Writing for Better Classroom Conversations

by Marilyn Savich

Have you ever been frustrated by your own lack of classroom participation? Your professor asked you to share your thoughts on the assigned reading, and your mind just went blank. What gnaws you is that you spent a fair amount of time getting through to the end of the page(s), underlining certain passages, circling keywords,and even scribbling some bullet points about it. In that setting and time of day though – zap. Perhaps you genuinely forgot. Perhaps you had a neutral response to what you read – you understood the author’s argument, but because you didn’t feel strongly about it one way or another, you struggled to put it into greater meaning, especially at that particular moment.

Here is where reflective writing can be of great help if you identify with any of these experiences. Reflective writing is tailored for you and meant to help you make sense of your thoughts. It seems non-intuitive, especially since you’re the only one reading it, and indeed – the beauty of reflective writing is the freedom to write whatever you desire however ineligibly you want. Nevertheless, there are some aspects to think about that can be motivational if you haven’t tried this kind of exercise in college yet, which is namely writing for the purpose of richer contributions in an academic setting. Below are some suggestions to ultimately help you develop your thoughts about those long, technical readings that are the basis of your classroom discussions.

Step 1: Find a journal.

Whether it’s the same journal for class notes or a different one for your personal reactions, make sure you have it available when it may be needed in class. Paper is all you really need, so any journal will do; of course, an aesthetically pleasing one is often encouraging if you need an additional incentive.

Step 2: Write in paragraph format.

The advantage of writing in paragraph format as opposed to bullet points is that writing in paragraphs helps you contextualize all the information in a way that makes sense to you when you re-read it. Writing one sentence after another also helps you internally make connections by propelling you forward to more ideas along the thought process, which is one of the overall goals of this exercise. It may help to think of this reflective exercise as a type of story or journal entry that you are creating for yourself.

Step 3: Give yourself time.

You may already be asking yourself: why am I giving myself extra homework? Sure, it may seem like a little bit of effort upfront, but in the long run, you are helping yourself immensely so that the next time you’re asked to think about that reading, the process of remembering will be less painful.

Step 4: Forget all of your professor’s writing pet peeves.

Even if the personal reaction you are writing to yourself is ultimately toward the very same class in which the professor let you know of her/his personal writing distastes, jot down all of your thoughts in the style that you would find most accessible. Since this is a self-reflective exercise, feel free to use the terms “I feel,” “like,” and “cool,” or whatever pet peeve your professor mentioned if those words are what come naturally to you. You can change those irritable words afterward when you re-read your response or when you orally share your interpretations in class. When you’re first writing to yourself though, you should focus your attention on making sense of ideas for yourself so that you can actually get somewhere.

 Step 4: Rephrase what the author is saying. 

 This process is actually really helpful when your professor asks you to think about the argument and how this specific theory differs from the other text you just read. Even if there is a line in the text that you highlighted which clearly gets across the author’s main point, it helps to write the author’s thesis in a manner that you would actually say out loud so that you are sure you understand it.

Step 5: Connect the text to greater themes.

What are the big, memorable keywords that have already discussed in class or in the syllabus? Along the same lines, think of ways in which this reading contributes to some of the comments mentioned by your professor or classmates. You may also find a greater connection to another field outside of the discipline you are studying in– be it a connection between mathematics and politics, the economy, religion, or a current event. Sometimes those links between the classroom and the outside world can be really exciting and lead to an interest you follow when you’re outside of the classroom.

This exercise is a pretty no-pressure task in which no one can judge you except yourself. It is also an opportunity for growth. In fact, you may be surprised at what new ideas spring forth when you give yourself time to think and express yourself beforehand.

Writing Quotes by Writers but not Written about Writing

By Lyndi Scott

It is easy when someone says the word “writer,” to immediately think of names like Ernest Hemingway or Jane Austen, Shakespeare or Mark Twain. You know, the Greats (relatively speaking). The writers that defined what it meant to be a writer. It is a great misfortune that we often make this association. Just because you didn’t write Paradise Lost or Harry Potter doesn’t mean you can’t “write.” It also ignores the technicality, of course, that anyone who writes is a writer: to write, and write something significant, doesn’t mean you have to be a professional or that it has to be awe-inspiring poetry that transforms the nation, or a masterpiece of the novel genre-- it just has to be written.

With that adieu, I will further this perspective using the great writers who wrote great quotes about writing but not about writers. (Say that three times fast-- or even once, for that matter.)

“A word after a word after a word is power.” ― Margaret Atwood

Even writers don’t write to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Writing is therapeutic and is a powerful thinking process for both the individual writing, and those who read it. The act of writing is a cognitive process, so no matter what you are writing about, you are going to think very deeply about it before and while your pen touches the paper.

