Writing (or is it editing?) 101

      I just finished the rough draft of a sociology paper, and I can tell you right now, I’m sure it’s crap.  I have zero confidence in what I wrote, yet I also know I HAD to get these ideas, however undeveloped and off-point they might be, onto paper.  I needed to immerse myself in the style of a “sociological report” which involves writing in first person (something I avoid at all costs when writing academic papers) and drawing conclusions from data I collected first hand (wait, this is suddenly sounding very scientific . . . ).  Basically, I had to give this paper a whirl.   

      And then I realized something.  I write by editing.  For creative works, I’m all about writing – getting those ideas out on paper and then letting them sit there for a healthy amount of time before attacking them with a red pen.  Not so with essays. 

      I’ve known this for awhile, that I need to edit to refine my writing, but it wasn’t until now that I realized how much I rely on editing to complete my writing.  Sometimes I’ll print out a paper, cover it in red ink, and then wonder why I wrote the draft in the first place if I decided to completely change it.  But if I’d never written the bad stuff, I couldn’t have uncovered the good. 

     

      I know this may not make sense to all of you, and trust me, I envy you students who can write a pretty spectacular paper on the first try.  Sometimes this happens to me, and then I panic that I’ve lost my editing skills when I’m not making enough changes.  At the same time I envy you, however, I do want to say that I adore editing, perhaps even more than I love writing.  Honestly, it’s not always the paper itself I look forward to; it’s those feelings of power, improvement, and excitement that rush through me when I pick up that wonderful red pen and attack my own work.

      Sorry, I let my nerdiness come out there.  :P  But still . . . it’s exciting to think I can take a paper I don’t like, written in a style I’ve never used before, about a research assignment that doesn’t thrill me, and turn it into something worth handing to my professor.  It’s a different approach, a different skill.

    

      So while you’re pulling an all-nighter writing that brilliant paper, I’ll be sleeping . . . and waking up a little earlier than usual so I can look over that paper one last time.