As I started my first semester at S University, I had a certain course called 'English Writing Skills'. This course was a compulsory course and one had to pass it to take any other writing related course. If one failed this course, one had to re-take it again the next semester. It seems a valid reason, but then it was quite a shock for certain people failing this course since they all found out this little tidbit in session # 14, the second last session of the whole course. Me though? I was sailing, no cruising through this course on a fluffy cloud, with hardly any turbulence.
I'm writing about this particular course because it was quite an eye-opening experience as I discovered my own way of writing. I didn't even know that I had a certain style until I read my essays aloud in class or somebody else read mine (some teaching techniques for teachers out there :p). It felt so odd reading what I wrote aloud, it felt like I was opening my own secret diary and revealing all my dirty secrets to strangers. Not that I wrote anything related to my secrets. I wrote about normal things, but on paper, they felt like another world. Yes, the professor would read my essays in order to grade them, but she was on a different mental level than my classmates and myself. Hence, she was serious about the term private and confidential.
Also having to keep a daily journal, oh please! I was most annoyed about it, I didn't want to keep a daily journal that the professor had read and judged. However, I learned in the end that she was Switzerland, she didn't mind what we wrote and it gave an opportunity for me to write my thoughts on paper and have somebody read it, but make no judgement about them. Totally neutral. In fact we did ask her in the end that how is it possible to not make some kind of opinion based on what we write in our diaries. She said that because what we wrote is not out of the ordinary, we wrote about things that happens to almost everybody. Well of course, I made sure I never wrote anything too deep or extraordinary, I mean somebody is reading it! Just here and there stuff, occasionally threw in a bit of deep stuff if there was literally nothing to write about.
The one negative about this course was that my writing was already good enough from the start, I knew that. Not that I'm bragging or anything, but that was the negative thing. How do I make myself better if I'm already good at it? I needed to be challenged in this course because for some reason it didn't settle with me that all my other course are so tough that I had to give them attention 24/7. This course would be left behind if I didn't make it challenging for myself. In other words, it is because this course is easy for me, I wouldn't know it but I would easily keep it my lowest priority and perhaps lose marks in 'em. Things that one gains easily is always always lost easily as well. I guess. So I challenged myself by writing one essay in a third-person perspective. That was such a fail. I wasn't able to bring out the emotions I wanted. It felt distant and cold. How did J.K.Rowling do it? Her books were so...observant and yet warm. How Khalid Hosseini do it? His book 'The Kite Runner' was in a third-person perspective too and yet they were never distant like mine, the characters were so compelling. To be a great writer, one must answer this question first: How?
As I do go on challenging myself, I know Failure is not done with me, but I know that right behind Failure, I see Success too, smiling and encouraging me. Hence in my next few posts, I will be posting the those essays I failed at and those that I succeeded at. Ciao.
I'm writing about this particular course because it was quite an eye-opening experience as I discovered my own way of writing. I didn't even know that I had a certain style until I read my essays aloud in class or somebody else read mine (some teaching techniques for teachers out there :p). It felt so odd reading what I wrote aloud, it felt like I was opening my own secret diary and revealing all my dirty secrets to strangers. Not that I wrote anything related to my secrets. I wrote about normal things, but on paper, they felt like another world. Yes, the professor would read my essays in order to grade them, but she was on a different mental level than my classmates and myself. Hence, she was serious about the term private and confidential.
Also having to keep a daily journal, oh please! I was most annoyed about it, I didn't want to keep a daily journal that the professor had read and judged. However, I learned in the end that she was Switzerland, she didn't mind what we wrote and it gave an opportunity for me to write my thoughts on paper and have somebody read it, but make no judgement about them. Totally neutral. In fact we did ask her in the end that how is it possible to not make some kind of opinion based on what we write in our diaries. She said that because what we wrote is not out of the ordinary, we wrote about things that happens to almost everybody. Well of course, I made sure I never wrote anything too deep or extraordinary, I mean somebody is reading it! Just here and there stuff, occasionally threw in a bit of deep stuff if there was literally nothing to write about.
The one negative about this course was that my writing was already good enough from the start, I knew that. Not that I'm bragging or anything, but that was the negative thing. How do I make myself better if I'm already good at it? I needed to be challenged in this course because for some reason it didn't settle with me that all my other course are so tough that I had to give them attention 24/7. This course would be left behind if I didn't make it challenging for myself. In other words, it is because this course is easy for me, I wouldn't know it but I would easily keep it my lowest priority and perhaps lose marks in 'em. Things that one gains easily is always always lost easily as well. I guess. So I challenged myself by writing one essay in a third-person perspective. That was such a fail. I wasn't able to bring out the emotions I wanted. It felt distant and cold. How did J.K.Rowling do it? Her books were so...observant and yet warm. How Khalid Hosseini do it? His book 'The Kite Runner' was in a third-person perspective too and yet they were never distant like mine, the characters were so compelling. To be a great writer, one must answer this question first: How?
As I do go on challenging myself, I know Failure is not done with me, but I know that right behind Failure, I see Success too, smiling and encouraging me. Hence in my next few posts, I will be posting the those essays I failed at and those that I succeeded at. Ciao.
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