i know that part of it comes from practice-- the more we write the better we can get (perhaps up to a point). so when a weak student writer plagiarizes because they know their writing isn't great, they miss out on an opportunity to improve. i want the students i teach to know this-- to know that their mediocre work is more valuable than plagiarized or thesaurus-ized writing. i want them to know that they are cheating themselves of an opportunity to get personalized feedback from a teacher. that they are cheating themselves of their voice, and of the chance to get better.
ira glass says that
...your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions.i think this is true of academic work as well. a couple of years ago it finally hit me, how good my advisor's writing and scholarship is. and it totally sucked all the air and ambition out of me. i thought, "i'll never be that good, so i should just stop wasting my time." but then i realized-- he's at the top of his game. he's a full professor. how can i compare my writing and scholarship to his?
yet also tied up with this, beyond just quality writing, is determining whether i can do what he does-- be a professor at a research university. it isn't just the quality of his work, but the quantity-- the self-discipline and drive, and the sacrifices he has made (and that other tenure-track professors have made). and that's where i ask, not "can i do it?" but "do i WANT to do it?"
i'm still trying to decide.
