I am human, I make mistakes. I am not denying that. I am flawed and proud to admit it, however I am easily frustrated by those who claim to be educated but make ridiculous, egregious errors simply by a refusal to edit their own thoughts!
I am currently enrolled in a doctoral program. This summer my course is centered on writing, personal writing to be exact. Of course the themes delve much deeper into the reading and writing connection but the emphasis of the course description is writing to convey meaning. You would expect that the majority of the students enrolled in the course have some background in writing, or English Language Arts. You would ASSUME, but we all know what happens when you make assumptions don't we?
I can only imagine that these otherwise educated individuals, all of whom hold some type of advanced degree, have experience with the writing process and yet they fail to edit, a very vital step in the writing process. I am not talking about revising your thoughts for clarity. In fact, in the posts and blogging required I appreciate a little freedom to engage in stream of consciousness even if it can become confusing at times. What I am referring to, is the lack of editing. Checking over what you have read to be sure it was what you meant to say.
I have often been told by peers of other content areas that they hate presenting any writing to an English teacher for fear that it will be returned marked in red with comments out to the side for revisions. I have always felt this stereotype to be unfair. We are human and make mistakes and would surely overlook the mistakes made by others. In fact I have never minded being asked to edit, or answer questions about mechanical usage rules. I applaud them for doing so. But within this course, surrounded as I said, by fellow English Language Arts professionals and guided by a professor with tenure I would expect that all writing submissions would have gone through the editing process. I am WRONG!!
I am on the verge of becoming the stereotypical English grammar Nazi, marking all mistakes, highlighting misused punctuation. Folks I am not talking about little errors things that might have been overlooked, I mean the difference between a plural and possessive form, the difference between reading multiple "articles" and citing the "article's" meaning. The misspelling of the word "sad", S-A-D?! How can we stand up as models of writing if we overlook such outrageous errors? I used to giggle when reading students papers at the errors they made that didn't convey the intended meaning, but looking at my fellow classmates responses I am frustrated to tears.
We simply cannot ask more of our students than we are willing to do ourselves. Write it, then READ it, EDIT before you reply, post or comment. Editing, or the lack of it, separates the educated from the ignorant. Please, I beg of you, just as you would point out that some poor fellow had an ugly booger dangling from his nose, look for the nasty green dollops in your writing. Edit, make the world a happier place.
Until next time...
