What is your writing process?
Ben Waters ’29: I generally throw everything I can on the page — that’s just my typical style, and then I polish it up later. Anything below five pages I’ve been able to get by without writing an outline, and just jumping right into writing. [Rafi: What makes a good writer in your view?] Practice and reading. Reading to get new ideas and incorporate them into your thinking and writing to hone your own skill.
Alex Shin ’29: I like to talk. So I use something like voice memos. I would just talk out my thoughts and whatever I want to say in the paper. It’s gonna be completely disorganized, stream of consciousness, but that’s kind of what makes it uninhibited, because if I see text on a blank screen I’m going to be, like, ‘I need to make this perfect, I need to continue making this perfect.’ I also try to make the first draft bad. Yeah, so to get out of the perfectionist loop, I yap to myself and tell myself to do things badly. It works! It works really well.
Jared Diaz ’30: I had a different writing process at home than I do now. I had 40 white boards, that’s an overexaggeration, but after close reading, I would write down the concepts I did not understand. After doing that with various colors I would take a picture and with that I would write. Usually this would be like the night before the essay is due. And then the typing would probably be like the morning it’s due. At Swarthmore, it’s been similar, but instead of whiteboards, it’s been on paper.
John-Paul Coleman ’30: I kind of just put all of my thoughts down into one doc and then I go through and refine my thoughts and kind of group everything related together. That’s how I’ll outline my pages or paragraphs. And that always happens the night it’s due.
Benji Weiss ’29: I think, for me, my writing process is a lot of staring at my paper or computer screen, because I want to write the perfect sentence before spending, wasting all of my time doing that. At some point I realize, ‘No, this isn’t gonna work,’ and just write. I like making appointments with WAs, because I cannot, for the life of me, analyze the deficiencies in my own writing.
Zach Baggs ’29: I’ll bulletpoint the whole thing, just, like, come up with a bunch of different points that I want to touch on, and kind of loosely tie them together, and then work on stringing it together later.
Sean Cranford ’29: I definitely need to map out the whole thing because starting from nothing is really difficult. But if I know where to start and stop each point or each paragraph, that makes it a lot easier to get started.
Silja Pope ’28: There are a lot of stressors that surround us at Swat and the first thing I do is try to clear my mind of those. I know everyone emphasizes an outline or a draft but I honestly think it’s easiest to just start writing. And a lot of what I write ends up staying in my final draft. So I think just write and leave it for a bit, and then come back and try to polish what you have.
Alice Yang ’29: I’ll open a blank page and then jot down thoughts and ideas. And I’d list any references or articles — like a visual board where I can gather all those things and start reorganizing them into a first draft. I think a good writer is confident in their perspective but also open to new ideas. I do painting and I know Van Gogh said that painting must be done in one clear gesture, and I think writing is quite similar.
What is your major that got away?
Ben Waters ’29: I’ve been pretty locked into linguistics since day one, but I really wanted to take French in the beginning. It slowly got phased out of my schedule, just because I didn’t have time. Also, and I might get flamed, but it’s not exactly a useful major. But I guess neither is linguistics.
Jared Diaz ’30: Coming here, I originally wanted to minor in philosophy. But I ended up not choosing that because it would be too much for 4 courses a semester. I guess that would be the answer to that.
John-Paul Coleman ’30: Um, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do. I knew I was interested in biochem and engineering, and I wasn’t sure if I could double major, but I definitely cannot double major.
Silja Pope ’28: I applied as a linguistics and peace & conflict potential double major. And then I got on campus and decided linguistics was not for me — I took Phonetics and Phonology with JWash, who’s great, but I just wasn’t as excited as I thought I would be. I’m now a Chinese and Arabic double major, so I guess I just took the language aspect of linguistics. And, to this day, I actually haven’t taken a peace & conflict class.
Sean Cranford ’29: Peace & conflict. I was interested in it at the beginning, and then I took intro, along with another peace & conflict class, and they were both very fascinating classes for me, but they felt a bit too vague. I feel like I need more direction.
Alex Shin ’29: Astronomy. I have loved astronomy, and I’ve wanted to become an astrophysicist since, like, I was in 8th grade. So it’s been a lifelong passion of mine. I really, really love stars and the conceptual physics associated with it. Unfortunately, I really hate math. Really, really, really, really, really hate math.
Zach Baggs ’29: I remember last year I was thinking about doing a photo minor. I realized that the only minor that you could do in photography would be an honors art minor. I’d also have to take a painting class, and I don’t want to paint. And I don’t want to have to do all the work to do an honors minor, ‘cause I just think it’s something that I enjoy doing, but it’s not something that I necessarily want to pursue that intensely.
