Good, Bad or Effective?

People talk about good writing, or bad writing.  Then there's trash. Personally I think using words like good or bad aren't helpful when it comes to writing the stuff.  The word I prefer is effective.  

Effective writing does exactly what the author wants it to do.  If you want them to laugh, then effective writing will make it happen.  If you want them to cry, or be scared, or be stunned by your use of language, your writing is effective if it gets that result.  

When I'm looking at student work, I'm looking to see how effective it is.  Is it doing what the author intends it to do?  If, for example, it's fantasy I might be looking to see how effective the author is at creating the milieu of the invented world.  If it's a thriller, I'll be checking to see that there's tension running through each sentence and that the pace is right.  If it was a more literary piece of writing, I'd be looking at the effectiveness of the language and character creation.  

Writing is all about communicating.  You have an idea or a story, and you want to pass it across to me.  Because we're not telepathic, we have to use writing as an interface between our imaginations.  The more clearly your idea or story is expressed on the page, the more easily it reaches me. 

Tell me this story you have in your head, about these characters.  If I understand it just the way you intended then your writing is effective.  If I get out of it just what you wanted me to do, then it's effective. 

I think writing has to be judged by its own standards.  Does it achieve what it set out to do? Not good, not bad, but effective.

Marking

I've been late with the blog the last couple of days, and my excuse is I've been staying up late and getting up early to get through my marking - it's end of semester at the American university where I've been teaching two classes this year. Marking is my least favourite part of teaching, especially when connected with giving grades.

I read through carefully, making comments and corrections. I'm careful because you just know that the student is going to read every comment, trying to work out why they got this grade or that grade, and if they don't like their grade, they'll be querying what you scribbled on the side of their submission. And then you have to justify your remarks - tactfully, of course. Many years ago I had a student who was furious with his low mark and I longed to say 'You're simply not a good writer, that's why the mark is low'. (But didn't.)

I don't like feeling in judgement over another person's writing, to say this piece is better than that piece. It's only my opinion, after all. I may have missed some crucial element. It's not like maths, where the answer is either right or wrong. It's subjective, not objective. Alternatively, perhaps one student has played safe by submitting work that has already been workshopped, whereas another has aimed high and risked trying out something new but perhaps not been entirely successful. Who deserves the better mark? Do you include scope and ambition when considering marks? Is a brave attempt more worthy than playing safe?

Tricky decisions that I'm not keen on making. And all over the country there will be other writers with the same dilemma as the number of university creative writing courses proliferate. Will it make any difference to the quality of the writers? If anything, I worry that we will get a homogenised product, writing that earns high marks in writing class, writing that we are taught to believe is 'good', writing that doesn't take risks.

I'm a writer, not a judge, but judge I must. So that's what I've been doing. But I'm glad that this part of teaching is nearly over for another year.

Confused of Bath

I am bursting with pride because my baby boy has been awarded a First from King's, London. It is terrific news and I'm thrilled to bits. He's especially pleased because his dissertation got 83% - a First is above 70% - so it's a tremendous achievement.

So why the confusion? Well....I read his dissertation, gave it a quick copy-edit too, and I wouldn't have given it that high a mark. It was good, but - in my opinion - not that good. Okay, so I don't know anything about the Malayan Crisis, but I know (or think I know) good writing. I got my moderator's feedback from Oxford a few weeks ago and they thought I was a tough marker too, although they qualified the comment by adding they didn't know much about current publishing standards. (!!! - don't get me started.)

I've written before about marking and grades and want to stick to my standard: 70% means it's publishable. It would be short listed in a short story comp, or picked up off the slush pile. A dispassionate reader (ie not your mum, partner, best friend) would enjoy reading it and want to read more. All my opinion, of course, but there it is. That's where I set the bar.

And that seems to me to be useful information for a writer who wants to get published. I suppose I've never been one to compare grades. It's like cars - so long as they get you from A to B I'm really not that interested in the make or the spec. So what if some teacher gives you 54 or 64 - is this work publishable? It's the big question every student wants to know. Yes, it's tough to get say 54, but wouldn't that be better than getting 68 simply because of grade inflation and thinking you were nearly there? Especially if you went out into the real world and then were depressed because nobody wanted your writing.

So, there's my dilemma. Should I moderate my marking so everyone wins a prize and loves me? Or should I stick to what feels like a lonely outpost and persist in pointing out that the real world is out there and doesn't give a stuff about grades, only good writing? I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.