“The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.” ― Albert Camus

If philosophers like Plato and Socrates or ancient scientists like Galileo or Copernicus had never written their thoughts down, not as writers, mind you, but as thinkers, gravity would’ve taken centuries longer to understand. Do you think? Then write. It is through writing that the world connects, grows, and accumulates the mass of knowledge that is currently swirling around in Google databases. 

“A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called "leaves") imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time ― proof that humans can work magic.” ― Carl Sagan

When you think about writing in the reductive form that Sagan puts it, it probably makes you feel a little silly at first-- it is such a simple thing, so useless when taken out of context. Sagan goes on though, giving writing context and emphasis, and suddenly the BuzzFeed article or that Tom Clancy novel is now an historical document, and is a small cross section on the web of writings that expands infinitely. And like Sagan says, our ability to access that web of ideas is the greatest gift we give to each other.

“A good poem is a contribution to reality. The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it. A good poem helps to change the shape of the universe, helps to extend everyone's knowledge of himself and the world around him.” ― Dylan Thomas

Replace the word poem with “idea” and suddenly you are contributing so much more than new perspective, you are contributing to progress.

“All I need is a sheet of paper and something to write with, and then I can turn the world upside down.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

Nietzsche was a German philosopher who believed God was dead due to the increase of secularism in Western civilization and wrote many theses on nihilism, which is the idea that life lacks purpose because nothing has an innate value. Maybe you knew that, maybe you didn’t. But you have heard of Nietzsche, because like me and you and Nietzsche, we are part of that web of writing. This blog you are reading this very instant is now a part of the great expanse. Writing is not reserved for writers, but for thinkers, for those who have ever had a question and desired an answer. And something tells me that you are one of those people. So go write!

5 Steps to Start the Big Paper Today

by Katie Avagliano

I get it, we’re just days after the snowpocalypse. There might still be snow blocking your front door. Also, it’s January. Do we really need to start that 25 page end-of-semester research paper in January? That grad school application can wait until the snow melts.

But you know that’s not what’s going to happen. It’s going to wait until the day before it’s due, or the week before it’s due, and you’re going to stress out.

So get started today. Baby steps, I swear.

#1: Go to the library

Just go in the library and smell the books. Look up your topic, find the call number, and stand in front of the shelf for a little while.

The library is organized by subject. It’s kind of genius, actually. So if you’re doing a paper on the old Hollywood studio system, you might be looking for Clark Gable and the book right next to it just as useful.

At American University, graduate and undergrad students alike can check out as many books as they want. The loan period is four weeks, for undergrads, and six weeks for graduate and law students. 

So go crazy! Bring all the books home and just flip through them for a couple of weeks. Real paper books can be inspiring.

#2: Read a Wikipedia article

Or, you know, grab an actual encyclopedia, but just knowing the overview of your subject can really help you focus on what you’re researching on. And if you find something interesting, look for more sources to confirm it. Wikipedia is a good way to know what the bare minimum research already can tell you. Just make sure to move on from the website and actually read a scholarly source.

#3: Talk it out

This is where the Writing Center comes in. We’re like those friends who pretend to care about your French Revolution paper, except we actually care. Come by with your Wikipedia research and your sixteen books and your idea and we will help you turn it into an outline. Papers always seem so much easier when you have a well-crafted thesis and five or six topic sentences right there.

#4: Un-schedule yourself

You know how when you start a paper the week before it’s due you put crazy demands on your mind and body. Like: Today I have to write my entire paper, or Today I have to get all my research done, or I have ten minutes to edit this whole thing.

Because you’ll now have weeks or months to finish your paper, you’re not trying to schedule your paper like train times. You’re just trying to keep sane, and balanced. Sit down with your planner or your iCalendar app and put in everything you have to do all week. Your classes, your soccer practice, your job, your regular homework. A lot time for breakfast, lunch, dinner, driving, snacks, hanging with friends, watching Netflix, watching the Superbowl, watching the Oscars. Try to account for everything. Remember you need eight hours of sleep.

Now how much time do you have left over? Per day? Per week? That’s how much time you’ll use for writing. Now, if you have two hours left per day, you don’t have to use all of those two hours. But try to make it at least thirty minutes, so that you can really get into the groove of your assignment. And then move onto something else.

Make writing a routine. Make it un-scary. Make it so that there’s enough time left for revising, rethinking, re-editing. When you finish one assignment, move onto another. Keep that thirty minutes a day productive.

Then you’re good, man. You’re golden.

