I came across a good article here on improving speaking skills. It struck a chord with me, partly because I’m plagued by some people who have awful presentation skills. If I hear one more “you know,” they might have to cart me away in a straitjacket.
The article does, however, resonate with me primarily because it reminds me of my days as a writing tutor at the local community college. After I graduated with my B.A. in English, I managed to get this part-time gig in the ‘Writing Center.’ That’s the place they sent students who couldn’t write. By the time they showed up, the Writing Center was about the last place any of them wanted to be. They were utterly convinced that writing was not something they could ever do. I knew that was nonsense. One student in particular, this nice Israeli kid, couldn’t even get graded. I read some samples, and I could see why. His writing barely sounded like a first grade English primer. He could, however, talk. Boy, could he ever talk. He was, in fact, very eloquent. He had a thick accent, but he spoke better English than most Americans. I told him to go home and record himself talking, preferably about the subject the professor was instructing him to write about, then simply transcribe his own words. Shortly thereafter, he received an A.
The solution seemed so simple. Perhaps it was because I had done quite a bit of recording as a musician, so the concept came naturally to me. The bottom line was that it worked. I witnessed someone go from being ungradable to getting straight A’s (in writing, at least).
To this day, it amazes me when people who are perfectly capable of carrying on a conversation insist that they cannot write. Somewhere along the line, they lost the ability to make the connection between speaking and writing. I’ve read that the same can be said for people who, like myself, claim they cannot draw. They haven’t made the connection between drawing and seeing. I’m still working on that one. Whatever the case may be, writing is a crucial skill. It gets respect. People acknowledge it. It’s what got me through college without having to study very hard, especially when it came to subjects I had little or no interest in. The fact that I was able to put sentences together apparently made all the difference to my professors, including my English professors. I always had a really hard time with assigned reading. I read plenty, but never what I was told to read. I’d read some of the Cliff’s Notes, write a paper on whatever book, get a good grade, then go to the library and take out something that actually interested me. Point is, good writing even fooled my English teachers. That should tell you something. If you can speak and write well, people assume you know what you’re talking about. They want to believe that, so they will believe that, until you do something drastic to prove them wrong. Even then, they might still refuse to believe any differently. The odds are in your favor if you take the time to develop your writing skills. If you can speak, you’re already almost there.
Tags: General, Motivation, Writing by Keith
10 Comments »
