting out stream of consciousness, right? Other reading on the subject that might be of interest is "The Performance of Self in Student Writing" by Thomas Newkirk[1], which I found to be an excellent, dense consideration of the ins and outs. But as for this quote: >It's no wonder that so many students struggle with writing: you're never really shown how to do it. Your practice is sporadic and undirected. You're expected to pick it up, basically, perhaps by reading, perhaps by winging an essay here and there. Which is like expecting a kid to pick up tennis by watching lots of Wimbledon and losing in the early rounds of the occasional junior tournament. No, no, no, no. This is wrong. Reading and writing have a significant feedback loop. Practice makes better. To quote Mike Judge in character in Office Space, "What do you think of a person who only does the bare minimum?"[2] Writing, like playing an instrument, isn't something that just sort of falls into place by showing up to class, or doing the bare minimum. It also takes a lot of drive (or weird love of punishment) to get through years and years of criticism which get thrown in by participating in the creative process. I say this as having been in my fair share of workshops over the years. Sometimes it's a hard go. Also, this left a little something out: >Which is funny because email has such obvious promise as a tool for writing, and sharing writing, and teaching writing. It's also got a lot of potential to get people fired, with Reply All and/or sending things when in a emotional state when cooling down might be a more prudent pathway. [1]Link to a review PDF: http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/download/nwp_file/282/Performance_of_Self.pdf?x-r=pcfile_d http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/download/nwp_file/282/Performan... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJtrLKGZZFg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJtrLKGZZFg