This is an article that a friend of mine wrote and it is a topic I know oh so well. For me, constructing a sentence, choosing the words, crossing them out and replacing them with other words, is like giving birth. It feels likes the words are my children, and if anyone messes with them, they are messing with my rightful ownership to that birth. The patience, the pain, the process, they all belong to me. I don't appreciate anyone trying to change the birthright of my words.
I used to cry when my editors at CNN would cross out my words with big red markers. Sometimes they would cross out the entire page and make me go back to that 'moment of conception' stage. The ego, the arguments, the tears that flowed were powerful, until I realized that once you give birth to children, or words, you must allow them to grow, mature and yes, even change. It took me years, but now I know that editing, revising and rewriting doesn't mean the words aren't yours, or that you had no part in conceiving them. It means you can step back, appreciate the process and the pain and when it's time to let them go you can find comfort in knowing you did the best you can. So far my children are turning out great; my writing, not so bad.
I believe this is the same process ELLs go through and we as teachers need to understand that, accept it and find as many encouraging words for them to incorporate into their lives and their writing. Please let me know what you think of his article, the video and this posting. Thanks, Susan
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Bad Writing
The process by which writing goes from bad to good--or even great--totally fascinates me. I think the main reason more people don't write is the sheer terror of confronting yourself on the page. Somewhere there are people who--on their first try--can make great writing. These people do not have bathrooms in their homes, as they are not human.
The rest of us are mere mortals, whom first drafts are, in the main, cringe-inducing. (Someday I'll post the original "sample chapter" that I submitted to publishers for The Beautiful Struggle. It was so dreadful that only house even bid on the book.) The ability to go to war with one's own awfulness requires a special kind of moxie. I believe that many people have the talent to write. But very few have the courage to rewrite. Even fewer have the courage to rewrite fail, and live to do the whole thing again. And even this gets it wrong. It makes it sound like all of this is some sort of choice.
This is a long way of introducing a documentary about bad writing. I want to see it.
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