by Laura Lai/ Uncategorized
This is the last
homework. It is the end of the course on Academic
and Business Writing. It was great to have practiced both English and
writing on given topics. And the writing was practiced on topics that were so
diverse! I equally loved all of them – no favorites.
This course was my third online
course. My online study adventure started in 2019 with the course on Drama Writing – a four-month
course provided by the University of Oxford. I did not know what to expect from
an online course, but I was prepared to study drama and eager to write it. And I
enrolled looking for a drama writing road map. I could not compare it to
anything I experienced before, as I have always studied in class – not in
virtual classes. I found it more difficult online than in class when the teacher
can be interrupted at any time to be asked a question or to clarify an issue. But
it is not so difficult if the course is well organized and well structured by
the instructor.
The
online class is about self-discipline, is about motivation, is about making it
a high priority for your daily schedule, and is about studying more than meeting
peers, having a chat, having a walk, or having a coffee together. I found my road map, I
found my confidence, and I found out the greatest advantage of the online course:
it is self-paced. I study constantly, organized, daily, and weekly, but once during
this course, I had to relocate from one country to another. The online course
allowed me to finish the readings for one week before the end of the week, start the readings for the next one when my laptop was on, and pack when it
was off. I announced to the tutor that for two days of the week I could not be on
the virtual discussion forum (which was highly interactive) as I was changing
planes, trains, and buses. The course was self-paced and me being organized on the second day, in the evening, I was already in the virtual class for a
few hours, getting back my study rhythm as if I did not even relocate the day
before.
In the process of perfecting my
writing skills and in order to practice my English, in 2020 I enrolled in the
course Rhetoric: The Art of Persuasive Writing and Public Speaking – provided by Harvard
University. Although I knew what online study meant, I was still nervous. I
was nervous because I was not 18 years old anymore as I was when I first
entered university, I was facing material coming from the best university in
the world (for the 2021 world university ranking, click here) and I
wanted to assimilate it all. I have learned that my thirst for knowledge is now
as it was back then when I was 18. And I laughed when I remembered that then I
could only go to the best university in the country and that, now, I am taking
a course from the best in the world. The fact that I wanted to learn from the
best is the same now as it was when I was 18. Indeed, I also do not have the
impression that I changed in comparison to the way I have always been. And April 22nd is my next birthday – I do not think that I will change,
because I am curious to know, I want to understand, because I want to apply
what I know and what I understand. If I want to make a difference? Why shall I?
I may be the difference itself! J
The course on Academic and Business Writing – provided by Berkeley,
University of California is the third step in my process of improving my writing
and practicing English. It is the course I am about to end, and like all
courses, I am sorry that it is about to end. I was eager to start learning the
course material of another great world university. I would have enrolled
anyway, but I was feeling sorry that I would never be able to prove to anybody
and in any professional context that I studied it. The day the online platform EdX approved my financial request
was a great day. EdX made my day! J
In Oxford University’s terms, some of
us are ‘lifelong learners’ and we never know enough. I will never will. The
most recent podcast for ‘curious minds’ is about the long tradition of
what we call nowadays ‘online learning.' It started in the 19th
century with ‘tutorial classes’ with writing essays about political and
economical issues of those times and it became in the 20th century a 'permanent national necessity’:
‘The continuing education of adults was of vital
importance to the nation’s welfare and security. Citizens needed the
intellectual tools to weigh the evidence and critically reflect on political
claims…’
It is said that
people turn to tutorial classes mainly ‘to change the trajectory of life’.
Therefore, it is great that such platforms exist. I look at it as an academic
platform of excellence. My experience with it was
great and I will return to it every time I need to perfect a skill or acquire
new professional ones.
Until then I
need to finish this course. And I have one last homework, on text revision. How
do I go about revisions? In this course, I learned different techniques for
revisions and editing, but before this course, I was traditionally reading and
re-reading the text several times, both in my mind and aloud; I was leaving it
aside for shorter or longer periods of time and reading it again. Sometimes I was
also recording myself to hear the way it sounds.
Reading aloud allows one finding a
better word, and a better structure for the sentence, it helps hear its rhythm,
and it also allows one to work on the punctuation or to edit some typos and/or
some grammar mistakes (e.g. subject-verb agreement and plurals). To me, this
works great, because I usually think long before I write a play, for example. I
research. The topic unfolds first in my mind. I write an outline to point out certain things. Then I sit and write, and I let the story take me on the
writing adventure. I cannot write it all at once, but when I resume, I usually
do not have to reread what I wrote because I am writing down a story that is
already unfolding in my mind and I know where I stopped.
When
the first draft is finished I start reading and rereading. I do that on screen
and on paper. Sometimes when the paper is too long, and in order not to stay
long in front of the computer, I print and correct it on paper. But every corrected
typo or every improved sentence structure is usually improved according to the
level of English one has. That is the reason why the language must be
constantly improved: so that each and every time an author revises its text or
edits its grammar and punctuation to do it with a pair of fresh eyes and better
skills.
In
terms of text revision, there is also the possibility to ask somebody to read
your text and make improvement suggestions. Personally, I do not use this
method much unless it is in an educational format and the instructor needs to
read and give feedback. There are a few reasons why I do not necessarily use
this text revision method. First, it is about time availability. In general,
people live a busy life and they may be too busy to find the time to read
something they enjoy rather than to read others’ writings and give feedback. And
if they are so busy, I am not sure they will read attentively, maybe just by
obligation and on a diagonal. Second, it also depends on what an author is
writing. I focus on a particular type of drama that is not much explored. I do
not know the way the audience will react to this type of genre called ‘single-issue-drama’.
This type of drama combines perfectly my political science background with my
love of writing, particularly dialogues. Why not write in this genre? But reading
to an audience like a reading club may be ‘torture’ for the members who love
other genres and a significant time investment on my side to explain every step
I made to combine the topic with art.
Third,
even experienced authors recommend prudence when getting feedback. They
usually recommend taking into account only those opinions that matter to you,
or people who are involved in your writing process, etc. (for more information,
please read the article here or my series of comments on it that I
posted on the ‘Writing Blog’ in November and December, 2020). Quentin
Tarantino, who is both a film director and a film writer, summarized it into
three simple words with a profound meaning ‘defend your art.'
To summarize, the
course Academic and Business Writing is
the third online course I take. With the first course, I learned what online
learning meant. With the second course, I discovered that although not 18 years
old anymore, my thirst for knowledge is as high as then, and that my interest to learn from the best is the same. And with the third course, I learned the importance of constantly
improving one’s language skills. By approving my financial request, the online
educational platform EdX helped me to be able to prove in any professional
context these new skills.
The last homework for this course
requires insights into our ways to revise a text. I traditionally use the reading and re-reading of a text maaaaany times and after shorter or longer periods of
time, in my mind and aloud. This allows for finding better words and elementary text
editing (e.g. correct punctuation, missed plurals, or subject-verb agreement).
#cwp2X #edx
#Oxford #Harvard #Berkeley #writing #revising #amblogging
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