“Instead of obsessing over the things you can’t change, focus on what you CAN: Your attitude, mindset, and energy. -Mandy Hale” by deeplifequotes is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

“Some People Are Just Born Good Writer”
There is a notorious imagination that flair is something people are either born with or without. Many people have faith that victorious writers are those who were born with a unique blend of creativity. The idea that some people are born good writers discourages people who want to learn to write, and with this thought, they never try to write. Jill Parrott, Katherine Brooks, and Dr.Carol Dweck all believe that the only way for people to become good writers is for them to overcome their anxiety towards writing. A more practical idea is that Good writers are only made through a growth mindset, dedication, and determination.

About Writing, Jill Parrott says that “improved writing can be taught to writers at aIn her essay “Some People Are Just Born Good Writers,” in the book Bad Ideas ll levels, but we must first debunk the deeply held idea in the collective psyche that only some lucky people are good writers” (74). The author Jill Parrott is persuading her readers towards the right mindset revolution. The right mindset is fundamental to anyone who desires to become a good writer. Writing is always about the process. Like thinking, It pauses. It changes. It starts again and again. Writing takes practice. Good writers are not born, they are learned. One of the authors Neill Conor is emphasizing his ideas about writing is that “writing is thinking to believe that in your head something that feels clear is thinking is a very dangerous thing when you try and put it down on a page when you try and layout your ideas in a structured order that someone else can digest and you realize you can’t so it’s the weakening of thinking not writing, writing is thinking” (Neill, Conor). People with good growth? mindset believe that their abilities can grow with effort, as effort creates ability. They understand when they are learning or doing something challenging, like writing something. They know that hard work can help them accomplish their goals. On the other hand, people who believe that they are born without talent, they become demoralized, never even make an attempt, and also they don’t seek out opportunities for improvement. And this is because of the immature mindset that causes writing anxiety.
And what is writing anxiety and how to overcome it?. All these things are pretty-well explained in Katherine Brooks’s article, “Writing Anxiety and Job Search.” She believes that fear is what holds most people back in their writing, and anxiety is based on a lack of knowledge, way of thinking. Too much agitation will avert people from doing hard work. As she says in her article, “Instead of avoiding writing, seek out opportunities to improve your writing generally. Look for writing groups or writing institutes to develop your skills. It will build your confidence, and as your confidence grows, your anxiety will decrease” (Psychologytoday.com). Once they learn to write can let go of that fear and use opportunities to improve their writing style. Good writing needs dedication perseverance, and confidence is often viewed as an essential characteristic of successful writers. By taking feedback from people, peer review is also a necessary part of being a good writer. But bad writers already have a plan to not doing these things, and then they are always left behind due to fear of writing and fixed mindset that either people are born smart or they are not. She also introduces a book that helps people overcome their fear, anxiety, and depression “Self-Coaching: The Powerful Program To Beat Anxiety And Depression” by Joseph J. Luciani. The author Katherine Brooks is convincing her readers that their mindset is everything. If they work on a growth mindset then they will fight with their writing anxiety.

Without the belief that improvement is possible, there is very little chance that a writer will progress. It is the foundation of the growth mindset. Dr. Carol Dweck is a psychologist and growth mind expert who says in her article that “Growth mindset is a belief that intelligence and skills can improve” (mindsetworks.com). She demonstrates that people with a growth mindset believe they can develop talents and abilities through learning and hard work. And they are overwhelmingly happier, healthier, more prosperous, successful in school, business, employment, life. On the other side, some people with a fixed mindset believe that they have unchangeable talent and abilities. A growth mindset encourages creativity, and a fixed mindset holds people back. Potential is based on the amount of drive and determination they bring to accomplish their writing goals.

