Writing Skills

I am currently sitting in my bedroom at 2:45 am. I was 45 min late to work today due to oversleeping. I am quite unhappy with this - not because of the writeup, rather, I fear that I am slipping into old ways. I began this semester in a rather satisfactory manner, however I can feel myself going back to the slothly habits in which I once conducted myself.

This began (slowly) about 2.5 weeks ago. I was starting to fall behind in reading - not required readings for courses, rather the extra information I had taken upon myself to study. I was not keeping up with articles, watching the news, and I was even starting to get up a bit later in the mornings. This week has been the worst of the semester. Because of a)computer issues and b) lack of serious motivation, I did not start writing my essay until Sun. Even then, I did not spend a whole helluva lot of time on same - rather, spent a few min at a time while multitasking. Not long after, my monitor went out again. Curse.

I decided that although I needed to work hard on this essay, I expected my laptop to arrive around 1 pm the next day. I was perturbed to find I did not receive my new toy until about 4:30. I spent 2 hours setting things up, and then had to be at work at 7:30. Tuesday, I went to a study group for the essay, but found that we really did not work to hard on our topic, rather discussed the random phil. questions that came to mind. Josh Usry, a classmate, came to the session, and was quite refreshing. He was intent upon staying on topic and did his best to work on the paper. I think he got frustrated and decided that he was going to get nothing useful from sticking around. Pity.

I went home, changed, and went to work (to close, and therefore not allow more essay writing time). During the session, I had only gotten a basic outline done, and so spent about 8 hours worrying myself sick over the essay. The next day, I went to class, got done, and went to work (Starbucks) to work on my essay. After about 4 hours of planning, outlining and rough drafting, I went home. I got some laundry done, ate and spent a couple of hours in the evening with friends.

Finally got back to the essay around 10 pm, and then came ill. I worked until 1 am before I had to get to bed and rest. I think I was exhausted and made myself sick because of same - I found it hard to fall asleep. I rose at 7 am to polish up the final draft. At about 8:30, I went to print, had a nice scare when it looked as though my printer was out of ink (thank God it continued).

I then took my astro exam (no more than 1hr studying -eek. Oh well, intro level astro....I should survive). I came home, knowing I had one more day off work. Nothing productive! Didn't go to Friday class (I slept past 8:30 for the first time all semester, weekend or weekday), which I felt refreshed me. Last night, Paige and Matt came over and spent the night, but I overslept and was late to work, as pointed out earlier. This was a shock - I didn't go to bed extremely late - I just slept! I really do not wish to go back into my old habits of irresponsibility - I liked the momentum I built.

However, I have been reading some of the accomplishments of my professors - these gentlemen astound me at what they seem to have the energy for. They are highly published, quite obviously well read and seem to be the pinnacle of responsibility.

To further worry me, I read a disturbing blog written by my professor. He expressed his ire at us (students) regarding out writing skills. He explained the problem with typos, spelling, voice, etc. I should make clear - I have not written a scholarly essay in nearly 2 years. I realized immediately how rusty the skill had become. When once I could write 10 pages on any topic within a few hours, I found the 7 or so hours spent on this essay excruciating. When I reread the essay today, I immediately found an error in the intro (I believe it was a mistake in cutting and copying). Of all places, it was in the first or second sentence.

Anyhow - I will feel very lucky to get a high C, low B on the paper. To my standards, my own work was unacceptable. I hope that I can pick up my pace again and get my ship righted. In reading my Prof's blog, he mentioned his distress that students could make it to the university level with the writing skills demonstrated - I actually remember as a freshman in 2001 feeling the same sentiment. If there was one thing I could do, it was to write a coherent essay. I fear the skill might have escaped me.

Another point in the blog - he said that to keep his writing ability sharp and honed that he had written something every day of his life since the age of 15. I therefore resolve to a) write something, anything, be it working an essay, blogging here, an email to an editor everyday (within reason) and b)read at least 2 scholarly works a day, be it periodicals, journals, books (other than JUST novels), current events, etc. At the age of 21, it is a damned good time to begin taking my ability to think and understand the world to the next level.

Hmm - after looking at the size of this blog, I believe I have practiced quite enough for tonight (this morning?). I do hope that this blog will post, its size being formidable.

Currently listening to: Adiemus Adiemus, Brian Tyler Children of Dune, The Killers Mr. Brightside

Currently reading: Edith Hamilton Mythology, Plato The Life and Death of Socrates, Plato The Republic, James Rachels Elements of Moral Philosophy, Myriam Byrd The Summoner Approach: A New Method of Interpreting Plato

Goodnight.