Monkey See, Monkey Do

Something I am really struggling with right now is re-learning how to write. Most of my undergrad was spent taking Journalism classes. In those classes there was no room for your own voice. The goal was to remain as objective as possible.  (I mean we all know there is always bias but we tried.) The paragraph structure was typically brief, around three to five sentences, so that people could get the main point and move on. The word choice was also very simplistic so that the average person could read the work without a dictionary.

However, I am having to unlearn everything from my last degree. I have to write like in academic. Which to me is a necessary evil, because I think academic writing is dense and boring 99% of the time. Yet, if anyone is going to address me as Dr. Christmas in the future I need to figure out how to speak the academic jargon. Apparently the sentences and paragraphs need to be really long, like double the size I was originally writing. I also discovered that they want the paragraphs structured around a general idea opposed to a who, what, when  introduction. Apparently, I also need to use better words; by better I mean more descriptive and less common. I need to learn how to speak their language, even if it makes me want to scream.

I feel like I’m playing a large game of monkey see, monkey do. I am trying make myself fit the mold that will get me where I want to go, but trying not to lose myself in the process. I think it will be easier to adjust as I continue. However, learning is hard, unlearning is harder, and simultaneously learning and unlearning make my head want to explode. But that’s grad school … right?