Dweck says that people can create a growth mindset by continuously learning new skills, and by being willing to try new things. She interprets growth mindsets with a figure of circles chain in which a person sets learning as a goal, has faith with this thought that he can get smarter, and efforts make him stronger and by spend more time and work harder. He will get higher achievements. She demonstrates fixed mindset and growth mindset by showing two brain pictures which show that if a person has fixed mindset than his intelligence is static, he avoids challenges, gives up quickly, sees effort as worst thing, ignores useful negative feedback and in the end feel threatened by the success of others. On the contrary, “A person with a growth mindset his intelligence can be developed, embrace challenges, persists in the face of setbacks, see efforts as the path to mastery, learn from criticism, and in the end, find lessons and inspiration in the success of others” (mindsetworks.com). So According to her, the mindset revolution matters if someone wants to be a good writer growth mindset can lead them to more significant achievements.
All novice writers and student writers whose desire to become good writers firstly must debunk the bad idea that successful author is born with talent and replace their fixed mindset with a growth mindset. As Dr. Carol Dweck says that with the growth mindset they understand in a better way about how writing works as a process and increases confidence in their abilities as a writer. And this confidence helps weaker writers to become better writers. As Katherine Brooks says in her article that by expanding mind it builds confidence in writers and this confidence overcome their writing anxiety and when people overcome writing anxiety so they would easily understand that “Good writers are Not Born, They are learned” (Jill, Parrott). Three different authors observed over the year that bought all of them to admit on the idea that good writers are only made through a growth mindset.

Works Cited:

Parrot, Jill. “Some People Are Just Born Good Writers.” Bad Ideas About Writing, edited by Cheryl E. Ball and Drew M. Loewe, Digital Publishing Institute, 2017, 71-75.
Brooks, Katherine. “Writing Anxiety and the Job Search.” Psychology Today, July 30 .2010, psychologytoday.com/us/blog/career-transition/201007/writing-anxiety-and-the-jobs-search.

Dr. Dweck, Carol. “Decades of Scientific Research That Started a Growth Mindset Revolution.” The Growth Mindset – What is Growth Mindset – Mindset Works, www.mindsetworks.com/science/.
Neill, Conor. “How To Improve Your Clarity Thought (Writing is Thinking). Youtube, March 07, 2017. www.youtube.com/ConorNeillPremiumContent.

             Shay Elazab

             12/05/19

“mystery-story-starters Atlanta GA” by agilemktg1 is licensed under CC BY 2.0

                        Writers are human too.  Some people or shall I say, high school teachers don’t want to see or read that in a piece of writing. Writers breathe, think, and feel just like everyone and that shouldn’t be hidden. As a former high school student, I was taught quite the opposite, where the piece of writing I create must be strictly formal and straight forward. In my opinion that idea basically wanted everyone’s writing to sound the same, emotionless and with no originality. High school teachers led me to believe that readers only look for professionalism. Now in college with the use of three enlightening sources in my research, has helped me to develop a deep understanding behind the writer’s presence, and how they should approach themselves in their writing.

I’ve read the essay Leave Yourself Out of Your Writing by Rodrigo Joseph Rodriguez, and just from the title that was clearly the bad idea about writing. It’s a bad idea for writers to leave themselves out of their writing. Further into the reading Rodriguez makes a great point of why it was a bad idea, without the writer’s presence their writing wouldn’t have deep meaning that would allow readers to connect what they were reading to the writer. Without conversating would leave readers to be disconnected from their writer.

                        Rodriguez made it clear in his essay that the writer’s voice is powerful and makes their writing much better when engaging with readers. “To more meaning through language, the writer must be present to the audience and mindful of beliefs to produce coherent, meaningful, and engaging writing for the reader.” (Rodriguez pg.133) The good idea is for writers to talk to the readers, by sharing their thoughts and ideas in a way to express themselves of their process of writing. The writing of one must sound like their own, with their questions, thoughts, and feelings. Conversating with readers through writing can allow them to have an insight of who they are reading from and not just feel connected to the writing but also to the writer. A writer’s voice can bring out the truth from their writing and is a strong factor that I’ve learned about writing from Rodrigo Joseph Rodriguez.

            The voice of the writer seemed too important when it comes to writing than I thought it would be. As I mentioned before, high school teachers taught their students differently, I remember when my English teacher used to say “No I’s in your writing” as if it was  wrong to mention myself in my own writing, that just sounds bizarre the more I think about it. I’ve always thought that was odd because it’s my own writing after all, no one else’s.