Benji Weiss ’29: I think the major that got away is physics, definitely. Cause I am doing a math major as part of a double major. I mean, I keep thinking about it … If I wanted to do it, I would have to start this semester, ‘cause it’s a twelve-credit major. And everything starts in the fall, but it continues through the spring. So it’s functionally impossible for me to start that major next year, unless I really put myself through it. And I love physics, but I just don’t think that’s a responsible thing to do. I love, I love physics so much. I love, like, the way the world works in that way. And I also just love math. Maybe, like, in a grad school scenario or something, I’ll continue to study physics. But for now, it’s just math.
Alice Yang ’29: I was planning to do engineering, but I took painting in my first semester and it was somehow much more intriguing to me. Both are creative processes, but I like painting because it’s more of a creative process.
Obviously after the Eagles’ embarrassing loss to the Bears this week they need to shake things up, so who from the Swarthmore community would you nominate to join the team and help them out for Week 4?
Ben Waters ’29: Oh god, that’s such a good question because I don’t know sports at all. And Swarthmore’s not exactly a school known for being athletic — so I don’t think there are many football inclined people who go here. Definitely not me, I think I would get driven into the dirt. In terms of strategy though, maybe whoever teaches War Games might be the best person for the job.
John-Paul Coleman ’30: Jim Bock [’90]. He’s some guy. I don’t know. His name sounds really … familiar.
Jared Diaz ’30: Me. I think it would be fun. Yeah, I’ll be the bench, but you know, front row seats, you know? I’ll be the cheerleader.
Alex Shin ’29: Benjamin Weiss [Benji Weiss ’29: Thanks, you’d sub me in for what position?] Uh, the bucket goalkeeper, I don’t know.
Benji Weiss ’29: Okay. The problem is I don’t know that many athletes on campus. So, who from hockey would bring the vibe? [Alex Shin ’29: Wait, what is the sport?] American football.
Sean Cranford ’29: Yeah, let’s put Benji in for Jalen Hurts. [Benji Weiss ’29] No, for real. Put me in for Jalen Hurts. I’d be better than him at this rate.
Silja Pope ’28: I don’t follow football, but Go Birds. Hmmm, I played on the rugby team last year, and a lot of the people I knew could whip them into shape. I met some new freshman women who just joined the team — there’s some interesting stuff with that — and I would say this freshman Anika [Weedon-Miller ’30] from Lansdowne would be good. I think she would have the spirit and the athleticism to help out.
Alice Yang ’29: I don’t know any athletes, so I think I’d just let the econ department do the job. They’re good at calculating and planning — so they’d be helpful for the strategy of everything.
What should Swarthmore do with Clothier Hall?
Jared Diaz ’30: I think that would be a better place for Crumb. I don’t know, maybe miscellaneous things, like, ‘this room is for studying, this room is for group studying.’
Ben Waters ’29: Hmm, I’ve been here for a year and have never gotten food there. Oh, I don’t know if this counts, but I want them to go up there and put a real bell up there. Do people not know that the bell is fake? You can’t have an aesthetic clocktower and not have a real bell. And also unlock the stairs to the top.
John-Paul Coleman ’30: I like Clothier. I study in the basement … yeah. Honestly, just a study building. That would be nice. They just made a whole bunch of small, like, seminar setups.
Alice Yang ’29: Speaking on behalf of the art department — we need more studio space and a larger gallery. So …
Benji Weiss ’29: I will say, I don’t know much about Clothier besides grab-and-go. Upstairs is nice. Upper Tarble is a nice campus space to have. I’ve had happy classes in there. I know Ember Dance, one of the student dance companies, does rehearsals in there. Having campus space to reserve for large events is kind of a luxury, and I feel it’s nice to have that. But then, downstairs, I feel like if they got rid of some of the artificial dividers that they put up to make those little rooms, they could turn that space into something fun, as well as some little lounges.
Zach Baggs ’29: I really love grab and go. I’ve been using it a lot this year because I have a really short lunchtime. I tried to go yesterday, and they were actually already out of food because they have a small amount of products because a lot of people don’t go there. Apparently, last year they had more food and more options that now are only available at Essie’s. So they’ve taken away some of the appeal of it. I feel like if the school could, maybe, make that space a little bit more known, or have some more draw that would be great.
Sean Cranford ’29: I didn’t really know what was there before, but I really like the area from the outside. But honestly, if the space is empty on the inside, I wouldn’t recommend that they destroy the building or anything like that. But it would be nice if it was a club meeting space. Like, the upstairs definitely has a lot of open room, so it would be a fun place to meet, probably.
Alex Shin ’29: We need maybe like … turn it into a small theater place because we have music, right? We have, like, LPAC, right? But LPAC has a really fucking low ceiling. And it’s usually reserved for Senior Company and whatever. And then we have Clothier, which has benches. You can see the vision.
Silja Pope ’28: It’s such a great space — well, in terms of interior design I’m not sure I’m the biggest fan — but in terms of the courtyard it’s really nice. They could definitely use the inside for student groups, or honestly they could turn it into a cozy study space. [Rafi: Do you not find Sharples Commons to be a cozy space?] No, I hate Sharples Commons actually. It’s not cozy enough. So Clothier could be a better version.
