This I Believe: Guest Blogger Lindsay Watts
October 8, 2009
As we begin to wrap-up our discussion of the Common Reading, the Center for Teaching and Learning is proud to publish the reflections of freshman student Lindsay Watts:
When I begin writing anything I simply do what I love and what I think I do best: I tell a story. I do it less for the reader and more for myself. You see, I like to be able to close my eyes and have a piece of literature read to me. I like to watch what is being said come to life beneath my eyelids and feel whatever is being felt in the piece [as though] it was happening to me personally. I have always thought that reading should be [an] experience that way, very vivid and almost tangible. So, in prewriting, I usually go through a few hand-written drafts of different images or points I try to make. Usually, I will write these down sitting having a coffee, doing homework, [or] in the middle of class when an idea suddenly hits me. Then I will take these hand-written drafts and paste and kind of glue them together into a paper and from there it will only take some tweaks and polishing steps to have a completed final draft.
[W]hen I wrote this particular paper I noticed that I had two stories to tell about two completely different parts of my life but they were drawn together by one simple element. My point in this paper was my passions and how they gave me the peace of mind to do what I needed to in high-pressure situations. My teacher, Amy Rybak, suggested, after looking at my rough draft, [that] I needed a relating topic between my horseback riding and speech and debate experiences–two clearly different things. When she mentioned that I learned something about myself. I learned that my experiences with my horse in childhood prepared me for the “spotlight” of sorts [which] I assumed later in my high school years. My structure was almost completely reworked, as it needed to be, with the helpful suggestion by Mrs. Rybak. She helped me realize something about myself and, in turn, helped better structure the direction of my paper.
[A]fter I…paste together a draft, it usually needs some adjustments and polishing. In this case, even though I loved my vivid introduction paragraph, mostly because I enjoyed writing it, I had to go back and rewrite the entire paragraph to sway the reader into seeing things from the right perspective. That it say, get them to understand my thesis better.
In the end I think it gave me confidence that: a) I can do this college stuff (haha) and b) that there are people who will to help and guide you into doing well. You don’t know how good it feels…to not feel like I’m doing this alone. Plus I’m always excited to go class because Mrs. Rybak is always in a good mood and has a very open mind to anything you want to talk about, discuss, write about, etc.
I’m enjoying this class so far as, honestly, my favorite class at Bowling Green.
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Given Lindsay’s process, those who teach using the Common Reading might consider the following question: how visible or tangible are our beliefs? What can be done to help students see, touch and clearly identify their beliefs (in a manner similar to what Lindsay did with her pre-writing collage)?
Comments are welcome in the message board below.
Entry Filed under: Student Success,Writing. Posted in Student Success ,Writing .