My curiosity led me to continue my research and I’ve decided to read the book The Art of Teaching Writing by Lucy McCormick Calkins. I’ve noticed that she was also on board with writers speaking in the first person, that it was a good idea for writers to put themselves in their writing. Lucy has studied through her teaching of writing that students tend to forget the importance of their voice, and how more meaningful there writing could truly be if it was in first person. “The writing still doesn’t feel quite like a memoir to me because it leaves it unclear how this broken arm episode reveals Jesse, how it is connected to him today.” (Calkins, pg.402) Calkins helps to teach her students that they need to be rhetorically aware for their writing to show a connection with themselves. It seems that writing is our safe place, where we need to write with our minds to allow those who read our work to understand our points in more depth to our meaning. Writer’s should have a voice in their writing because the readers are their “friends” and rhetorical awareness is another important factor that I’ve learned from Lucy Calkins reading, The Art of Teaching Writing.

Lastly, I’ve read Learning how to write secondary: How and where? by Arthur N. Applebee and he saw that it was best for writers to be more personal with their writing even though they were taught different. “Students saw little need to relate new information to other aspects of their experiences…” (Applebee, pg.81) Applebee shows his point of the student’s mind to not feeling the need to connect their writing, when they need to. It relates to what I’ve said previously, that most students learn different things where previous teachers made them believe one way of writing and not follow the other. Writers do still need to change their ways and welcome themselves to their writing because it’s only the writer’s job to bring out personality and originality in their piece of writing.

The end of my research, it’s safe to say that a voice must be heard in writing. Three different authors had their own experiences and learning practices that they observed over there years that brought all of them to determine, that it’s a good idea for writers to bring themselves into their own writing. Writers are human, their own person and what they do is breathe, think, and feel, and that’s what I learned to be expressed in writing. Your writing is your voice.

                                                              Works Cited

Calkins, Lucy. The Art of Teaching Writing. Heinemann, 1994. EBSCOhost, www.search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=cat6552a&AN=gsu.9922618813402952&site=eds-live&scope=site

Rodríguez, Rodrigo. “Leave Yourself Out of Your Writing.” Bad Ideas About Writing, edited by Cheryl E. Ball et al., Morgantown, WV: West Virginia University, 2017

Applebee, Arthur, F. Lehr, and A. Auten.1981. Learning to write in the secondary school: How and where. English Journal 70:78-82.

                                                Works Cited

Calkins, Lucy. The Art of Teaching Writing. Heinemann, 1994. EBSCOhost, www.search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=cat6552a&AN=gsu.9922618813402952&site=eds-live&scope=site

Rodríguez, Rodrigo. “Leave Yourself Out of Your Writing.” Bad Ideas About Writing, edited by Cheryl E. Ball et al., Morgantown, WV: West Virginia University, 2017

Applebee, Arthur, F. Lehr, and A. Auten.1981. Learning to write in the secondary school: How and where. English Journal 70:78-82.

Introduction

In our modern academia, the controversy found within the modern education system is that students are expected to become better writers and professional communicators when they are not provided the necessary resources. With high expectations imposed on students, there are many flaws to this goal because of the continuous negligence of reading. In solution to this problem, author Ellen C. Carillo provides logical explanations and reasoning in her essay “Reading and Writing Are Not Connected”, revealing the bad idea. As for the bad idea, it is that students should not be criticized for their lack of communication and writing skills when the solution in fixing this problem is to teach students how to become better readers. This goal is not impossible because teaching reading alongside writing can already produce better results and enforcement by the educational department can guaranteed success. Further sources that have helped her reinforce her statement, are the further reading source “The Transition to College Reading” by Robert J. Scholes and his for further reading “Reading Fiction/Teaching Fiction” by Jerome McGann which provides their own individual perspective about reading and how it is a problem.

