Dostoyevsky Was, Is, and Always Will Be THE MAN!
First of all, I am so very pleased to hear from a couple of people in this class that they know and, more importantly, like Dostoyevsky. The man was a genius!!! This is all I am going to say abou him, so my title actually has little to do with my entry.
Now, about the whole writing thing…Well, how do I put this, I don’t feel like I have learned to write yet, honestly. I feel like my writing is very much in the beginning stages. I have seen progress in the last year or so since I have been back in school, however, and progress is all I really need to feel good about it. Well, actually, it’s progress and good grades.
I remember writing off and on since I was very young. When my mom came to the States a few years ago, she brought the fairytale I wrote when I was five or six. It was the first story I ever wrote, and it was more or less a combination of my favorite parts from other fairytales I had read. So the pattern of learning to write from reading is quite apparent in that story and in most other writing I have done. I am not plagiarizing, but I think I am learning by imitation, although usually I am not conscious of the fact until a lot later. Most of the creative writing I have done as a teenager, for example, contains the same themes as my reading at that time.
I do not believe that there are many truly original ideas, in a sense they are immaculately conceived in our genius minds. Most of them are brought to us by circumstances, observation, our experiences, our personalities, and usually a combination of those factors. Yet they are still original to us, in the same way as Darwin and Wallace each had original ideas, yet they were essentially the same. This is probably not the best analogy.
Aside from having ideas, there is the issue of organizing them. Most of it I learned or relearned in my 1010 and 2010 classes, and at the writing center. A lot of it had to do with the fact that I learned to write in another country and I was taught a slightly different rhetoric style. And some of it was due to the fact that the only writing I have done for many years consisted of letters and journal entries.
So how is all this useful to me in my current role as a tutor? Well, first and foremost, I know that I should never assume that the writing presented before me is necessarily an accurate reflection of ideas, especially if it is a first draft. In nine out if ten times, what I first jot down does not come close to completely or correctly reflecting the beautiful and profound thoughts in my head. OK, maybe they are not always “beautiful and profound,” but they are still better than what I manage to get on paper. One of the most important aspects of truly great writing is the ability to capture and express what one- but also everyone- feels or thinks, and to express it in such a way that others who have felt the same can recognize it.
To come back to tutoring, I think much of the tutoring process will be helping the student to simply answer the “What are you trying to say” question in the written form, within the assignment requirements. I know so many very intelligent people who are good at expressing themselves verbally, yet find it difficult to do the same in writing. I blame it simply on the lack of practice. I feel a lot of my tutees will fall into this category. And although I am usually really bad at expressing my thoughts in speech, I once was very much out of practice of doing it in written form. So in that sense I have been in the same boat, and I can relate to them. I can also relate well to ESL and non-traditional students. I think, I hope, that this understanding of their situation will be helpful in finding common ground from which to start the learning process.
Now, about the whole writing thing…Well, how do I put this, I don’t feel like I have learned to write yet, honestly. I feel like my writing is very much in the beginning stages. I have seen progress in the last year or so since I have been back in school, however, and progress is all I really need to feel good about it. Well, actually, it’s progress and good grades.
I remember writing off and on since I was very young. When my mom came to the States a few years ago, she brought the fairytale I wrote when I was five or six. It was the first story I ever wrote, and it was more or less a combination of my favorite parts from other fairytales I had read. So the pattern of learning to write from reading is quite apparent in that story and in most other writing I have done. I am not plagiarizing, but I think I am learning by imitation, although usually I am not conscious of the fact until a lot later. Most of the creative writing I have done as a teenager, for example, contains the same themes as my reading at that time.
I do not believe that there are many truly original ideas, in a sense they are immaculately conceived in our genius minds. Most of them are brought to us by circumstances, observation, our experiences, our personalities, and usually a combination of those factors. Yet they are still original to us, in the same way as Darwin and Wallace each had original ideas, yet they were essentially the same. This is probably not the best analogy.
Aside from having ideas, there is the issue of organizing them. Most of it I learned or relearned in my 1010 and 2010 classes, and at the writing center. A lot of it had to do with the fact that I learned to write in another country and I was taught a slightly different rhetoric style. And some of it was due to the fact that the only writing I have done for many years consisted of letters and journal entries.
So how is all this useful to me in my current role as a tutor? Well, first and foremost, I know that I should never assume that the writing presented before me is necessarily an accurate reflection of ideas, especially if it is a first draft. In nine out if ten times, what I first jot down does not come close to completely or correctly reflecting the beautiful and profound thoughts in my head. OK, maybe they are not always “beautiful and profound,” but they are still better than what I manage to get on paper. One of the most important aspects of truly great writing is the ability to capture and express what one- but also everyone- feels or thinks, and to express it in such a way that others who have felt the same can recognize it.
To come back to tutoring, I think much of the tutoring process will be helping the student to simply answer the “What are you trying to say” question in the written form, within the assignment requirements. I know so many very intelligent people who are good at expressing themselves verbally, yet find it difficult to do the same in writing. I blame it simply on the lack of practice. I feel a lot of my tutees will fall into this category. And although I am usually really bad at expressing my thoughts in speech, I once was very much out of practice of doing it in written form. So in that sense I have been in the same boat, and I can relate to them. I can also relate well to ESL and non-traditional students. I think, I hope, that this understanding of their situation will be helpful in finding common ground from which to start the learning process.
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