For homework due on Monday, Dec. 7th, please read the short article posted as a Picasa slide show HERE. It is the chapter "Sharpening" by Ken Macrorie.
Then, post a comment of 100 words or more on this blog (as a comment; not as a new thread). You should ponder about the following questions:
a) Does your writing require sharpening when the composing process is done?
b) Do you bother with sharpening after finishing a composition, or do you submit it "as is"?
c) If you were a teacher, how would you teach sharpening to high school students? Can it be taught at all, or is it a natural gift?
d) Imagine you were the editor of a newspaper or a scientific journal, and you are sharpening the incoming contributions of different authors. What other benefits than a better read could sharpening have for your newspaper/journal?
In case you cannot comment to this blog because of password difficulties, you can also email me your comment. On Monday, you should have three 100-word comments accessible (either on the blog, or in emails; if you printed them out, you will have to retype them in class for an activity).
Our three 100-word comments are:
1) your personal opinion about "ENGFISH"
2) your personal opinion about "Word Order"
3) your personal opinion about "Sharpening".
In case you miss this Friday's class, you have to do all of that at home and have your texts ready for Monday. There will be no make-up for the activity on Monday, since this is the last in-class assignment before our final exam coming Friday. Remember that we do not meet in finals week!!!
For Monday: bring a pencil or a colored pen, and if you have, a pocket calculator! If you don't have one, you can use the calculator of Microsoft on your computer.
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Wow! I wish I had the opportunity to read more articles like this once because my writing could improve. My writing always requires sharpening, but I am usually at a loss of what I must do to make it better. I very much think sharpening can be taught to high school students, and when I am a teacher I hope to be able to teach my students tricks like this. I think the best way to teach this would be to simply go through a paper and circle all the "is's" and all the weak verbs. Another teacher of mine used to give us passive sentences and make them active. Another effective exercise is to challenge students to write with concrete descriptions rather than abstract descriptions.
ReplyDeletea) Does your writing require sharpening when the composing process is done?
ReplyDeleteb) Do you bother with sharpening after finishing a composition, or do you submit it "as is"?
c) If you were a teacher, how would you teach sharpening to high school students? Can it be taught at all, or is it a natural gift?
d) Imagine you were the editor of a newspaper or a scientific journal, and you are sharpening the incoming contributions of different authors. What other benefits than a better read could sharpening have for your newspaper/journal?
I think everyone's writing requires sharpening when the composing is finished, especially in my case since most of the writing I do is for a newspaper. I revise and revise and revise my writing until I'm 100 percent confident in it. If it's for a class, I always try to find someone who can skim though my writing for me. Some people are definitely better at sharpening than others. However, in high school and even in beginning English college courses, proof reading other students' papers is a great way to refine a person's sharpening skills. Since I am in the news business, I completely understand the importance of sharpening in news stories. If a news story is a good read because it's been sharpened, that's great, but I think sharpening contributes more to the trust of a story. An audience will more likely believe a story if it is written correctly as if it is written logically.
I find that revising (or sharpening) is a lot more fun than the actual writing. Reworking a piece of writing is easier than sitting down to write a new one. Yet while I try to revise as much as I can time is limited. Sometimes things get turned in “as is.” Sharpening can be taught, but learning the skill takes some time. Students must learn to look for the weak points in their work first. That is the most difficult part of sharpening. A benefit of sharpening is that your paper becomes stronger. And who knows, you might come up with some new ideas when you revise your paper that will make that paper stronger.
ReplyDeleteI always feel the need to sharpen my writing after writing a paper. Reading over the paper as a whole usually gives me the opportunity to find and change some errors that I would consider weak parts.I tend to sharpen all of my project papers, and depending on time, a lot of regular assignments may be turned in "as is". I feel that writing is helped by teaching but the student must grow as a writer. He or she must find out how to write stronger and apply it to their work. Strong sharpening provides a good read and the ability to convey their meaning professionally.
ReplyDeleteThis article has pointed out an important fault a lot of writers struggle with. I think my writing could use sharpening when my composition process is done. I often use a lot of unecessary words that make my writing dull. After i finish a paper I usually attempt to eliminate unecessary words like, "is" and adjectives and pronouns. If i were a teacher and had to teach sharpening to high school students I would have them revise sentences that are weak. It isn't very difficult to do. More often than not, sharpening requires making more direct concrete sentences. Benefits of sharpening is making the author's writing stronger with more emphasis behind their sentences.
ReplyDeleteMy opinion on sharpening is that it should be done after the writer has put his or her thoughts into the piece. If the writer does this, then the piece will have more character, and will not be as unoriginal. My writing does require “sharpening” before it is submitted. The reason for this is because I will sometimes write what I am saying, instead of what the teacher wants. A problem with sharpening my writing is that it will sometimes change the meaning of the whole piece. As a teacher I would teach sharpening so the students would be prepared to sharpen their work later in life. In the newspaper and journal business this is important because these are more professional and I believe it is more important for that work to be “sharpened”.