#5: Just do it

The best part about starting the paper in January is that you can procrastinate. Write five pages this month, five pages next month, edit on the weekends. But in the end, remember that procrastination can only save you for so long. Eventually you are going to have to do the thing. And when the time comes, you’re going to have to turn off Facebook and stop scrolling through Twitter and just do it. And it sucks. But it makes you a better person, I swear. If nothing else, knowing every Confederate general will help you be boss at pub trivia.

"So what can you do when inspiration seems far off?"

by Matt Ehlenbach 

Unless you find yourself working on a creative writing piece, inspiration can seem like a strange component of the writing “formula.”  Especially when crafting an academic piece, you might find yourself asking, “Why do I need inspiration to analyze something? Shouldn’t it be pretty straightforward?” As most of us know, sometimes it is that straightforward. Other times, not so much.

While the necessity for inspiration might be broadly understood in the humanities, inspiration can be equally important in the “drier” subjects like economics or physics.  Inspiration feeds your intellectual efforts in myriad ways, impacting the research process, the crafting of research questions, as well as rhetorical choices.  When you feel uninspired, you can even suffer from writer’s block.

For many of us, inspiration comes from intellectual curiosity or drive and grows out of a desire to trace an idea from its beginnings to its logical conclusion.  This does not necessarily apply equally to all subjects, though.  When you aren’t interested in the particular assignment or class that you’re working on, this can seem difficult.  This can also be challenging when the prompt for the paper you’re writing seems either too simple or too complex. 

So what can you do when inspiration seems far off?  Below are four ways to help you take your mind off of your academic troubles and find a little inspiration to work on those academic papers.

1.)   Take a mental break.

Do something that you enjoy that isn’t immediately related to the paper you’re working on.  Whether that entails working on another (more personally engaging) assignment, playing a musical instrument, or even going for a(nother) cup of coffee, take your lack of inspiration as an opportunity to reinvest in other parts of your life, not just as a means of procrastination.  According to Huffington Post blogger Chris Baréz-Brown, inspiration necessitates that the brain be in an “alpha state” or a state “of light relaxation where we are able to freely associate, access our subconscious and link various thoughts in unique ways.”   Those links could be the basis for your next paper!

2.)   Get up and MOVE!

Though the link between physical activity and cognitive function has been well documented, researchers at Stanford University have recently demonstrated that the physical activity necessary to improve cognitive function can be as mild as walking on a treadmill or around the block. Though walking won’t necessarily make you smarter, the simple act of doing so can boost cognitive functions and might lead you to an inspired idea for that paper on Kant! 

3.)   Sleep.

According to Lifehacker, simple as it sounds, a good night’s sleep can be instrumental in finding inspiration for those academic papers.  When you’re tired, your brain suffers.  The fatigue associated with not sleeping can impair the cognitive processes that help you come up with those great ideas for that paper on Kant.  I know it’s tempting to stay up all night to work on that paper, but consider taking a nap first if you find yourself lacking the creative bug.

4.)   Go somewhere else.

Sometimes when we try to write papers, we’re just not in a great place to do it.  Occasionally we find ourselves in spaces that are too loud or too quiet, or that just don’t jive with our working style.  Even if the noise level is fine, every so often the space that you’re working in can add to your to-do list or be otherwise off-putting.  Sometimes getting up and going somewhere else can be all it takes to de-clutter your mind and find the inspiration you need to get started on your paper.  When you’re lacking in inspiration, don’t be afraid to mix it up a little and try something new. 

For Your Consideration: Sounds for the Writing Environment

by Hannah Williams


As we get to work on brainstorming, writing, and revising essay drafts, I want to ask: does your work environment ever seem all wrong? Perhaps you live in a dorm with a lot of distractions, or the coffee shop is too crowded, or your favorite spot in the library is taken--the variables are endless! It can be hard to find the right amount of quiet--or the right amount of noise--to feel relaxed and ready to take on an assignment. For some, your mindset correlates directly with the ability to actually get some writing accomplished, so the writing environment can be very important.

There are several great online resources with which you can generate the kind of atmosphere that suits you on that particular day. Below, I've shared some links to some of my favorite resources. I believe these resources offer realistic, soothing, and focus-generating sounds. 

So whenever you don't have the time or means to get that setting just right, maybe these can help! 

1) Coffitivity

With Coffitivity, you can choose between "Morning Murmur," "Lunchtime Lounge," and "University Undertones" so that the coffee shop atmosphere becomes customizable! And if you sign up for a premium account, there are even more atmospheres at your fingertips. 

2) Rainy days

Rainy days mean that you're probably stuck indoors, so you might as well try to get some homework done, right? Here's a way to make that happen any time you want. 

3) Morning in the forest

YouTube is a great place to look up atmospheric sounds and pick the right one for you. Here's a great example of simple, pleasant sounds. 

Happy writing!