As part of my goal to create and share more content in 2020, I am piloting a new series that will be featured on multiple platforms, including YouTube and other social media. The premise of the series is to synthesize or combine my love of literacy, reading, writing, and words (#WordNerd!) with my passion and commitment to colorism healing and other related issues.
In this very first episode, I provide the most foundational writing advice and pick the Weekly Word (randomly selected from my SAT vocabulary flashcard deck, which I bought for a different reason, but find fun and useful for this endeavor as well). Keep reading for the writing tip and Weekly Word.
Writing Tip: Read.
This may be an unexpected writing tip for some. But all writing begins with reading, at least if we’re talking about writing verbal language.
Many of my students say they love to write but don’t enjoy or necessarily make time to read. That’s a problem for a couple of reasons:
For one: Writing is not merely transcribed thought or speech. Writing and speaking and thinking are each very different processes and products, though they appear deceptively similar. For more on this, I recommend John McWhorter’s TED Talk, “Texting is Killing Language. JK!!!”
For that reason, the best way to be a better writer is to study writing. Yes, you can write without reading much. But to really take your skills and craft and dexterity to greater potential, reading is the gateway.
Secondly, there’s what I call a law of reciprocity or the rule of writer’s karma. If you write so that others will read your writing, then there’s good karma in reading other writers’ writings.
Quick Followup Reading Tips
The key to reading more is to read widely until you discover the reading that inspires you to read more.
Another way to read more is to not pressure yourself to finish. Many of us dread the process of reading because the thought of reading “the whole thing” overwhelms. But counter-intuitively, you’ll end up reading more when you give yourself permission to read less.
Weekly Word: Generalization
A generalization is a vague or broad statement based on inference or specific cases.
Colorism of often involves making generalizations about people with similar complexions. Rather than making generalizations, let’s focus on understanding the unique humanity in everyone. Yes, there may be patterns within a groups, community, culture, etc. but rarely do such patterns equate to the whole of who someone is.
While generalizations may be useful at times, they are treacherous when they lead us to pre-judge people that we do not know or when we try to force people we do know into general categories they don’t actually fit into.
I’ve enjoyed this first week of The Word Wise Webb (here on WWW), and I hope you’ve found it interesting enough to get this far. See ya next week for Episode 002!
Sincerely,
Sarah