Paul McHenry Roberts shed some interesting light on the common errors of writing. All of the points he made were intelligent and beneficial to students. Even though it was written more than several years ago it still holds truth for students today. It may even remind students today how valuable his seemingly simple strategies are such as the importance of avoiding colorless words and increasing or expanding one’s vocabulary. The topics discussed that caught my interest were avoiding the obvious content, becoming aware of pat expressions, and the meaning of colorless words. These topics grabbed my attention because I realized that I often use these unsuccessful writing strategies in my own work. On more than one occasion I have stuck to the obvious and modest answers to writing prompts, used more than one cliché pat expression, and snuck in the colorless word “nice” in my essays. I was already aware that I use colorless words and several pat expressions making my work sometimes corny and immature. These problems were mentioned by my high school English teachers and I have been trying to correct my errors for a while.
Reading Robert’s essay brought this subject back to my attention allowing me to continue working on my writing skills throughout this course. It reminded me of the errors that I usually make when writing essays allowing me to become more aware when writing in the future. This will help me continue to improve my writing strategies and techniques. Avoiding the obvious content was an error I didn’t realize I needed to fix, however; the more I read on this topic the more I noticed myself making this mistake. If I were to write an essay about college football I would have went for the obvious content such as how it affects a student athlete’s academic progress or how sports practices consume the majority of student athletes time making it difficult to obtain strong time management skills.
Hearing some of Robert’s examples showed me how to incorporate humor into my writing to give it more of a voice and unique style that would help my paper stand out amongst a stack of similar works. I found his reasoning as to why college football should be abolished, because “football stars hog all the beautiful women,” extremely funny and a point that would hold my attention throughout the entire essay. Another subject I found interesting and educational was the author’s strategy on how to decide what to write about. His idea was to write out the first topics that come to your mind and then throw those ideas away because every other student will have similar thoughts. This is a very helpful hint that I plan to use throughout my college writing courses and also within the workforce. In this present time in the workforce it is vital to standout on a resume in order to earn the job and writing in an unconventional way can help separate a single person from every other hopeful employee. Overall I found Robert’s essay enlightening and educational. Many students would benefit from Robert’s advice
I agree with you in that Roberts' plan to throw away the most common, obvious ideas was a helpful hint. Too often I find my papers lacking that unique quality because I have written about a topic shared by the majority. While being in the majority is, in many cases, a safety net, the minority are the ones that are remembered.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, I oftentimes write about the obvious content too. I never realized it was an error or something that I had to fix until I read his paper.
ReplyDeleteGreat observations. I'm so glad this article proved helpful for y'all!
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