| Decker 1 |
Cathy Decker
Dr. Decker
English 1A
24 August 1998
When my mother went to a parent-teacher meeting during my freshman year of
high school, my science teacher observed that "Cathy does not take criticism well."
Being light-skinned about criticism is not a good characteristic for me to have because
my career as a teacher and a literary scholar hinges in part on the merits of my writing.
My writing skills affect my ability to earn money for my family's needs. Fortunately, I
have learned to deal with and even seek out criticism of my writing. In contrast to my
high school days, I spend a lot of time seeking critical comments on my writing so that I
can improve it.
In my career, criticism of my writing is something I need to deal with frequently.
For example, whenever I submit an article for publication, the article is read and judged
by an editor and a panel of readers who write reports criticizing it. The reports may
accept the paper as is, accept the paper with revisions, or reject the paper. I have found
out from experience that papers I do not show to many others before I submit them for
publication tend to be rejected. In contrast, when I have had feedback from others at
several stages of the writing process, I have been able to get my work accepted. The text
I am most proud of "Women and Public Space in the Novel of the 1790s" was read and
commented on in writing by five specialists in the area, three other literary scholars from
different areas, and three people who had no special literary expertise. In addition, I
presented a preliminary version of the paper at a conference and received lots of oral
suggestions and comments. I was able to deal with the critical comments of all of these
people, revising the paper each time I got new feedback. Some of the problems pointed
out by others led to very dramatic changes in my paper's argument. For instance, in my
original version, I defined three different stances on public space; the final version
featured seven stances. If I had not opened myself to other's ideas and comments, I
would probably not seen that my original three positions were too broad to be very
useful as a general classification system for stances in all of the novels of the 1790s.
Since I have learned to deal with criticism more effectively, I have noticed I have had
more success with my career and take more satisfaction in my job. Mastering a writing
skill, thus, has had a very beneficial effect on my life.