Comped
So I'm lounging in front of my monitor right now, pumping out a fairly straightforward bit of literary interpretation (Melville's "Bartleby," if you're curious). The word count says I'm at 652, which I'll take for 45 minutes of work. I've done much worse. . . and because I have no attention span to speak of, I'm on the blog again! Great. . . but anyway, a question popped into my head, so I figured I'd toss it to the group: how has consulting for a few weeks changed the way you write essays (or anything else, for that matter)?
Personally, I think I might be operating a bit differently re: strategy in short papers. I can be a long-winded bastard sometimes, which is fine and dandy when I'm off doing my own thing but tends to cause problems on three-page papers. A teacher of mine liked to talk about "insight density"; that is, cramming the most insight possible into each paper. I've always liked that idea, but I've usually applied it to papers that are five pages at a minimum, which gives me room to "get cute" a bit while still getting plenty in the essay.
Since I've had a lot of people coming in to see me from those new 1301/1401 WRIT classes (including, I think, three people on the same assignment) I've been helping people with a lot of shorter papers (like the one I'm supposed to be writing now) and one thing I often encourage is to get to point rapidly and develop it as much as possible. This seems basic, but it's something I'm awful at. I'm starting to think that consulting on shorter papers is making me better at writing them.
Anyone have a similar experience, or am I a tad nutty?
Comments
I think it's making me worse - or at least making it much more complicated, because now I am so hyper-aware of all the paper-writing going on. I should probably come in for a consult.
Posted by: keely | September 30, 2007 11:08 PM
I forgot to say that I, too have been consulting primarily on 3-5 page papers, which is such a drastically different length than the thesis that is in the back corner of my mind. Perhaps I am envious of the clarity, the cohesive brevity that people are bringing to their short papers. Have you worked on any theses, any longer assignments?
I think it's pretty great that by working and helping others you are finding out new things about the way you write - maybe you are voicing things you've known all along, but didn't want to apply to your own work?
Posted by: keely | September 30, 2007 11:24 PM
Yeah, I haven't worked on anything overly long; I think a guy came in with something around eight pages once, but that's been the extent of it for me.
Also, apropos of very little: I am learning all sorts of fun little things about MS Word 2007 tonight. I'm always very picky with how I format my papers, so I pay very little attention to whatever pre-set formatting a program gives me.
The new Word, however, does some nefarious things. Its pre-set spacing is odd and increases the gap between individual paragraphs; I've noticed this on a few papers I've seen. Near as I can tell, this adds a solid 1/3 page to a 4-page paper. Sneaky.
Then again, it starts you with 11-point font, which maybe balances things out. I noticed something was up when I started getting 400-word pages. . . I'm a big fan, because it lets me cheat on length and get more in. I wonder what teachers will think about stuff like this. . .
Posted by: Sharkey | October 1, 2007 12:03 AM
Word is a little strange these days. For some reason my presets give me single-spaces that look suspiciously like gigantic double-spaces, so I always end up messing around with some setting that I don't understand but that somehow changes it back to normal...does yours do that also? am i insane?
also, you're very lucky that you're becoming more clairvoyant. i, unfortunately, can totally relate to keely. i think it's actually affecting the way i speak too--being aware of the proofreading boundaries has somehow shot me in the opposite direction, towards fanatical, blubbering grammatical idiocy.
Posted by: Emily S | October 1, 2007 9:15 PM
Hey, you used to write magnificent, but the last few posts have been kinda boringˇK I miss your super writings. Past few posts are just a little out of track! come on!
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