Good Writing

I'm almost done with my sophomore year of college as an English major. After four semesters of studying, I'd expect my writing to be significantly better than my high school work.

Unfortunately, I don't think that's happened.

I think I'm a worse writer.

None of my teachers have taught me how to write a good sentence, how to connect ideas, how to explain ideas, how to use the perfect word, etc. They only give page/word requirements and formatting guidelines.

I am a pro at APA, but I can't for the life of me write a metaphor that isn't cheesy.

Now, I have learned how to do research and present it in an organized way, and my grammar class did teach me how our language is put together, but other than that, I really haven't learned how to be a good writer.

When I sit down to write, I'm more concerned with reaching length requirements than I'm excited about sharing ideas. I'm more worried about in-text citations than having a strong voice.

Word count requirements make students write cluttered sentences. Now, if I had just written that sentence for a short essay that had to be at least 400 words, I wouldn't have said that. I would have said, "If you really want to see a whole bunch of crappy and cluttered sentences, just require everyone to write a certain number of words." Ok, I try not to do that in my writing, but you get the idea.

Yes, this is another of my education rants, but I really am frustrated with the method of teaching English. I do think that researching, documentation, and presentation are all very important, but I think it should come second to cultivation of ideas and sentence composition.

Ok, done ranting. Have a happy Independence Day!!