The other day I was sitting in one of my health classes. It's strongly geared toward writing skills at the moment and I have been reading article after article on good writing skills. The articles have made me realize how terribly horrendous my papers have been in the past. My jaw has dropped numerous times while reading the tips of good writing because I do exactly what they say not to do...all the time. To be fair, I'm glad to discover what not to do before I go out in the real world and make those major mistakes. It's still, how do I say this, a buzz kill? Unfortunately, our class turned in papers summarizing the key points of the articles we read regarding writing. After exhausting the topic for one day, I would have preferred to sneak my paper back before she graded it so I could change, um, every word. Things did not go to plan. The next class, we were to receive the papers. Red, red, red, red, red, marks everywhere. Before my teacher handed them back she said she'd read a few examples of mistakes she found. Then I heard, "Anne, is it alright if I use yours as an example?" Gulp. "Well, sure." She read a sentence that I cannot even remember but it had big college words and health terminology. You know, where can you go wrong? I was explaining how a health educator could get hired and explained that it would help if he or she had "phenomenal writing skills." Yeah? So? Why not? She proceeded to ask the class if they knew what was wrong. "Anne, do you think you know what's wrong?" I knew what she wanted me to say. "You probably don't want me to use the word phenomenal." Bingo. I was not quite sure why it was so bad to have phenomenal writing skills but I waited for the pro to tell me. She is the expert! "It's not bad, Anne, but this is a great example where you need to ditch your creative writing skills and write in a more technical way." Ditch...my...creative writing skills? Sniffle sniffle...but...I mean....how?...never?...hmpf. In typical Anne fashion, my face went from pale to tomato red in 2.5 seconds. Don't worry about the tears I almost spilled. It's difficult because I write this blog here. Perhaps you've noticed? I assume you can call it creative writing. I've gotten used to writing how I talk. Yep, I talk creatively. Really, though, nearly every post I put up is something I would say, or a story I would share aloud. I know technical writing is the way to go. Believe me. I just would rather add some personal flare. From now on, I will be rereading my papers a million times. I am thankful we did this exercise early on in the year. I'm also thankful that I have this blog as an outlet. Storing my creative writing ideas in my mind can get pretty cluttered so I'll continue to release that here. Once again, Saved by the Bellingham.
Have a phenomenal day.
Best,
Anne
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