Recently I’ve managed to churn out so many essays in one go, all of them scribbled casually on paper during self-study and then typed up directly when I got back. It reminded me of high school, when every week I had to write an essay for my Chinese teacher; in fact, these recent pieces have hardly improved on what I wrote back then. At the time, the weekly essay was usually just a little over a thousand characters, and I would generally riff on assorted issues from heaven and earth, antiquity and the present, the universe and human life. It was probably not much different in style from what I’ve been writing these past few days. The difference was that my Chinese teacher would always write some comments, pointing out flaws and weaknesses in my argument, places where I had been unclear, and so on. Those comments often led me to keep developing the topic the following week, so that my own thoughts could be continually corrected and deepened. Although my views at the time were probably still rather immature, I should have benefited enormously in terms of my thinking and my ability to make arguments from that weekly dialogue. By the way, it was that same Chinese teacher who guided us in doing research-based learning, teaching us how to write papers in a proper, professional way, including how to choose a topic, organize the structure, format the notes, and apply argumentative techniques. After we finished, there was discussion, polishing, and revision, and in the end we even had to face a defense before the whole class. Looking back now, the whole process was actually a very standard model for writing papers, so when I came to university and had to write papers, I didn’t feel the slightest bit out of place. Here I sincerely thank my lovely Chinese teacher!
Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.
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