There are some skills that I remember very well how I learned to do them. Creative writing I remember because there are so many books and resources on it. Academic writing, on the other hand, I don’t remember how I learned to do it. I suppose a lot of reading academic articles and copying their style. I’m a lot more comfortable facilitating a creative writing workshop partly because I can relate to writing struggles. And I’m still learning a lot about writing. But academic writing is a whole different animal. I always struggled to teach it, partly because academic writing isn’t really ever taught in any formal way. At least none that I can remember. I just absorbed it from all the published articles and books I was assigned to read.
This discussion brings me to another reason why reflecting on your career is important--it reminds you of what it’s like to be a beginner. Journaling gives you all those memories (or should I say struggles) to look back on and admire how far you have come. I’m an educator at heart so knowing where someone struggles allows me to tailor content for them. This has come in handy on previous jobs where I’ve had to train the new person.
That is, if you keep your journals. More on that later.
Comments