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Better Idea in “Reading and Writing Are Not Connected”

In a society that is continuously growing, and in high demand for well-educated newcomers, there is a reoccurring problem within our education system. This problem is that students are not being taught to read and write at the same time, resulting in a large depreciation in the level of literature skill for upcoming college students. Reading and writing, which were once taught next to each other at a young age, did show signs of improvement for both skills. However, despite it being taught simultaneously in the past, it does not have much value if students are not being taught the same way when they reach a higher level of education. Because of this Ellen C. Carillo, who is the author of the essay “Reading and Writing Are Not Connected”, believes that “it is a bad idea to continue privileging writing at the expense of reading” (Carillo 38). There are many logical reasons why Carillo believes it is an unwise decision to prioritize writing over reading because reading plays a huge role in a student’s ability in becoming a good writer. For example, many professors who believe that students are simply poor at writing, come to this conclusion based off the student’s inability to answer the writing prompt.

            This becomes worse as the level of reading becomes more difficult and words become unfamiliar. Carillo states that “while student’s eyes may make their way over every word, that does not mean that students have comprehended a text or… prepared to complete the writing task” (Carillo 39). This lack of comprehension does not only restrict a student from writing a good paper but also for elements outside of school, like society. Eventually, students will begin to accept any information brought towards them without questioning it or conveying their own opinions because they did not understand in the first place. In addition to this “many employers continue to vocalize the importance of effective communication skills” because many jobs require employees who can communicate well in order to have maximum performance (Carillo 41). Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Carillo greatly emphasizes that reading cannot be undermined compared to writing and that by doing would result in many negative outcomes which is a bad idea. To fix this bad idea, the better idea is to teach both skills simultaneously and provide students with more opportunities to experience reading that will be of use when writing and communicating.

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Better Idea in “The Transition to College Reading”

             During the transition from a post-secondary school to a university, many professors have noticed that there is a serious problem with the reading skills of students. The primary reason why students struggle with the transition from high school to college is because they are unable to accept and understand the point of view of someone else’s if it does not apply to them. Although this problem has been noticed, it was unfixed for a long period of time because reading is not as noticeable as writing. For example, Robert J. Scholes, who is the author of the essay “The Transition to College Reading” explains that “writing must be taught from high school to college… because we can see writing… much of the writing we see is not good enough. But we do not see reading” (Scholes 166). Unlike writing, which can be visualize, reading is an ability that cannot be judged through seeing alone. If people were able to visualize the level of reading a person has than many of them would find themselves concerned and shocked.

            To make matters worse, students are not only unable to comprehend the words written by another author but also the inability to see and understand from their position. In solution of fixing this problem, students are recommended to read sources that will oppose their point of view and cause them to disagree. This is lesson would be what the author calls, “teach the conflicts” which can be of much use (Scholes 168). Our educational departments are not the only ones at fault for hindering the ability of students from reading conflicting sources, but also the fault of society. For example, Scholes does not recommend or believe it is a good idea for “the Bush administration to tell television networks to censor the words of our enemies…” because it prevents the exposure of opinions from a foreign enemy. People do not only have the right to interpret messages in the way they believe but also to understand the motives of another country.

            For these reasons, Scholes believes that modern teachers have the necessary power to prevent more students from being unable to dissect complex writings and to create a future where people are able “to assume another person’s point of view before criticizing it…” (Scholes 169). Therefore, the better idea is to enforce an equal amount of time on reading as spent on writing and to provide more insight on texts that students will struggle on, thereby freeing the concerns colleges have with the literacy skills in our current generation.

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Better Idea in “Reading Fiction/Teaching Fiction”

             Through an experimentation that was conducted on both undergraduates and graduate students, a noticeable problem seen within these groups are the inability to comprehend fictional texts. This became a problem because students are unable to find deeper meanings within a text and remain at the surface of it. According to Jerome McGann, who is the author of the essay “Reading Fiction/Teaching Fiction”, he states that students are more drawn towards stories that “were not self-consciously reflexive and experimental” (McGann 144). Students have grown acquainted with the habit of connecting their personal experiences to those of the character in a story, which shortens their vision and inability to handle stories that do not.

