But this past weekend, while reorganizing a stack of papers in my office, I came across the 2013-14 edition of The Enchiridion. This was the last handbook I assembled for the Coe Writing Center’s undergraduate staff, published shortly before I retired as CWC Director. While leafing through the 144-page anthology, I came upon a document created by students in two Honors Composition classes I taught in the spring of 1995. Near the end of the term, I had asked each student to create a list of 5-10 pieces of advice they would give to the Spring ‘96 cohort. After creating a master list of their suggestions, I performed some minor editing and shared this compendium with many students I taught in the next two decades.
I was surprised, reading through this document, how frequently the students’ advice applied to my current efforts trying to learn how to garden and how to write about gardens. Copied below is the 1995 document. In most instances I’ve allowed the advice, intended for an audience of first-year college students, to speak for itself. In a few instances, however, I have inserted parenthetical observations, commenting on the implications for my own situation. ~Bob
Don't Erase--And Other Advice
• Don't erase - you may later decide to use that information. Cross it out, but never erase.
• Make yourself believe that the work is due before the actual due date.
• Don't sit and stare at a blank computer screen. Write SOMETHING. It doesn't have to be related to anything - just so that it looks as if you've done something. Then start into the assignment. It's not so bad when you have something on the screen to start with.
• Don't waste your time writing a rough draft of a paper. Get on the computer and start typing. I find it much easier to stare at a blank screen than paper. It's also not as easy to crumple up the computer screen when you are pissed about not being able to think of anything else to write or if you don't like how it looks.
• Just sit back and let it flow. You may have a clogged drain once in a while, but look at it as a minor hairball, nothing a little Draino won't fix.
• Let your thoughts do the talking, your fingers do the walking.
• Write with whichever utensil feels most comfortable at the time. I have different utensil moods, e.g., the I know I'll regret writing this pencil mood; the I'm blue so I'll use a blue pen mood; the wicked dark thoughts are swirling in my brain gotta use a black ball point pen mood; the happy colorful big writing with crayolas mood. [In gardening, the use of specific tools is often critically important to the pleasures of the task. For example, I have several small hand hoes, but I have a Japanese twisted shank weeding sickle that fits perfectly in my hand and is always my first choice when I am down on my hands and knees, weeding a flower bed.]
If you want to keep reading, here's a link to the complete text, Don't Erase: Advice from the Spring of '95.