Summary: The Principle Of Poor Writing

Poor writing skills have become a major problem in corporate America. Many of today's employers say that good writing skills are essential not only for existing employees but also for new hires (Simkin, Crews, & Groves, 2012). In a survey of 120 U.S. Corporations, nearly a third of all employees have poor writing skills. Who is to blame for the lack of writing skills of Americans today?

“Wake up,” that’s what I heard after passing out from all the blows to the face. My vision is blurred I’m trying to stay awake but I lost consciousness; all of a sudden I felt a splash of coldness on my face, and I woke up gasping for air. The man with the deep ominous voice said, “Wakey wakey little man” I replied, “where the h*ll is Mako!” when I was fully aware of where I was, that’s when I started to panic.

It is essential to understand that classes taken in grade school do not give students a full understanding of each subject. With the topic of writing, there will always be a new lesson to learn, an aspect to improve, or a differing way to explain. Author Craig Vetter states in Bonehead Writing, “This is your enemy: a perfectly empty sheet of paper. Nothing will ever happen here except what you make happen.” Each story, essay, or response comes from a writer’s experiences. With each attempt at a new piece comes an underlying story of emotions the writer is facing. Each person’s writing is unique and the ideas people have are related to their past experiences and what they believe to be familiar with when deciding which writing style to use. As a high school student, I have learned many things about writing that helped me become the improved writer I am today, but the most essential advice I have received is practice makes perfect. Although there is no actual perfect way of writing, I have discovered that each essay I write, my writing improves. It is easier to spot mistakes, find areas to improve, and ponder elevated word choice to use.

Early on McCarthy states the the point of this study and article is to, “Contribute to our understanding of how students learn to write in school.” (234). McCarthy literally wants to make the point that learning to write should be viewed as a growth process from both a social and individual aspect depending on the situation. (234). McCarthy observed a college student as he took three different courses composition I, poetry, and biology. McCarthy explains that through her examination of the the

Writing varies from a text message to a novel. Writers often have a difficult task in creating a piece of work that truly identifies the meaning of good writing. Every good writer usually starts with the basics such as genre, audience, rhetorical situation, and reflection of the piece. Throughout this semester, we have gone through all of these key terms in great detail with each new assignment that has come our way. In doing this, not only as students but also as writers, we have come to create our own theory of writing. Every writer has a different theory of writing though most are very similar. Now, at this point in the semester after doing countless journals, in-class exercises, and final assignments, I think I have figured out my own

2. A wise observer once said that bad writing makes smart people look dumb. Do you agree or disagree, and why?

When I was reading Writing is Easy by Steve Martin, I was thinking if writing was actually that easy. Then I finished the article and realized that writing will never be easy. Mr. Martin examples on how to make writing easier make no sense. His tip to getting over writers block gets the writer nowhere. He says “got to an already published novel and find a sentence that you absolutely adore. Copy it down into your manuscript” (Martin). What he is saying is plagiarism. If I was to use this method to overcome writer block I would be thrown out of college. I still believe that writer block is real because even the greatest authors struggle with writers block.

The disciplinary perspective Lamott is catering to most is creative writing and writings that have strict time limits. The authors discipline is creative writing when it comes to food reviews for her magazine company. Lamott believes that her situation can be used with all forms of disciplines. In addition to Lamott’s discipline, Baker’s writing perspective comes from a teaching or informative discipline. Baker is trying to help teachers learn effective teaching skills when it comes to writing. However, Johnsons discipline is strictly for psychology disciplines and how they can improve papers and grades all together. On the other hand, Makenzie’s discipline is in the study of biology and wants to explain why writing is important in that field of study.

Writing properly can be very challenging for a new student embarking on being a scholarly, professional writer. Before starting assignments, it is important to read very broadly about the main topics of the assignment, and also read the specific chapters listed in the assignment, because they will guide a student’s thoughts in developing a paper.

The Importance of Writing Badly was written by Bruce Ballenger. His intended audience are students who are victims of strict English teachers as well as the strict English teachers, themselves. In his essay, Ballenger portrays that students are more focused on being grammatically correct than the message in their essays. This is because of teachers who grade strictly on grammar errors and punctuation. Ballenger says, “A colleague of mine, an Ivy League graduate, is among the self-appointed grammar police, complaining often about the dumb mistakes his students make in their papers. I don’t remember him ever talking about what his students are trying to say in those papers.” (Page 74). Bruce Ballenger has effectively argued and persuaded his intended audience with his use of ethos, pathos, and logos.

In “The Importance of Writing Badly,” Bruce Ballenger encourages his students to write about how they feel and to not worry about it if it is not the perfect piece. He means that when you are writing that you should not worry about it if it does not sound perfect but can continue writing if it does not make sense. When someone is getting ready to write an essay they should take out a piece of paper and come up some ideas to talk about. This would allow someone to start thinking about what they need to include and what they want to put in there to grab the reader’s attention. Ballenger is encouraging his students to write badly. He stated “When I give my students permission to write badly, to suspend their compulsive need to find the “perfect

Ballenger, Bruce. “The Importance of Writing Badly.” The Curious Writer. Custom Publishing. 2008. pp. 45–47.

The six course goals of this English 109W course are to Engage in writing as a process that includes planning, revision, and editing based on feedback from peers and instructors; Critically read and analyze academic texts; Understand, identify, and analyze the rhetorical situations of academic texts, including their contexts, audiences, purposes and personas; Understand, identify, and analyze the rhetorical situations of academic texts, which may include genre, format, evidence, citation, style and organization; Develop an awareness of and preparedness for the writing they will do through their majors through research, exploration, and or practice of the discourse community’s conventions; and Engage in formal and informal writing that analyzes and critically reflects on their major’s writing conventions and their own writing practices and choices. I perceive that I have achieved all the goals for this course through the various drafts I composed, polished papers I produced, and the supplemental work that I have selected to include enclosed within my portfolio.

It is hard to believe Foundations of Writing is already over, but as I reflect on the past semester, I realize how beneficial this class has been. Not only has my writing improved, but my confidence in my abilities to write have grown as well. I’ve become more aware of how much writing will impact my future, and after this class, I feel like I will be able to handle it. There is still room for improvement, but Foundations of Writing has pushed me to become the best writer I can possibly be.

Writing is not just as simple as putting words down on a document or a piece of paper, it is a process. Within this intricate process are steps that involve more than just writing, such as critical thinking, planning, and editing. Using these steps has not only helped me when planning an essay but also when composing one. Throughout this course, I have managed to improve many skills and gain a lot of strengths, but I still possess some weaknesses. Overall, I believe my strengths have definitely outgrown these weaknesses and have led to a better, more high-quality writing process which leads to improved essays.