Posts tagged with essay.

Trying to find the words

Ian Wylie, October 22, 2008 at 12:35 PM

 

At 8 o'clock last night Julien, a floor-mate of mine, released a staccato of knocks on my door. Julien is typically a very composed individual. He has great academic ability, which he expresses through wire-rim glasses, socks with sandals and a thicket of curly hair. However when I opened the door, I found an agitated Julien bouncing where he stood and emitting a stream of clipped sentences.

 

Julien explained that he'd been writing a paper when he reached a verbal impasse. He'd caught himself on a turn of phrase and no arrangement of the words he had would communicate what he wanted to. 

 

The human language capacity is remarkable but it struggles with the university paper. A university paper has to be written clearly and persuasively. Yet we rarely use language clearly or persuasively. Instead, in our e-mails and conversations, we use language like a paste; dispensing it in dollops and blots, creating tangents and fragments of ideas.

 

I've had little practice writing in the direct and efficient style demanded by TA's and professors. I'm dreading submitting my first paper this Thursday. And if Julien, a third year, is still struggling to get out the word, I likely have a long way to go before I'm a paper master.

 

That said, after building diagrams with arrows and stick men, Julien and I managed to break his verbal impasse. Soon ideas and arguments flowed forth on a river of perfect sentences and order in the world was restored once more. Now if only I could put dumb lines like that in my history paper I'd be fine.

 

A few writing resources online:

 

http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/ - The U of T Writing Center's website offers a moderate collection of, yes, well-written articles on a number of topics, including one on how to read. The website also has a few links to other online resources, including the one below.  

 

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/ - Purdue University in Indiana's online resource, it's incredibly comprehensive and well-organized.

 

http://www.writingcentre.ubc.ca/online_resources.html - UBC's very comprehensive list of links to online resources, including some related to creative writing.  

 

 

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