            The author also noticed that when students read fictional texts, they are more drawn towards specific story elements such as the plot and character. A few reasons is because students find it easier to imagine a character as living and the story follows a sequential timeline. Due to these distractions, readers are constantly drawn away from the medium of the story, resulting in the noticeable difference between those who are advanced readers and novice readers. Because of this, McGann states that only advanced readers can “negotiate, back and forth, the relation between the textualities of fiction and its sublime imaginary construction” (McGann 145). While much of this experiment is to train undergraduates in comprehending fictional texts in a more advanced way, students are easily lost when they are asked to find elements that would make the text more realistic. This also applies when students are asked to point out an event that did not appear to have much importance to the plot of the story but in truth did.

            In hopes to resolve this, McGann divided his project between the undergraduates and graduates, where he provides students with more contact with an assortment of fictional texts as well as techniques students can use to recognize specific qualities in the text. While the role of graduates was different from those undergraduates, many students saw the difficulties of teaching fiction because they simply believed that fiction could be taught without creating more ideas. Although there were many obstacles that slowed the process of the experiment, the author found his answer to what he believes is a better idea. This better idea is to teach students techniques in dissecting fictional stories that may seem broad on the surface but truthfully contains valuable knowledge.

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An Agreeable Better Idea for All Authors

Reading, an important skill that has been forgotten in the world of academia, proved to have many uses in our modern society. This skill has not only trained students in preparation of becoming well educated men and women but is necessary if they plan to succeed in society. Starting with the surface of the problem, Ellen C. Carillo believes that the bad idea in her essay “Reading and Writing Are Not Connected” is because many educators in our academia request for students to become better writers but do not see the importance of reading. Because reading is viewed as less important, students are not sure how to approach writing prompts that require the comprehension of the passages.

            As for what led Carillo to believe that writing and reading are not two separate skills, she was influenced by the author Robert Scholes. In his essay “The Transition to College Reading” Scholes believes that the bad idea is that students are unable to comprehend texts without finding a connection between their personal experiences and those expressed in the words of another author. He believes the current academia does not expose students to more conflictual texts and should be fixed by prioritizing reading on the same level as writing. This point of view on our current literary education is like those of Jerome McGann, who in his essay “Reading Fiction/ Teaching Fiction” believes that students are not capable of interpreting textual evidence in more ways other than to themselves. McGann realizes that many students struggle with the comprehension of fictional texts because they do not know how to approach them. Communication skills are also hindered because students do not know how to recite knowledge from the text. With many logical evidences that shows the amount of problems students have with reading, a common idea that each author would agree on is to train students to read better as much as they do with writing. By providing students with exposure to more difficult texts, the outcome will result in better communications skills as well as writing.

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What Could Be an Even Better Idea?

             While the enforcement of reading by teachers would in fact help students become more comprehensive, there is also the problem of whether students are willing to put in more effort outside of school. If students are not willing to actively enact in self-improvement, the problem with reading will continue to occur despite the changes in our academia. College professors and teachers from primary schools are only able to assist students to an extent, therefore the real outcome will be based off the amount of work the student is willing to put in. Students will soon be able to differentiate their previous writing skills to their current because of improvements they made with their reading abilities. Not only will their writing have been improved but their communication skills as well. Reading would not longer be undermined compared to writing and students are able to understand the point of views from another author, as well as find deeper meaning in them.

Citations

Carillo, Ellen C. “Reading and Writing Are Not Connected.” Bad Ideas About Writing. Cheryl E. Ball and Drew M. Loewe, West Virginia University Libraries, 2017, pp. 38-43.

Scholes, Robert J. “The Transition to College Reading.” Pedagogy, Duke University Press, vol. 2 no. 2, 2002, pp. 165-172.

McGann, Jerome J, et al. “Reading Fiction/ Teaching Fiction”: A Pedagogical Experiment.” Pedagogy, Duke University Press, vol. 1 no. 1, 2002, pp. 143-165.

Students embarking on their journeys through what one might call “studenting” have come across many different rules and regulations that govern the art of writing. Throughout the years, many of these laws seem to become more malleable, while others seem to stand true, or to be completely wrong.

