We Need to Learn How to Write

It amazes me that corporate America can't write. I feel there is no excuse to send an improper email to a boss, professor, or anyone above you. And spelling mistakes really make me mad. Why don't you just take the time to put in a comma or capitalize your letters? It will only take about .01 seconds out of your life to add on the proper punctuation.

Furthermore, writing like a slob makes you look bad (especially in the eyes of your boss). Someone is usually looked at in a much higher light if they are proper than if they just slop down some incoherent set of words onto a paper. In addition, businesses are spending way to much money on teaching their employees how to write. They shouldn't have to do that. Employees should come into their jobs knowing how to form a simple sentence such as "I have just sent you the reports for the day." However, this article has shown that employees can't even form that simple sentence, much less punctuate. So therefore billions of dollars are being spent on classes to teach employees basic reading and writing. I think that this money could be spent on more reasonable items if everyone paid attention in their middle school english classes.

However, I think that there are other important characteristics out there that a good writer must possess besides being coherent and using proper punctuation. For example, a good writer isn't afraid to take risks and put what they believe out there. A good writer is able to make a clear statement and support it with facts or other knowledge they have on this topic. And according to many sources such as Ken Smith, a good writer is a good reader. Many say that reading is a key element in good writing because it allows people to bounce off others' ideas and start something new of their own. Last, a good writer has their own voice. They are able to reach out to a variety of audiences and truly define their writing through the choice of words.

I realize that we were supposed to write this blog post in simple sentences. I really did try, but that doesn't seem to really be my thing. Experiment failure?
But by reading these articles I have developed a couple of key characteristics I think a good writer should have.

Freshman Wrap Up

One year ago I was eagerly anticipating the start of college. And now I've already got one year under my belt. Where the time went this semester? I do not know. But as part of me wants to go home and see all my old friends and relax from school, the other part of me wants to stay here. Because believe it or not, Dallas is basically my new home. I have made some of the greatest friends this year and have had some amazing experiences. And it's going to be so wierd to pack up everything and go home for three months.

Throughout this year I have tried things that I never thought I would do in my entire life, new and exciting experiences. I came from across the country knowing nobody at the beginning of the year and now I am leaving, knowing that I have so much to come back to next year.

I have also realized how grateful I am to have had the opportunity to come to college at SMU. Some of my friends didn't have the financial availability to go to a college outside of our hometown, and have not branched out from the life they have known for 18 years of their lives. But I have been grateful enough to branch away from the life I have known and explore so many new and exciting aspects to life.

Being in Dallas has made me realize one major thing: I definitely won't be living in Wisconsin when I'm older. Although Dallas offers the perk of nice weather, being in Texas has shown me theres so much to learn in other parts of the world. So I want to travel. I want to explore. I want to meet people from everywhere.

I know throughout the next three years of my college experience, there are always going to be ups and downs. But I know that I can leave Dallas knowing that what I am coming back to is something I love just as much, if not even more, than home in Wisconsin. And if that doesn't show a succesful first year of college experience, than what does?

Teachers: They Make it or Break it

I've learned that there are many positive and negative aspects that come along with school. Homework: Negative. Grades: Negative. Tests: Negative. Actually, that's a lot of negatives. But over the years, teachers have sometimes turned out to be a positive.

I have taken countless classes, such as science and math classes, knowing that I was going to hate it. I'm not a mathematically smart person, so those classes have always been a challenge for me. But what I have learned that makes all the difference is teachers. For example, in my anatomy class junior year of high school I had to memorize basically the entire body. But my teacher made it interesting. He played us videos and brought in cool demonstrations and made jokes about the things normal high-schoolers would find funny. He made the class FUN. Which is what a lot of classes lack these days. I remember having my history class right before my anatomy class. Now, my history teacher talked in monotone and read from the book the entire class. Interesting? Not exactly. So I found myself checking my watch basically every other second, counting down until I actually got to go to my "fun" class. And I know that if it wasn't for that teacher I had, I would have despised that class.

But that theory also goes the other way. I have always been more of an English girl. I don't mind writing papers and it just comes easier for me than finding the derivative of an equation. But some of the English teachers I have had make me want to rip all my papers to pieces and throw them out the window. Classes I expected to be fun and enjoyable turned out to be complete torture. And it sucks.

The worst is hearing your friends rant and rave about a class that you are in, but that you both have different teachers for. They say, "OMG this class is amazing! The teacher is so totally chill and makes it so interesting!" And then there's me stuck with the teacher who could care less about his/her students and speaks in monotone 24/7.

But teachers have so much power, especially in high school. One class, because of the professor, can cause someone to pick a path that they want to follow in college and even get a job in. It just goes to show that teachers really have the power to make it or break for the students out there.