In which Karen thinks about writing an essay
Thursday, 10 March, 2005
You'd think that, after six years of high school, four years of undergraduate studies and a 20,000-word thesis for Honours essay writing would get easier. But this is not so.
Confronted with an essay, my mind will switch into analytical mode—What does the question want of me? What do I have to do? What do I have to read to get this information? etc. I will make a visit to the library early and borrow out the relevant information. I will go online and scour the online databases in a treasure hunt for the most useful article. I will read through all my material, highlight various quotes, make dot points, construct essay plans, formulate arguments, build templates in Word so I get the formatting just right, piece together bibliographies—but I will not without fail start writing until the night before.
(NB: The above excludes my thesis because, even though it is not impossible, obviously it is a bad idea to write 20,000 words in one night.)
Despite all that preparation, my brain just won't get it together. It will seek other alternatives (ie. procrastination) in the form of trivial administrative tasks (eg. blogging) thus making it seem like I'm doing something useful. Very rarely will it rebel outright and say, “Stuff this, I'm going off to read a good book instead.” Sometimes I try to hand-write my first draft (because the computer is so distracting). I remember seeing a documentary years ago in which this man claimed that writing opened up the right side of your brain—the creative side. Unfortunately computers are just so much more efficient for cutting, pasting and editing which makes writing essays by hand all the more frustrating. Sometimes I'll turn to Greg Clarke's 10 Tips for Writer's Block (with varying degrees of success). Sometimes my brain will engage in some form of self-manipulation to trick it into composing the essay (eg. “If I get this done before 8:30, I can go watch Law and Order: SVU.”) Unfortunately my brain knows when it's lying to itself so this rarely works.
There is, however, a technique I've used which I've found rather useful for any sort of writing that needs doing because of a deadline. It's a bit self-manipulating but for some reason my brain doesn't mind. See, the thing that bugs me about essays is that they are only for a very limited audience: the marker. It's not like writing for the Hippocampus where you get x many readers per month (many of whom I know) and where you're addressing a particular need or thought. Writing an essay usually feels like writing for no one; it's just an academic exercise. So I will get around the problem by writing about the essay to someone else (in this case, you) and that can sometimes get the creative juices going.
Tomorrow we have a 1,000-word Primary Document Assignment due for New Testament 1. It's not actually worth anything—the point of it is to “receive some feedback on analytical skills through the performance of a task” (what did I tell you: BORING). The topic is:
Compare and contrast the information relating to John the Baptist given by Josephus in Antiquities of the Jews, Bk 19, Chapter 4-5; sections 103-119, with the portrait of John which can be derived from the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke).
Josephus doesn't actually have a lot to say about John the Baptist. This makes me quite grateful as last year, as Seamus has already pointed out that, the primary document assignment involved reading around 90 pages of Antiquities. If you're interested, the bit about John the Baptist is as follows:
(116) Now, some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist; (117) for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism; for that the washing [with water] would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not in order to be putting away [or the remission] of some sins [only], but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness. (118) Now, when [many] others came in crowds about him, for they were greatly moved [or pleased] by hearing his words, Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion (for they seemed ready to do anything he should advise), thought it best, by putting him to death, to prevent any mischief he might cause, and not bring himself into difficulties by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it should be too late. (119) Accordingly he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod's suspicious temper, to Macherus, the castle I before mentioned, and was there put to death. Now the Jews had an opinion that the destruction of this army was sent as a punishment upon Herod, and a mark of God's displeasure against him.
Josephus, Flavius. The Works of Josephus Complete and Unabridged Translated by W. Whiston. Peabody: Hendricksen, 1987, 1995.
(Aha, it's already working—I have left blogging and have started doing my essay. Well done brain!)
Blinks:
A way of funding writing in the future: pitch and idea and get people to support it.
Place where you can hire play equipment for parties, etc.
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
|
|
Disqus comments
Other comments
I have always found ranting to Lorien about my work to help in some way with the creative process. Unfortunately, she doesn’t always want to be ranted at.
I must try this technique of blogging about the work sometime.