Remember University Writing, waaaaay back in the day? Remember trying to decipher the instructions for the lens essay and the conversation essay? Remember how your teacher always told you that these were some of the most important writing techniques you’d ever learn, and you should be paying careful attention, because you’d probably use them for every paper you wrote in college?
Remember how cynical you were? Remember how you went, “I don’t know…I took twenty-five APs and four college classes in high school, and none of them ever required a lens essay…”? And the ever-present response: “Well, that wasn’t at Columbia. The work here is much more demanding.” And because it was your first semester *ever* at an Ivy and you were a scared little first-year, you didn’t argue, but continued to quietly bust your butt over the stupid thing.
Well, as a seasoned student, I’m here to tell you: I still haven’t used that lens essay. I get the feeling I never will. And watching other people write in class (and having to edit what they write) makes me realize—the people that could write before can still write. And the people that couldn’t write before are still as bad as ever.
Screw lens essays—we need to be drilling grammar and punctuation here. And we’re supposed to be smart?
Often, it is those mundane sorts of assignments nobody really wants to do, that get us told by professors that it will be beneficial to us down the line. And then it doesn’t really matter anymore, because you already did the assignment. There are certain components of every class you take that are of little or no use to you later on.
Said Corydon Shea,
On February 27, 2008 at 10:04 am: