by Jack Boczar
Opening
It was only a few months ago that I graduated with two bachelor’s degrees as a twenty-two year old. And yet, here I am thrust into teaching students that are almost my own age. While quite strange, it has been great fun, and I do look forward to next semester when I can apply the skills garnered from this class to my WIP course. Briefly, allow me to outline some things I learned from interacting with students’ essays over the course of the semester.
Reading and Writing
There is a very intimate relationship between the amount one reads and their writing skill. It’s plainly obvious to me which students don’t read and which students are immersed in texts. The students who struggle with writing are often those who fail to use words in the proper manner, have clunky transitions, and try to write poetically rather than clearly. I suspect that this stems from a lack of reading, which has resulted in an insufficient vocabulary and failure to appreciate clarity and conciseness. Reading more texts would certainly help students realize how to use words properly, how transitions work, and that clarity is a top priority in writing.
For example, I had two students attempt to explain to me that my own suggested edits would make their essay “too mathematical,” meaning that their essay would be more like a math proof following step by step deductions. This, however, is the correct way to write a philosophical argument. I tend to think that much of the time clarity and conciseness is sacrificed for faux fanciness and complexity. As a philosophy student, I don’t care how the argument is presented as long as it is sound, so in reading papers, I simply ignore all of the unnecessary adjectives and complex-sounding vernacular. While hard to understand for novice writers, this is important to stress to them.
Editing
For our final paper, I was able to assist about 20 students in making edits—both serious and minor. I saw that lots of grammatical errors were made, which is common, but easily fixable through the use of some software like Grammarly. But more troubling was the failure to realize that massive structural edits often are required in papers. Sometimes, it is necessary to overhaul entire sections to make the argument or paper work better. I suggest that the best way to go about this is to start every editing session by reading the paper from the top and working it over. That way, one can get a sense of how the paper ties each section together and then make relevant structural changes to make that construction more coherent. It is worthwhile to note that these experiences have been quite valuable, as next semester I can utilize this information to streamline the editing process and assist students in developing their writing skills. I think that I’ll be prepared to do so, and reflecting on what I have learned will save me time in the long run.
Jack Boczar is a 2021–2022 WIP TA for philosophy.