Except, deep down I do. I have to be honest, with myself, with my own writing, with others' writing. Without honesty there is no point at all.

(PS - I have since been informed by the dissertation author that the high mark was due to the originality of the content and not the writing style. Which I'm sure is correct, but I still think grade inflation is out there, and I don't think it's helpful for writers who are hoping to be published. Just saying.)

At last! I've got my finger out and have committed to running some day courses:

Writing a Novel - 31st July in Bath and 18th September in Truro

Getting a Novel Published - 1st August in Bath and 19th September in Truro

Contact me on sarah@sarahduncan.co.uk for more info...

Marks, Grades - So What?

At present I'm waiting to hear what my children have got for their respective courses. Both are teetering on the grade boundary between the top mark and the next down. I am desperate for them to get the top grades. I'm their mother!

I'm their mother, that's why I care. And it will matter to them. The top grade will be a source of confidence in the future or the lower grade will persistently niggle as they came so close. BUT NO ONE ELSE WILL CARE.

No one has ever asked what A levels I got, what degree class I have, whether I got a pass or distinction for my MA. It's never been relevant. And I've been working in an academic environment for the past eight years, where you'd think someone might, one day in passing, ask. But no.

The same is even more true for Creative Writing courses. All anyone cares about in the real world is the writing. I didn't get a distinction for my MA in Creative Writing, but that didn't stop me getting published while those who did get distinctions languish on the slush pile. When I did my MA I was truly amazed that some of my fellow students cared what mark they got, and cared to the point of asking to find out what others had got, and then complained if they thought they were 'better'. (And if this is you, take it from me, class performance does not necessarily predict the quality of assignments submitted.)

It's not maths, or physics, where there are absolute answers: 2 + 2 = 4, and all that. It's all opinion, and may have no relevance to the real world at all. I mark according to nearness to publication quality a piece may be. A short story I give a high mark to I'd expect to see in a competition short list. I could be wrong. I like to think that I'm quite consistent at marking relative to other work I've seen in the past and my wobbles are over giving a 54 or a 55, rather than deciding between 54 or 64. That distinction is always clear.

But if you're currently waiting for a grade, congratulations if it's high, commiserations if it's low, but above all remember it is completely irrelevant to anyone other than you. And your mum.

Fancy a holiday in France with me? I'm teaching a week long course on Writing Mainstream Fiction at a fab chateau in the South of France in September. More details? Contact Chateau Ventenac.

Marking Woes

End of term - hooray! No more teaching - I'm free! And then the unmistakeable thud of assignments plopping through the letter box and the illusion of freedom is gone. It's bad enough having deadlines for my own writing, let alone having deadlines for marking other people's writing.

I love teaching and enjoy meeting students, but marking is - and I was thinking of being tactful but decided against it - the pits. I usually like reading the work, it's the assigning of grades that's so difficult. Is this one to get a 64% or is it only 62%? This assignment has lots of grammatical and spelling errors and the presentation is terrible, but there's a feel for language that makes the heart sing - should they be marked higher or lower than the perfect presentation that technically 'works' but reads at a plod? The writer in me goes for higher but I suspect I may have to argue the case later on so it would be easier to give them both the same mark...

Would we look at a Picasso, for example, and mark him higher, or lower than a Rembrandt? Would we be judging on use of materials, brush work, composition or the emotional effect the whole work created? Would we consider that a wide canvas with many characters was 'better' than an intimate portrait?Would we mark experimentation and innovation up or down? Should courage be rewarded, even if it fails, compared to playing safe?

When I'm agonising I remember I once had to cover for another lecturer. At the end of class one of the students sidled up to me and asked what mark I'd give for the work she'd brought in. Off the top of my head I said a high 2:2 - perhaps 58%. I discovered later it had been marked before and she'd complained so it had gone to a second marker. Luckily the second marker had agreed with the first - 58%. No wonder she'd looked sour at my spontaneous response.

It's fascinating we'd all agreed, given writing is such a subjective subject. I was terrified the first time I had to mark a bunch of assignments but it was quite clear where most of them lay in relation to each other. At university level there are second markers and outside examiners which gives some standardisation of marks. When I've worked with second markers and moderators it's rare for there to be much disagreement. We may not like to hear this, but some writing really is better than others and it shows.

In case any one is interested, I'm running a class in Bath on Friday afternoons for 8 weeks over the summer, a mix of exercises and workshopping. Contact me for more details on sarah@sarahduncan.co.uk