Did you know that Jerry Seinfeld wrote every episode of Seinfeld by hand? The same goes for nearly all of his stand-up material over the years. When asked why, he answered that the blinking cursor makes him feel anxious, like he’s being asked, “So? What do you got?”
Though I’m not on Seinfeld’s level, I’ve also begun writing important papers by hand. Besides avoiding distractions on the internet, I’ve found writing long form to be helpful for two main reasons:
When you’re typing, the speed of your fingers can easily outpace clear thinking. Additionally, many people find that as they write, they further develop and understand their ideas. I find that the slower pace of handwriting allows for more of these discoveries as my brain can outpace my hand. I feel more in control of the paper and less stressed about hitting word counts or paragraph lengths that seem passable.
Necessary Revision
Of all the steps in the writing process, I find revision is the easiest to blow off. After all, I wrote the paper. I know already that it’s very good. Why waste time going back over it? Won’t that just puff my ego up more? My rationalizations can get convoluted. The truth is, everyone needs revision. That may sound trite, but it’s true. Papers, especially first drafts, need revision. Writing by hand forces you to allot the time to revise more as you write as well as when you transfer your written words to the computer.
Hopefully, as you read back over your work, you won’t just copy it verbatim from page to screen. You’ll see sentences that aren’t working or notice typos. You’ll develop a sense of the flow of your paper broadly. Once I see words on my screen, I always struggle to delete them. They look so final in Times New Roman 12 pt. font. However, when they are in pen, and I’m weighing whether they should be typed up, I’m much more honest and critical.
Consider writing by hand. Your first draft will be more coherent and insightful, and it’ll force you to review the paper as you type it up, improving your final draft. Slow and steady wins the race.
For the first half of the semester we turned in essays and short assignments, but instead of grades we received comments from our professor. We then turned in all of these assignments again, including at least one that we revised. After spring break, we discussed these portfolios with our professor.
I’m really used to churning out essays as fast as possible, revising anything I can, and then sending it in right before it’s due. Ideally, I would start my essays much earlier, and then have enough time to look over them a day or two after I’ve written them. Most of the time, however, that isn’t the case for me, especially in the midst of an academically challenging semester. So, when I had the chance to turn in essays and then revise them weeks later, I was amazed at the improvements I could make. One sentence I had written originally had variations of the word “detail” in it three times, which is the kind of mistake that is much easier to catch when you read it with fresh eyes. You’re probably thinking, that’s obvious, everybody knows it’s better to look at a paper after a little time! I suppose I already knew that too, but how often do we actually have the opportunity to learn by revising papers after they’re turned in?
After revising my work, I met with my professor about my revisions. We spoke about my writing and what had been difficult for me so far throughout the semester. Through our discussion, I realized that in previous English classes, I had never encountered some of the difficulties that I had been experiencing this semester because my classes have usually been organized around an overarching theme or purpose. For context, here are some examples of the titles of classes I’ve taken in college so far: Narcissism in Literature, Feminism and the Environment, and The Literature of Age and Aging. Each of these classes had a clear theme and subject material, and I found it so much easier to create theses and write about the literature because I’m much better at connecting literature to specific, big picture issues.
Wow. With that understanding, I started to see why I struggled to find my writing groove in this class, a class simply titled “Interpreting Literature.” It’s not a misnomer: the entire purpose of this class is to discover how to use different methods of interpreting literature, and the first method we focused on happened to be close reading of the language. I had to work backwards from my comfort zone, finding bigger picture ideas through picking out small parts of passages rather than going into the passage with an idea to prove. It felt like I was rewiring my brain a little bit.
I hope I have more classes in which professors can take a little time to let the students do revisions. I also hope I get my act together a little earlier in order to be able to revise work that I am less comfortable with. Being forced to challenge my normal methodology has helped me learn much more than I do when I churn out papers in my usual, last-minute style.