Last night, instead of sitting in my room toying over how I could make the paper I was writing flow better, I joined more than 300 other students at the first "Midnight Madness" writing workshop. Midnight Madness was a creative way to teach students some of the basic writing tools that professors have found even college kids do not always have mastery of. (Such as ending a sentence with a preposition.) The night was a blending of two worlds; teachers stayed up till midnight and learned what it was like to be a student here, while students saw their professor in a different light, one way past their bedtimes.
President Tobin kicked off the night at 9:45 saying, "I've been in this room many times and I've never been prouder to see so many students and faculty here who are committed to writing -- the cornerstone of Hamilton and of a liberal education." Quoting from Alma Mater by P.F. Kluge, he encouraged students to save their professors and themselves from bad writing.
The students chose three half-hour sessions to attend. Once the signal was given there was a mad dash to get into the desired session. I've never seen so many students so excited about writing. Students could choose from topics such as on-line resources for writers, word games, clarifying your point, and a video focused on how to "cut the lard." My first session was "What's your point?" facilitated by Professors Betsy Jensen, Al Kelly, and Ted Eismeier, who is also coordinator of the Writing Program. In this session I learned that when writing anything, it's important to know the main message you're trying to get across to your audience. For example, "It's October 1st and you are the CEO of Enron, what's your message to your shareholders?"
Next, I went onto word games with Professors Peter Rabinowitz and Ernest Williams. This exercise was a fun, with the promise of prizes, but it really made me think. There were eight games, with creativity needed for all. One game challenged you to write the longest sentence that did not contain the letter "e" (Matt Stringer '03 was the winner.) On the other end of the spectrum, a prize was given to the student who came up with the shortest complete sentence. Perhaps the most beneficial word game was the first, avoiding common pitfalls. Try using the words its/it's, affect/effect, lead/led all in one sentence correctly! Here's what one I came up with…It's a well known fact that being led by a ring in its nose may affect a bull's disposition, but the effect is that one may lead a bull safely. Chuck Lebovitz '03 and Nakul Patel '05 partnered to win with a more serious sentence about politicians and lead.
With one more session to go, all the Chex mix and coffee were long gone, and we were on the home stretch. I spent my last session of the night in the KJ Aud with other students in a session led by Professors Kristin Campbell and Melek Ortabasi as we watched a movie created to demonstrate the correct way to construct a sentence and how to eliminate excessive wordiness. Uh, I mean… I learned how to write concise sentences. Professor Eismeier and Writing Center Director Sharon Williams, who conspired together to come up with the event, gave closing remarks, recognized the students nominated for the Alexander Hamilton list, and the prizes were awarded. If they can ever persuade so many faculty members to stay up past their bedtimes again, don't miss it.
Liz Buckley, '02
