Writing more

Having just finished reading an article about experts in various fields, I am struck with the conviction that I will not improve at writing unless I write more.  I do desire to be a better writer.  This desire comes mostly from feeling like I have not been able to write a good paper for my entire career in grad school (of a 5 month duration so far).  I have written three papers, each of which I considered severely lacking.  Not only were these papers severely lacking in preparation, insight, voice, and above all overall quality, they were also consuming and depressing as I attempted to engage in the writing process.  The latter is more problematic in my opinion.

It seems obvious that in order to be a better writer I would have to write more.  And I am not opposed to writing.  It's just that, like anything, it takes time.  As a grad student, time can be hard to come by.  So why am I actually deciding to spend time on writing a blog?  There are several things that moved me from inaction to action.  The first and most pressing is that I know I will have to write many papers in grad school.  Looming at the end of this five year endeavor is a dissertation, long and ominous.  Judging by the three papers I have already written, there are major kinks that need to be taken care of for me to not be completely overwhelmed and defeated by said monster dissertation in several years.  Also, I am hoping that my writing will improve faster, so that papers in the mean time will be less painful and end in more satisfaction and less resignation.  The second thing is people keep telling me to write more.  I heard one of my classmates give a personal testimony of how writing every day for 45 minutes last semester has helped him improve his writing.  In addition, by practicing his writing he has the added benefit of working ahead on many of his assignments, i.e. papers.  And of course there is my dad, who always encourages me and my brother to write more and practices writing more himself through blogs and book reports etc.  The third thing is that I actually enjoy some kinds of writing, and I take pleasure in feeling I have written something well.  My favorite kind of writing is reflective writing, because it helps me to sort out my thoughts and feelings.  I find it therapeutic and calming.  The fourth, and more immediate impetus, is as I mentioned already the article I read about experts, Supershrinks.  The article notes that the people who become the best in their field are those who practice skills a step above themselves, and who seek out feedback.

Thus I have undertaken a blog.  For now this is the purpose of my blog: to be a place to practice writing regularly and improve in all kinds of writing, but particularly academic writing.  To develop my voice.  To sort out my thoughts.  To write.  I know that I will be tempted to write only reflective posts, and not practice academic writing.  Since currently to me, academic writing is the bane of my existence, while reflecting is one of my favorite things to do and I feel I never have enough time to reflect.  So perhaps this blog will be a compromise, with some reflective posts, and, I sincerely hope, some academic posts.

Here are some of my ideas about what good academic writing entails: 1) Sources and familiarity with them.  I feel this is a step I often lack, since I procrastinate on writing papers and then feel I must move on to the actual writing so quickly that I do not take (or possess) the time to actually digest a source and become familiar with it.  2) Organization.  I feel this is an important step, and I often try to devote a large percentage of my time to this step, since I feel it really helps focus my writing and give me a plan for where to go.  Plus I am a planner at heart.  3) Writing.  Duh!  Yeah, this is the part where I sit down and try to write my paper, following my outline, and also being careful to figure out which source information is coming from and site a lot.  So this step incorporates steps 1 and 2 because I am using my sources and following the plan of my outline.  Usually I struggle with this step and I often wonder if it is because I haven't done steps 1 and 2 well.

For today I'll conclude that I've heard many people say to just sit down and start writing the paper.  The reason this rubs me so wrong is because what about sources!!!?  What about direction??  How can I sit down and start writing if I don't even know what I'm talking about?  How can I sit down and start writing without first figuring out the direction I want my paper to go?  So then I think to myself that probably what they really mean is, just sit down and start writing the paper after you've become fairly familiar with your sources and thought about what direction you would like your paper to go.