Professor Matthews / Montgomery College, 2003

I completed my 'Instructions' assignment about 30 minutes before it was due, yesterday at 6 p.m. I spent literally 10 hours on it because I basically had to teach myself Adobe Illustrator Plus, I wasted a couple hours because, as I mentioned in my last entry, I'd started with Adobe InDesign until my classmate Ian B. told me Illustrator would work better for this assignment.
Like Photoshop, Illustrator works with layers and it can be tricky to keep having to toggle between them. I completed it and wrote out the 'Discussion' section, where I remarked on what I did for my instructions, and why.

I always think it is a good feeling to complete an assignment you've worked long and hard on. I used to enjoy doing long research papers on in high school. I recall I would spend long nights writing research on note cards and I'd end up with a huge stack from a page-long bibliography. For my 11th-grade English term paper I did a biography and literary criticism of Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt. Several years later I took a class in what has become my chosen area of study/career interest, Technical Writing. The professor, John Matthews, said that he did his Senior thesis in college on Sinclair Lewis. I told him that I did likewise, and I remember he was interested to read what I wrote. I really liked that prof. He was a Yalie, too, as many members of my family are (my cousin Vinnie, all four of my grandparents, and an aunt and uncle).

I wrote what I consider my best, most well put-together research paper ever for that class - "White Nationalism: Ideology and Practice." I was proud of that paper. I don't know, I think I'm too jaded to be as creative and inspired in writing, as I once was. Perhaps not, but the possibilities for a particular topic seemed so promising, and full of life. Like I knew there was wonderful knowledge out there that I just had to find, to put it down on paper. Now, sometimes I just think to myself, "why bother - probably no one will read this anyway". I wouldn't want to jinx myself or anything, but I dare say I do not experience the level of inspiration for writing that I once did. For that matter, I didn't in '03, either. I can recall being most inspired to write way back in 5th or 6th grade, or earlier. Ah, the ever-dissipating fruits of youth. It never lasts!

As for Proessor Matthews' class - I learned a great deal, and we used an excellent text, also. I kept it - John Lannon's "Technical Communication", and though I forgot to bring it with me to Seattle, I recently found it for eight dollars, on a dusty shelf downstairs at Half-Price Books. So I am using the Lannon text for Professor Loucks' TC 421, instead of the assigned Markel text, which I consider less in-depth and less useful. A classmate copied me part of one chapter - on web design - but aside from that it really is quite a lot of fluff. And it annoys me that it has these pop-up type boxes on every other page, entitled "Tech Tips", which are really just product placement for Microsoft. It's pretty lame.

Alas - yes, I was indeed proud of my paper for Matthews' class. For the first time, I included an actual table of contents, abstract, and extensive footnotes, along with a substantial works cited page. In fact, I used that paper in my application to my certificate program! And I don't have an extra copy, either, so who knows if I will ever see it again...
Bummer. Well, it was worth it if it helped me get accepted. I can live with that.

- dgw