Mary Madewell in yesterday's newspaper reported on Jadielle Ray, a local high school freshman, who "returned from the International Future Problem Solving Conference earlier this week as the world's top scenario writer in middle grade (7-9) competition." Mrs. Madewell includes snippets from Jadielle's story in the article.
First of all, my sincere congratulations to Jadielle. Maybe Mrs. Madewell could take some lessons from her, as she seems to have a little problem with subject-verb agreement: "Each student composed a futuristic short story about child labor and were given two hours to complete competition."
From the few snippets I read, Jadielle writes well for a 9th grader, but if she is the world's best, I certainly question the quality of today's public school education. I saw nothing in what she wrote that any one of her age should not be able to do as proficiently. And if I had been Mrs. Madewell, I would have chosen to publish pieces from her work that were free of grammatical errors. Could it be that Mrs. Madewell did not recognize the errors in the excerpts she chose? Or could it be that Jadielle's paper had no error free portions?
Deserving of an A -- certainly. The world's best -- I really hope not.
3 comments:
Hello. This is Jadielle. Actually, my paper contained no grammatical errors (I'm obsessive about that kind of thing. I correct everyone's.). Mrs. Madewell chose excerpts that were not complete sentences and were not at all above-average. I still wonder to this day why on earth she chose those particular portions of my scenario.
I also don't understand why everyone seems to make such a big deal about my story. I was a freshman in a 7-9th grade competition, so obviously I had an advantage. I was reluctant to even allow them to read it (I hate for anyone to read anything I've written. When I had to read the first story at state, I almost didn't go.) because it was so raw and unedited. I hated it. I'm not used to writing stories in an hour and thirty minutes so it was far below my standards, and I was extremely surprised when it won the competition. I completely agree. It wouldn't be worthy of such a title if it were entered into a competition that wasn't on-sight writing. But then, it would have been a higher quality, so don't try to judge my standing in the world of writers. Yes, I did just start a sentence with "but".
Oh, and by the way. "Any one" is one word and didn't you learn in middle school that you're supposed to indent your paragraphs?
It annoys me to see people who seek imperfection in everything. Instead of inspecting Mrs. Madewell's grammar and the quality of my scenario, and blogging about it to people who could care less, why don't you post something useful such as constructive criticism? If my writing was not up to par, how could it have been better? I daresay you must be a professional, since you're judging my writing so harshly. Surely you, with your superior wisdom, could help me.
Thank you.
Hi, Jadielle.
I'll address your comments one-by-one.
1) I'm not familiar with the term "on-sight" writing. Does it mean you write a story "on sight" of the scenario they give you, or does it mean you write it there -- "on-site"?
2) There are times when using "anyone" is not correct. My usage book says, "When followed by 'of,' only 'any one' may be used." Constructive criticism -- find you a good usage book.
3) Yes, I learned in grammar school to indent my paragraphs. But in high school, I learned that paragraphs may be indented or spaced. As you can see, there are spaces between my paragraphs. Paragraphs are either indented or spaced -- not both. And it just so happens that this website does not allow me to indent my paragraphs.
4) The phrase is "people who couldn't care less." If people could care less, that means that the subject is pretty important to them. I believe that's the opposite of your intended meaning.
5) My very first post, I specifically said that I was not a professional, and that errors would pop up in my posts.
6) I no longer have the article about you. I tried to pull it up on the newspaper website, but they are only archived for the past month. That being said, I can assure you there was at least one grammatical error in the excerpts from your story; otherwise, I wouldn't have said that. Though I am not a professional, I do have quite a background in literary criticism, and I can recognize errors when I see them.
7) As for me judging you harshly -- quote me that sentence. In fact, I believe I said you wrote quite well. If you mean the part where I said I didn't think you could be the world's best, I don't think that's harsh. There is only one world's best. I just don't think it's you.
8) If my wisdom is not superior to that of a 9th-grader, all these years I've lived have been for nought. Yes, I probably could help you.
Essie May
Essie, you amuse me greatly. I expected a quick and witty come-back, and you did not disappoint. Don't change. You may be one of the few sane people left in this state. :]
(I'm glad you no longer have that article. That picture was horrendous. Ugh..)
God Bless,
Jadielle
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