It survived a tornado!
It’s about summertime, so I thought I’d post a few “outdoorsy” comments on the website. I know many folks are not campers, but over 50 million folks in the US will go camping this year, and one third of all households with kids will go on a camping outing.
I am always on the lookout for books that can help improve my writing, and that might be helpful to my college students as well. I’m more comfortable upfront, speaking to groups. The writing process has been less natural and a struggle to develop in my early days. I remember when Dr. Shulze handed my college paper back to me with a “C-” on it and the hefty recommendation that I visit the university’s writing center. I think it said, “Your writing is no good.” I’m not sure why I was stunned by his words, the consequence of turning in a hastily-written first draft were lost on me. Didn’t he know how well I had written in high school?
One of my first papers in graduate school had these words from my professor, “This is NOT a philosophical paper. Poorly constructed argument. Please revise.” Grammatically error-free, the paper lacked in content. I couldn’t just do the assignment. I had to say something in my writing. The truth is that writing well IS difficult. For some, it’s a gift. For others, it’s a craft. For the rest of us, it’s like pottery. The first throw is a lump – and the weeks, months, and years of molding make it more useful. Yet, most of us write as part of our work. At the very least we communicate via writing. I knew people who circled the typographical and grammatical errors (average was about five) in the church bulletin and put it in the comment box after each Sunday’s service.
Welcome back to the Americans from a holiday weekend. We spent it with my sister and family at the lake cottage. Had a great time. Last week, I posted about some research I had done on boredom as it relates to youth work. Since then, I’ve run across some interesting research on boredom as it relates to government workers and marines. The governmental study is most interesting (to me) because of the health implications (like dying). Since it’s correlational study, you can’t assume cause and effect. It’s enough to note that people who are easily bored are also less healthy.
If you haven’t seen the “swagger wagon” extended ad for the Toyota Sienna, it’s worth a look (thanks to JennyBJones):
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