LEARNING TO WRITE

[“It is assumed students will learn how to write in college.”]

Letter from Ginger Gentile

Valedictorian

East Hampton High School Class of 1998

Author of an essay on the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (Fall 1997)

September 7, 1997

William Fitzhugh

Editor and Publisher

The Concord Review

P.O. Box 661

Concord, Massachusetts 01742

Dear Mr. Fitzhugh,

I want to thank you for publishing my essay in the fall edition of The Concord Review. Before beginning the seven-month odyssey of researching and writing on my topic, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, I considered myself a lover of history but a possessor of second-rate writing skills. Part of the reason for my lack of confidence is that I attend a school where students are given few opportunities to develop their talents in this field (it is assumed students will learn how to write in college). With publication in your journal as my goal, and with the help of my teacher, Mr. Timothy Rood, I began the process of learning how to use the English language to prove my thesis. The results were not only vastly improved skills but also, due to the nature of my topic, the questioning of my own feminist beliefs. 

 

The back copies you sent me were a great help. I want to thank the other students who have been published in The Concord Review, the quality of their articles was what I aspired to. In the future I will use their techniques, such as using more original sources, to enhance my writing. 

 

As a public high school student, I want to urge other students in similar situations to consider independently studying a historical topic and experiencing the thrill of becoming an author. For myself, being published has opened doors not only in the academic world, but in my own mind as well.

 

Sincerely,

(signed)

Ginger Gentile

East Hampton, New York

[Columbia, Class of 2002]