A newsletter for the students, faculty and staff of the Collin County Community College District. Published monthly. For information or submissions, call 972.758.3849. Cougar News welcomes student and faculty submissions. Next deadline: Sept. 10. All submissions are due by 5 p.m. on the due date. Photos cannot be returned. Text should be emailed to mrobinson@ccccd.edu or sent on disk. Please submit copy that is proofed, edited and saved in Word format. Cougar News staff: Lisa Vasquez, director; Mark Robinson, editor; Marcy Cadena-Smith, contributor; Sydney Portilla-Diggs, student correspondent; Stephanie Hall, student correspondent; Ana Colores Palmer, student correspondent; Nick Young, photographer; Layout by Publications
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The Write Way
By Joyce Marie Miller, English professor
Many years ago, a lecturer on time management changed my life with five simple yet meaningful words: “Don’t put down; put away.”
What a time-saver that “pearl of wisdom” came to mean in organizing my family and professional chores!
Even at times today when I search for excuses not to put something away, the lecturer’s advice invariably moves me to complete a task. The advice also returned to me as I was clearing my desk to write my customary column.
In an instant, I thought it more beneficial for students to learn some of our professors’ favorite “pearls of wisdom” than for them to learn about essay writing this month. In due course, I put out a call to my colleagues and am especially pleased by the high number of quick responses—far more than space allows to include them all.
Professors from every campus submitted their original musings as well as oft-quoted expressions aimed at helping you manage your college experiences more successfully (just as wise advice helped some of them during their early college years).
In the order of submission to the column, then, the following sentences reflect the kind of “pearls” they’d like their own children to contemplate on the heels of college life.
Here’s hoping that one (or more) also will touch you in some way, perhaps even making meaningful differences in your personal, academic, and professional lives just as the words “Don’t put down; put away” made in mine:
• DO today what could wait until tomorrow!
• Good writers read good writing. Without a reliable pattern of correct, clear language in the mind, a writer cannot write well.
• There are no bells, hall monitors, or truancy officers at Collin; getting to class is solely your responsibility.
• Professors do not give you a grade. They record the grade you earn based on the quality of the final product you submit to fulfill the assignment.
• We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give." (President Ronald Reagan)
• Clear thinking promotes lucid writing. Both offer a ticket to success in professional and life arenas.
• We are our own greatest mystery: Be brave enough to grow beyond where you are now, to explore the possibilities of your unique mind.
• Treat your professors and everyone else as you would want them to treat you.
• “There is no pillow so soft as a clear conscience.” (French proverb)
• Students who truly want to succeed academically should focus on these five things: Before each class session, review the assigned course material; arrive early to class with a positive attitude; form a study group with your classmates to help with test-taking; engage the instructor in discussions, and attend all classes.
• Have a dream and pursue it.
• “The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.” (George Orwell)
• Open your ears, not your mouth (unless at the appropriate time).
• “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success.” (Albert Schweitzer)
• Relax about the grades and concentrate on getting the most out of each course.
• The saddest book is the one less opened.
• Prioritize, prioritize, and prioritize! Remember that each three-hour course you take usually requires three times that number to complete your homework, reading assignments, and papers.
• “Grasp the subject, and the words will follow.” (Cato the Elder)
• The root (reading skills) always reflects the pattern of the leaves and branches (writing skills).
• “Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” (H. Jackson Brown Jr.)
• “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” (Isaac Newton) Thank you again, professors, for your generous contributions—whether or not yours could fit in the publication’s allotted space. Next month’s column will return to the usual format of offering practical writing instruction, especially in differentiating confusing word pairs.
As always, I welcome suggestions from students, staff, and faculty for these monthly columns and shall try to use their contributions in future columns. Should you have a topic you’d like discussed here, please write me at jmiller@ccccd.edu . You may also telephone me at 972.881.5981. Students wishing improved writing skills will find useful links to a dozen or so English grammar sites at http://iws.ccccd.edu/jmiller/jmiller.htm .
Joyce Marie Miller is a professor of English at Collin.
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