ReplyDeleteThe article entitled "Sharpening" discusses how writers add on words to their sentence such as “it” and “is.” Some verbs that are overused are “make,” “have,” and “go.” It states that other words like adjectives must pull their own weight and be necessary in the sentence. Every writer’s main goal should be to look for weak spots in their sentences. “Indeed” and “obviously” are examples of words that writers like to use to make up for weak opinions so they introduce one of these words. When I finish writing a paper in the composition process I think that all of my papers could use some sharpening because no matter how good a writer thinks something is, there is always room to improve. I always use sharpening when I'm done with the composition process because you can always improve your writing when you go back and look at it after you write it. If I were a teacher I'd teach sharpening to high school students by revising sentences that are not that good and brainstorm words that can be substituted for others to make the writing better. It can be taught it just might take some more time and effort on the teacher’s side. If I was the editor of a newspaper or scientific magazine the other benefits than a better read sharpening could have on my newspaper or journal is that strong sharpening makes a good paper and the ability to convey their meaning professionally. Sharpening also makes the writing stronger and more meaningful.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, now that i've read this article, it makes me want to "sharpen" my next paper i have. After writing a paper i usually submit it as is, i barely that time to review it because i spend so much time writing it i feel that it will be fine. Now, i feel that sharpening is necessary because it make the paper stronger and helps you eliminate uneccesary words. I would rather sharpen someone else's paper than my own. Peer editing is more fun because you read other people's thoughts and see how they write. Sharpening is a good tool to use, with all papers, in all classes.
ReplyDeleteSome of my writing requires a decent amount of sharpening. It really depends on what I am writing. Writing responses or opinion-based assignments are the ones that require more work since I try even harder to get my point across. I usually throw a lot of "its, is, and I's" in there. I usually get rid of all of the garbage when I edit it. It's pretty obvious when one of my paper's needs sharpening, so it is a pretty easy task. I don't know if I would really teach "sharpening" in a high school class. If I had a few students who were having problems with this type of stuff, then I would, most likely, deal with it on an individual basis. I think it really depends on the context of the writing--certain things might work for stylistic purposes. Sharpening, other than simply making a paper a "better read," could potentially increase creditbility.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMy writing sometimes requires sharpening. I sharpen my writing when i have finished a composition i do not just submit what i have. If i were a teacher i believe that the skill could be taught and that it is a good skill to have although it takes practice to understand how to do it and to do it well. I think that if i was to sharpen a news articl it would make it more trustworthy to believe. If the article is sharpened it makes the article a better read. i think that it depends on the context of the writing to determine if sharpening is necessary
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that 'sharpening' is the best way to produce an efficient paper. Sharpening allows the writer to go back over what he/she has written for the previous assignment. Some students rush through their assignments to meet dead lines and don't pay attention to subject content, grammar, or the meshing together of thoughts. Everyone should definitely go back over what he/she has written to produce the best paper they can.
ReplyDeleteSharpening is something that most of us do not have the time to do. I rarely look over my paper for passive verbs or extra verbs, I check spelling mistakes and flow to hand in papers. In my creative writing I am more likely to agonize over the words and make sure it is exactly the meaning I intend. Intention and ideas make good writing but if you are not being honest as the chapter suggests your writing does not come across as believable. When I sharpen my own writing I will remember this, “life is particular not general.”
ReplyDeleteI really don't do much "sharpening" in my writing, and when I do it is not for the reasons presented in the article. The sharpening I do tends to be the result of my changing the way a sentence sounds.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, the ideas presented in the article are all extremely helpful, and I intend to use them in the future. As far as teaching sharpening to my future high school students, I believe that presenting them with an article similar to this would certainly prove useful. However, I also think that it takes a certain level of natural ability with language to properly put these ideas to use.
I regularly "sharpen" up my compositions. When I complete a composition, I am never fully finished with it. After completion, I am always one to change words, delete errors, re-read the paper, and make sure it is coherent and clear. I do not usually submit anything "as is". I have however, done that with writings in the past, and the resulting grade was undesirable. I think the sharpening of a composition is extremely important.
ReplyDeleteI feel that teaching the skill of sharpening might be rather difficult. I think it may very well be a natural gift, just like correct word order may be a natural gift. I have peer-edited papers in the past and although the author of that paper thought he or she was finished, it was clear he or she was not.
Sharpening would play a major role if I were an editor of a newspaper or journal. Other than a better read, sharpened writings would attract more readers. If the writing is coherent and written with clarity, it would be easier to understand for a reader and that in turn, will bring the reader back for more.