Five Years a Writer

I had returned the students’ assignments and was back at my desk at the front of the room awaiting their questions. What came, almost immediately, was a shriek from one student — one of the most promising students in this particular class: “You tore my work apart!” Ah. Oops. Yes. This is sometimes the reaction to feedback on writing that demands respect, to writing that is clearly going somewhere but hasn’t yet arrived. I talked with the student and persuaded him that my detailed comments were an indication of the quality and potential of his work. It took quite a bit of talking on my part, but he was, eventually, persuaded. In the long term, that writing helped him win an award. At the ceremony, he told me he had realized how valuable my feedback had been for him. I’ve been remembering this particular experience recently, because I have dived into the public pool of writing in two ways: my piece on Brevity Blog was published last week, and this week I’ve signed up for a month of writ