The Challange of Non-theme Writing :: Teaching Writing Education Essays

The Challange of Non-theme Writing "Practice makes perfect". Those are words to remember when attempting to do something new, something beyond your normal routine whether it be playing a sport, singing a song, or even writing in a different form. This thought occurred to me by accident as I grew frustrated with myself for not figuring out what would or would not be acceptable for this writing assignment. I put some music on to clear my head and perhaps stimulate a small portion of my brain that wasn't pulling its fair share in considering how to put this assignment together, and the third song I heard happened to be a song that a friend and I attempted to perform one year at a high school talent show. The song took me back to that performance. I was almost sorry it did until the words "practice makes perfect" suddenly appeared in my mind. Of course, at the time, I was thinking how things could have been different with that performance, but the thought remained in my head long enough to toy with the idea a little. I w as able to put this paper together after I remembered Laib's quote: "an essay is a performance or process, not a display." I'm still not positive how to apply it, but it has me thinking, and that's the first step. Just to set the record straight, the "practice makes perfect" was not directed at my guitar playing during the song, honestly, but rather at my friend's singing, which did enough damage for the both of us. When my friend Leo and I decided to perform, I started having visions of the wild cheering and applause we'd receive when we finished. Yes, I had great expectations, and I wasn't stupid enough to think that I wouldn't have to work for that applause either. I practiced night and day, or at least as much as I could between school, work, and homework. When the night of the show arrived, I knew I hadn't perfected the song, but I was more than competent playing it and was confident I wouldn't have any trouble performing it. Unfortunately, conflicting schedules had prevented Leo and me from practicing together more than a couple times right after we signed up for the show. I wasn't worried though because he'd assured me that he'd been practicing on his own too.