Shelley Reid’s article, “Ten Ways to Think about Writing: Metaphoric Musings for College Writing Students” describes ten ways college students can improve their writing. She reminds us of all the rules high school classes gave students for their writing and how we don’t use many of those rules in the writing world. Her point of keeping the reader hooked is one we all hear a lot but can still be a good reminder. Writing academically can be kind of boring so keeping the reader wanting more can be a little difficult but a good exercise as a writer. Her points of piecing together all of the parts that make sense into paragraphs together to keep it organized is another nice reminder. Although annotating works feels wrong and you may want to keep the work in its nice and perfect condition it can be very useful to keep track of things you found important or liked.
Some of her approaches however, I was a bit confused because I feel in academic writing you wouldn’t use these tips as much because the topics wouldn’t have much to do with them or it’s not new information we’re learning. Like for show and tell I feel there’s not much to show but rather give facts and provide information in the work, I can see how this can work in certain courses though. Another was providing details and the audience. Although I can see in some cases detail is necessary I still feel it is redundant and writing for your audience is pretty standard. We’re taught to use Standard Academic English because we are writing for a more professional stance so the audience is almost always the same (depending on the course you take).
I didn’t always think I liked writing and that was because my High School teachers always gave so many rules for us to follow. It wasn’t until I had a couple of writing assignments where I could finally be creative when I realized I enjoyed writing and using my imagination to create some a story. I could go on and on about the ideas I would get from writing a story and how fun it is to put those ideas on paper, but I barely get the opportunity to do that because all we do is academic writing. Once I got to college those rules didn’t exist anymore. I believe I can use Reid’s approaches towards more creative work rather than college work.
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