I just happened to be looking at my Facebook newsfeed, and it seems to me that there is an ongoing "paper rush." Status updates such as "Done page 3 of 12," and "Only 300 more words" have filled my newsfeed. It makes me wonder, though--has school allowed us to view writing assignments as simply the amount of pages we have to fill with words, or the amount of words we have to place on paper to hand in to a professor?
What happened to writing something that you were passionate about--something that you viewed as a work, not as a countdown of pages? At this time in the semester, most writing assignments have become the opposite.
Then, we have issues of academic bullshit that arise once again--writing fluffy, imaginative ideas that are really too far-fetched to be truly taken seriously by anyone, but are accepted in the world of academia. So many issues arise in writing at this point of the year that I wonder if it is even meaningful for teachers to assign works to be due at the end of the semester, because the level of effort is usually devoted to fulfilling a word count or a page quota.
I think for people who enjoy writing this is always a frustration. I feel the same way because I actually do enjoy writing but I know that a lot of my friends hate it and end up doing it just to get a good grade. I obviously can fall into this category too sometimes and I think that part of that is just the way the system is set up. Anytime you have an assignment for a grade people are going to feel reluctant to do it and are going to view it as just something they have to do for a grade. The problem is the majority of people wouldn't do it if it were based on their own will so teachers have to make assignments otherwise no one would do anything!
ReplyDeleteI also have fallen into the trap of the page countdown, my thesis is 20 pages long and i've just completed page 17! I think when writing in the academic realm, like here at Richmond or any university for that matter, we lose sight of writing for a purpose other than a grade and it becomes less enjoyable for us. I have only have two papers while attending U of R that I actually enjoyed writing, both of which we could pick our choice of median in which we wanted to write--such as a letter or chapter in a book, etc. I think that if more professors got away from the stereotypical paper and more to expressive writing we might abandon our word counting and page countdowns, and start enjoying the creativity behind writing.
ReplyDeleteI think that alot of times it's hard to invest yourself in your writing when you have so much of it to do! This finals week I have found myself straying away from topics that I would really like explore in my papers because I know that I just don't have enough time to do them justice! It seems like finals week at college isn't the best time to start taking strides with our writing... i mean who has time to take strides when we're just trying to make it out alive!
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