A last thought about apathy

In the dictionary apathetic is defined as “having no emotion” and apathy as “a lack of interest or feeling.” I am most apathetic about my own writing when I simply don’t have anything to say—when I don’t feel strongly enough about anything to even write it down. Sometimes I want to write, but realize that there is nothing I can say that hasn’t already been said before by someone else, and said better then I could ever say it. When I walk through the library I often wonder how many of those books actually deserve to be there. So, what’s the point?

What I have started to learn about writing is that we don’t have to write for others. Sure we have to turn in a paper, get a grade, pass the class; but that’s all secondary. In the opening chapter of my grammar book for English 3050 Joseph M. Williams says, “I also know that the more clearly we write, the more clearly we see and feel and think.” A tutor can’t always MAKE a student be interested in the subject at hand, but the tutor can always try to teach the tools necessary to write well, so that one day—when the student finally has something to say—he can.