A doctor once told me, “Writing longhand is a good way to regulate a surging, overactive hippocampus. Choose a memory—a good one—and write about it longhand using sensory details. The physical and mental practice of writing causes that organ of the brain to engage, and it begins to slow down.”
My hippocampus, accompanied by a distraught amygdala.
When my mind races, especially if I’m anxious, I grab a pen and my journal and just plunge into writing. The words are not brilliant because I’m not crafting a novel, I’m just pouring out my heart.
Rosemary’s Journal
In a little while, I calm down. I can, like one of the Shepherd’s sheep, wander into the green pasture and lie down beside the still waters. He restores my soul.
I teach creative and research writing at the college level.
WHAT ALTHOFF LOOKS FOR IN A GOOD ESSAY
1 KNOW YOUR THESIS STATEMENT/CENTRAL IDEA
After you play around with your topic, create one sentence that sum ups what you want to say, like a movie blurb.
2 FIRST PARAGRAPH
A Get Attention.
B. State your thesis/central idea AND your main points. All of them. PER ALTHOFF: I do not want any more than 5 main points in any essay.
C. Tell why this essay is very, VERY important to somebody besides you and the instructor.
3 SECOND PARAGRAPH SET (Main point A. of your outline)
A. What’s the point? State it.
B. Now use examples, statistics, and testimonies to analyze, summarize, categorize, and otherwise-ize your position on that main point.
– Where did that example come from?
– Where did that statistic come from?
– Where did that testimony or quotation come from?
4 THIRD PARAGRAPH SET (Main point B. of your outline):
Same as 2nd Set
5 FOURTH PARAGRAPH SET (Main point C. of your outline):
Same as 2nd Set
7 CONCLUSION (usually only 1 or 2 paragraphs)
A. Remind people why this is important to them.
B. Help people visualize what in the world will be better if they believe what you wrote.
C. Ask them to DO the next step, for instance:
– Agree with you on at least one fact.
– Find that they have some basic value in common with you
– Assent (say ‘yes’) to what they ought to do
– Take a real action step asap.
8 CONNECT IT ALL TOGETHER
– Connect sentences to each other with transitions, pronouns, synonyms, repetitions, etc.
– Connect paragraphs to each other with preview & summary statements, bridging sentences, and signposts.
9 SPELL AND GRAMMAR CHECK
Do or die.
Note: a simple Spell check won’t catch all the spelling problems. For instance, the infamous “to,” “too,” and “two” all sound the same but have different meanings. Likewise: “there,” “their,” and “they’re”; “its” and “it’s”; and “your” and “you’re.”
Very simply, I say “Thank You!” I also write thanks to God in my journal and think “thank you” in my prayers. I may be moved to offer a gift to someone who has encouraged me, too.
I think it might to fun to write a song of thanks!
Anxiety creeps up in me when I consider the evil in the world, my country, my city. As a citizen I have some small power to vote and to speak up and to love, but the evil is greater than I am. But when I remember that Jesus is Lord over all the earth, and meditate on the Bible verse, “Greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world,” I can relax.
Rosemary Althoff, Author 