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In the book Bad Ideas About Writing, author Jennifer M. Cunningham takes the time to address one of the ideas behind writing that is known by many, but proven to be incorrect. The title of her essay, and the topic that she covers, is the idea that “African American Language is Not Good English.”

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Simply put, Cunningham works to prove the inaccuracy of the bad idea through explaining how the language isn’t even a part of English itself. She has studied the African American language from a linguistic perspective and has come to the conclusion that it is its own form of communication, separated from the English language. With the help of Lisa Green and John Rickford, Cunningham and her colleagues present what they think a better idea might be: African American Language is not English. All three cooperate in proving that this idea is better, because the other is completely invalid.

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In Cunningham’s chapter of “Bad Ideas About Writing,” she explicates her perspective of the African American language in many ways. One of the most notable, is when she speaks about the linguistic aspect of AAL. She states, “Understood from a linguistics perspective, African American Language combines an English vocabulary (the words used) with an African grammar (the way the words are ordered and conjugated) and phonology (the way the words are pronounced)” (Cunningham 88). Cunningham further explains that, “In that way, African American Language is not good or bad English because it is not, linguistically speaking, English” (Cunningham 88). In other words, because of the fact that it is essentially a remodel of English that is functional on its own, it cannot be categorized as good or bad English. It simply is not English at all. Therefore, it shouldn’t be treated as such. With Cunningham offering this point of view on such a unique subject, she took her ideas and backed them up substantially. 

“Facts about Languages” by Elaine_Smith is licensed under CC0 1.0.

One of the most important avenues for the development of her ideas comes from Lisa J. Green’s book, African American English: A Linguistic Introduction. Green uses her writing to explain her personal views on the subject of African American English, or AAE, and Cunningham takes advantage of her similar opinions. While studying Green’s book, one will notice how she holds the same vision that African American English should be approached from an angle that is unlike that of the English language.

For instance, in her book, Green states,“The entries in this lexicon are also English words that occur in other varieties of American English, but they have different meanings and may be used in different linguistic environments” (Green 13). What she’s identifying is the reason that most people will judge AAE from an English perspective, rather than its own unique perspective. The African American language has similar words to the English language, and so those who don’t understand the linguistic environment in which those words are being used may mistake them for the wrong message. Therefore, to eliminate the confusion of meanings, the two languages should be treated as individual.

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Just as Jennifer M. Cunningham developed her ideas from those of Lisa J. Green, Green generated her own ideas from those of another author. John R. Rickford, author of chapter one of Making The Connection, uses his writing to look at the African American Language, and make conclusions based on the results that the language provides single-handedly in the education system. When speaking about the use of Ebonics in developing better success for African American students, he explains that “Methods of teaching reading and writing that take the language diversity of African American students into account have shown greater promise than those that do not” (Adger 15). In saying this, he is acknowledging the idea that the African American language plays a substantial role in the success of African American individuals. It offers something that the English language cannot offer itself.

All in all, his conclusion not only supports Green’s idea of how AAL can it function on its own, but it also explains how it functions cooperatively alongside the English language, rather than stuck inside of its boundaries.

“Contented” by wajakemek | rashdanothman is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

In conclusion, all three authors have come together to generate a new idea, formed from an existing bad idea about writing. Jennifer M. Cunningham, Lisa J. Green, and John R. Rickford present the better idea that African American Language is not English, rather than “bad English.” In the light of this, it’s clear that the culmination of ideas between authors tends to become a force to be reckoned with. What other common ideas can potentially be proven wrong by the likes of writers across the globe? Can student writers have the same collaborative impact?

Works Cited

Cunningham, Jennifer M. “African American Language is Not Good English.” Bad Ideas About Writing, edited by Cheryl E Ball and Drew M Loewe, West Virginia University Libraries, 2017, pp. 88–92.

“Lexicons and Meaning.” African American English: a Linguistic Introduction, by Lisa J. Green, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2009, pp. 12–31.

Rickford, John R. “Language Diversity and Academic Achievement.” MAKING THE CONNECTION, edited by Carolyn Adger et al., ERIC Publications, 1999, pp. 1–30.