It was the first week of my AP World History Class and my teacher had just announced a surprise essay. Neither I nor the other students had expected any work so early into the year. Some of my classmates already looked anxious, but I was calm. I knew essays were a strong point of mine so I was determined to kick off the year with a good grade. My teacher slid the essay prompt to me and I began. The concept was straightforward enough, I just had to analyze 7 short historical documents to answer the essay question. Quickly I started writing, and before I knew it the allotted 50 minutes had passed. Being left handed the side of my fist was dry from being covered in graphite dust. I viewed it almost as a badge of honor; it was proof I had pressed out 3 pages so quickly. With my left hand I confidently brought my essay to the front of the class and put it in the pile that was reluctantly being filled by my classmates. I left the class feeling sure that I had scored well; I must have if I had written 3 pages while others had struggled to do half that. A week passed and this confidence remained strong
Getting back my essay was a slap to the face. I looked around the class and to my minor comfort I saw everyone else had done roughly the same, with no one getting higher than a 4, but this rose the question of what it was that everyone had done incorrectly. Confused I looked through the notes my teacher had written on my essay. Every other line seemed to be crossed out in red ink. I turned to the last page and scrawled at the bottom was, "Less words, more Answers."
I was unsure what exactly my teacher meant by this but he had already taken position at the front of the class before I could ask. He looked out at us and began his lecture, "Many of you are likely wondering why your scores are so low, well it's because this is a technical essay and all any you should be writing about is the answer to the prompt. When you take the AP test at the end of the year your essay grader will not care if you can write beautifully but only if you answer the question efficiently. Any inflation to your essay through useless information or excessive explanation will detract from your score. Only write what you need to."
In the wake of that day we would have another prompt assigned every month or so and each time I would try to improve. During the first three months my score increased only marginally, eventually raising to a 5. Although my score wasn't satisfactory it was at least passing. I tried many ways to improve my writing, everything from trying to merge sentences together to make them a little shorter to leaving some of what I was trying to get across to implication. Eventually I found the most effective technique I could apply was removing my voice completely from my essay, only writing what the prompt asked for because ultimately whoever would grade it could not care less about who I am. It was almost insulting when my first essay using this style was returned to me. I had scored a 7/9, jumping up 2 whole points from my last one. Most would be overjoyed, but having distanced myself so far from my writing I could no longer take any personal pride in the improvement. I continued to practice and by the time the AP was near I could score 8's and 9's consistently. On the day of the test I went in confident. 2 months later when the scores came back I found out I had gotten a perfect score, and it was all thanks to technical writing.
This event impacted how I viewed and exercised literature greatly. Leading up to that essay I had always thought of good writing as descriptive and beautiful, explaining everything that could be. It opened my eyes for I had never seen writing as a tool to be used with precision, only saying what needed to be said. Ever since then I can look back on old writing that I have done and see flaws on every page. For instance in Middle School I could never leave a simple sentence alone, it had to be filled with metaphors and adjectives. I would write, "The tires kicked off against the road, barreling us forwards. Growing closer were starkly angular peaks, jutting out of the forest in varying shades, all unified by their icy painted peaks." As is evident I described far more than necessary, even to a point where my readers might not understand what it was I was trying to describe anymore. In this case, writing, "we drove towards the ominous mountains" would be just as effective and far more efficient. Ever since I got my essay back I have actively worked to trim flowery prose like this from my writing, only using them frugally in order to make their occasional appearance powerful. Working on my technical writing has definitely helped to improve my creative writing but more importantly it has allowed me to be better prepared for the style of writing that makes up the majority of the professional world. Although creative writing is enjoyable and should be taught in schools I find technical writing to be far more important. Being able to write a concise resume or clear instructions are exercises to be done often throughout one's life but for the majority of us once we leave school we will no longer be called upon to write a descriptive sentence on how we drove towards mountains. For this reason I believe technical writing is an important life skill for everyone to learn.
This event impacted how I viewed and exercised literature greatly. Leading up to that essay I had always thought of good writing as descriptive and beautiful, explaining everything that could be. It opened my eyes for I had never seen writing as a tool to be used with precision, only saying what needed to be said. Ever since then I can look back on old writing that I have done and see flaws on every page. For instance in Middle School I could never leave a simple sentence alone, it had to be filled with metaphors and adjectives. I would write, "The tires kicked off against the road, barreling us forwards. Growing closer were starkly angular peaks, jutting out of the forest in varying shades, all unified by their icy painted peaks." As is evident I described far more than necessary, even to a point where my readers might not understand what it was I was trying to describe anymore. In this case, writing, "we drove towards the ominous mountains" would be just as effective and far more efficient. Ever since I got my essay back I have actively worked to trim flowery prose like this from my writing, only using them frugally in order to make their occasional appearance powerful. Working on my technical writing has definitely helped to improve my creative writing but more importantly it has allowed me to be better prepared for the style of writing that makes up the majority of the professional world. Although creative writing is enjoyable and should be taught in schools I find technical writing to be far more important. Being able to write a concise resume or clear instructions are exercises to be done often throughout one's life but for the majority of us once we leave school we will no longer be called upon to write a descriptive sentence on how we drove towards mountains. For this reason I believe technical writing is an important life skill for everyone to learn.
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