In-class essay editing work

In class this week, we'll be editing this essay I wrote my freshman year of college; (you'll copy and paste a paragraph from this essay into your blog and edit that paragraph). This will count as your week 5 blog entry.

We'll be looking at abstract/concrete language, word choice, active/passive voice, and CLICHES.


English 494
Thomas Wilk

‘A mind is a terrible thing to waste.’ This is a catch phrase that we are all familiar with. Taking this idea in another direction, I would say that literacy is a terrible thing to waste. Literacy is a gift just as any other admirable trait is, and it should be used with thought and responsibility. This is something that took me my entire high school career to learn.

As our school’s newspaper editor, I attended a newspaper fair late in my senior year of high school. There, I learned about helping people find and understand the truth about certain events. I learned about the responsibilities one has as a writer, and I learned about the rights one has as a writer. The things that had been brought to my attention at this particular seminar were very stimulating and thought provoking. I learned about how the school board could limit rights of others in school. The idea that they could limit the powers of your literacy interested me greatly. This became relevant in our school as a certain teacher was suspended at a point in the school year, and no one really knew for certain why. There were many rumors as to why he was suspended. There was no official reason as to his dismissal and rumors spread like wild fire in the wake of this incident. We, as the official school newspaper, were not able to write a story dispelling the rumors because we could not get enough information from the school board.

This seminar was very meaningful to me. It made me realize how reckless I had been throughout the earlier part of my career writing for the newspaper. It brought the potentials of literacy to my attention and helped me realized what I could do with them. I knew that the school board or the principal had the right to sensor anything we put in the official school newspaper. If we could create a pact among ourselves to only write truthful material, followed with a demonstration to the principal and school board that we are capable of writing non-libelous, unbiased journalism, maybe they would let us cover more sensitive issues such as the suspension of a teacher. Also, I learned that while the school board or principal could sensor the school newspaper, they could not sensor an out-of-school publication that is distributed in school. We also had the right to be allowed to distribute it on school grounds.

Unfortunately, I learned these truths too late. It was the end of my senior year, and as my last article in the newspaper, I tried to convey to the student body what I had learned at this seminar. The article that I wrote was serious in tone, which set it apart from the parodies that I had been accustomed to writing. The absolute lack of interest and reaction to this article led me to think that no one else cared about truth in writing. I wanted people to know how much their literacy was actively around them, and how it affected their daily lives, but no one showed concern at all.

Up to the end of my senior year, I had been mostly impetuous and reckless in my thoughts and writing. This recklessness began back in my sophomore year in high school when I started writing for the school newspaper. I had started out writing about music. The things I wrote were not very admirable. My reviews criticized music that I did not personally like, and in general were egocentric to my personal tastes in music. This was literacy, but it was wasted. I failed to use the gifts of literacy that I had learned. I was able to write, but my writing was irresponsible and careless. I did not realize at the time that what I wrote could have serious effects, either positive or negative.

I learned early what the negative effects could be. It started as people complaining to me about the lack of substance in the music reviews. But, I then wrote a humorous story with some rumored events about two brothers that I had heard from a friend. I had used some details in the story that he had mentioned, and made some others up. The final published product was something that was so ridiculous that no one would believe it. The mother of these two boys called the principle and complained about this story. I did not think that this absurd story was true, and there was nothing to lead readers to believe that it was true. The principle informed the newspaper advisor of the complaint, and the newspaper advisor rather candidly told myself. She was not upset because she trusted me, and it had seemed an eccentric circumstance. There were no negative disciplinary consequences for myself, but I had abused my literacy. I did not realize this abuse of literacy could have been considered libel. I did not even know what libel was. I was very reckless still, and I did not take much consideration into what my words could do. I had abused my literacy, and then taken it for granted. I did not fully realize the potential of having the student body’s ear in my hand.

The idea that people could be so strongly effected by writing intrigued me. I learned that there are different ways to accomplish this; some of these ways might be considered right and wrong. I could write something very libelous and spiteful, and I would receive a certain reaction to that. On the other hand, I could write something that you cared about. Others might find that they care about this too and react to it.

The physical dimensions of words themselves are not very great. Even in great quantities, words do not physically amass to much. Despite their physical size, words can move countries to civil war, overthrow governments, or move someone to tears. All these were dealt with in the newspaper, in their own relativities of course, (we never actually succeeded in overthrowing the government.) Death in the school, reactions to new policies, and new school administration rocked through the school newspaper. With proper skills, people can use their literacy to accomplish their goals. Late in my senior year I tried to use my literacy to capture the school’s attention to realize what was going on around them. I felt that people should understand how the world around them works, and should be aware of what they can do to change it. Overall, I think an important part of being literate is being a responsible and aware human being.

The years of writing and managing the newspaper have served as a testament of my writing for all, but it also became a personal memory for myself. I have saved all the newspapers that I helped produce, and they are a direct reflection of what I did in high school. There are memories of what was occurring during certain times of my life when those stories were written. My work on the newspaper has also been a road map of my literacy. And my literacy has made all the work possible and worthwhile.