An old friend and the most avid reader of my blogs, Valerio, emailed to compliment me on my “writing abilities”, which brings to mind my undergraduate days.
A newly-arrived American teacher in my third year at SOAS, Dr. Sarah Allan (see also Chinese etiquette: modesty), taught us Mencius, a Chinese philosopher whose discourses with the king featured the concept of kingship a lot. At the end of the term, she set an essay on this topic.
Sarah Allan (now Professor) had told us she was shocked to find us, university students in Britain, still hand-writing essays, because American students had long been handing in typewritten essays. (This was 1980.) As I was by then a trained, qualified and experienced secretary — having done a secretarial course at age 18 and passed with a distinction in a PSC (Private Secretary’s Certificate) from the LCC (London Chamber of Commerce), then worked for a law firm in Singapore and an American oil company in Taiwan — that was the least of my problems. Also, I had shipped over from Singapore my manual typewriter, an Olivetti.
The problem was: how to write the essay? I read and re-read source materials, drafted and re-drafted the essay, until it became imperative I put it together. I duly sat down and typed out whatever I’d managed to garner from my weeks of agonising over it.
The problem was: how to write the essay? I read and re-read source materials, drafted and re-drafted the essay, until it became imperative I put it together. I duly sat down and typed out whatever I’d managed to garner from my weeks of agonising over it.
A week or so later, back came my essay, with the following comment from the marker: “Good typing. Rubbish essay.” Even if not in those very words, still the same conclusion.
(London 1980)
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