Article in Progress

Here's a little snippet from an article I've been working on today. Maybe it'll be of interest, although nothing earth shaking certainly. It's meant primarily for the college level writer.

Remember that we often get a mistaken impression about how talented other people are. We pick up a novel and think how superbly written it is. We hear a good lecture from a teacher and we think, “Wow, this lady really knows her stuff.” We see Shaquille O’Neal slam-dunk a basketball and we just stare. In each case we think how lucky some people are to be born with those kinds of skills. And in each case we are wrong.

Sure, Shaq would probably be better at basketball than most of us even if he had never practiced it. But all of us could be better than we are if we worked hard enough at it. People are not born experts. They may have innate talents, like size, speed, or coordination, but most people have to work hard to make their jobs look easy. Writing is the same. Being a good writer is probably both a gift and a learned skill. Some people may just be better than others. But almost everyone can learn to write a term paper that will earn an “A” in college.