Enemy of Entropy
Archive for Writing
Writing Bug
I’m more and more tempted to write some fiction again. It’s been years since I did that. I’m good with characters and environment, but not so good with plot. I don’t like to write about negative things, or nasty people, which is rather problematic when you need to have conflict.
I know part of it is reading books and thinking, “Damn, I could do better than that.” But to be realistic, anybody who has finished a book is doing better than I actually have done.
One thing that’s really getting to me is the number of anti-fat statements that get thrown in to so many stories. They have nothing to do with the story – they just happen because of the authors’ prejudice. Describing a minor character as fat is a cheap shortcut, because most readers will assume the person is lazy, sloppy, and not terribly intelligent (or a hyperfocused geek with no social skills if he is smart).
I know that starting out with a “message” is a crappy way to write fiction, though. Messages are better expressed in essays, not stories.
Still, I have this itch. Bah.
School Happy
I finally got the grades from the first technical writing assignment I turned in last week, and the peer reviews I did on two of my classmates’ rough drafts. I got full points for all of them!
I was worried about one of the peer reviews, because the person chose to do a set of instructions for starting to cross-stitch. I know too much about that topic to evaluate it well from a beginner’s point of view, and that was the intended audience. I actually approached the professor with some questions, and wondered if I should swap reviews with someone new to stitching. Happily, the professor said I provided a balanced review that reflected my experiences as a former beginner and currently experienced stitcher, and that I was respectful throughout. I was trying very, very hard to avoid any hint of condescension, and it appears that it worked!
My topic was “Creating Your First Podcast,” and that received full points, too. It had to be done with a Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level less than 8th grade, which was not easy. I got it down to 7th grade, and couldn’t go any lower. The professor said that was due to the technical terms I had to use, and was perfectly acceptable.
Weekend and School Update
The girl and Sam both had busy weekends. Katie went out Friday and Saturday, playing D&D with friends first, then going to a party with her sweetie during my and Sam’s date Saturday night. Sam had a computer to deliver Saturday morning, then ran around picking up some things. He went out again yesterday, to the library for me and to the grocery store and the farmer’s market and I’m not even sure where else. Then he did an intervew for his podcast last night.
This is the last week of my classes for the semester, so I did a paper for one class and created my slides for a group project presentation in the other, then had a couple of quizzes. Monday night we do our presentation online, and see the other groups’ presentations. That class doesn’t have a final, but I do have to take the final for the management class, then I’m done.
Next week I start a class everybody is apparently supposed to take around the beginning of their studies, since one of the assignments involves creating a “plan of study.” DeVry seems to have a lot of these “because we said so” classes, which is annoying. I’m also taking my first technical writing course at DeVry, though. It will involve more group projects, a bane of my existence.
It’s one thing to work together in a business setting, where people’s jobs depend on their performance. It’s quite another to be yoked with people who just can’t be arsed to pull their weight and apparently think Bs are high grades. I’m absolutely appalled by the number of people in the 400-level classes I had this semester who cannot create a coherent paragraph, much less write a paper.
I had the required “write a research paper” class over 20 years ago, at another school. Either the standards have fallen horribly, or Mercer had higher standards than I realized. (I won’t even bother comparing Agnes Scott’s standards to DeVry. It’s too painful.) Of course, if either of those schools had remedial courses of any sort, I was unaware of them. Those “teach you what you should have learned in middle school” classes are a fact of life in all the University system schools and DeVry. I know that there were some when I took classes at Georgia Perimeter so many years ago, but they seem to be more and more important now. I honestly don’t think they belong in any institution of “higher learning.” If you can’t read, write, and do basic math before you get to college, you have no business being there, because you do not have the essential tools required for success. I suppose that makes me an elitist.
It’s going to be odd going back to 100 and 200 level courses next week. By the time most students do get to the 400-level courses, the true dregs have dropped out or risen out of that status. Threaded discussions are such a huge part of online classes that you get far more exposure to your classmates writing than in a face-to-face class, and you quickly find out who can’t or won’t write and who has no clue about how to discuss issues without degenerating into total nonsense. That part of this semester hasn’t been as bad as others, at least. I did still run into nutcases insisting that this country was founded as a “Christian nation,” but that’s pretty much to be expected anymore.
Review: Writing to Change the World by Mary Pipher
I haven’t actually finished Mary Pipher’s Writing to Change the World yet, so it’s probably weird for me to be doing a review. It’s a really meaty little book, though, and I haven’t finished it because I keep going back to re-read sections or copy some of the quotes scattered through the text.
The focus of the book is on persuasive writing. I like the fact that Pipher acknowledges the power of stories and fiction to inspire change.
I’ve got to return it to the library (it’s way late, because I didn’t want to let go of it), but I’m definitely going to find a copy of my own soon. As I really don’t buy that many books, preferring to read them from the library, buying a copy after I read the library’s copy is pretty high praise.
I’ve admired Pipher for years, since reading Reviving Ophelia and The Shelter of Each Other, but something I learned today raises her even higher in my esteem. Last year, she returned an award she received from the American Psychological Association to protest the APA’s continuing support of torture by the U.S. government. The article includes her letter to the APA, and I encourage you to read it.
Boo Sickness! Recipe, Word Geeking, Reviews
This not-flu or whatever is exceedingly tiresome. I should think it would be enough to live with the day to day stuff, let alone put up with this. Then again, nobody has ever claimed in my hearing that the world is fair.
I haven’t succeeded in holding any thoughts in my head long, so you’re in for randomness again this entry.
I have no idea why the main article was linked from ZDNet, but doesn’t this cheddar and apple sandwich seem yummy? I wonder how it would be with ham? I used to have a really good recipe for a sausage and apples dish, but I know I haven’t cooked it in the last decade. Maybe I could dig it out of my ancient recipe box? There are few ways to go wrong with cooked apples, as far as I can tell.
Read on…
