This morning a student brought me a draft of a research proposal featuring an interesting and original thesis, well organized ideas, and a firm grasp of relevant theory, so it really doesn't matter that the draft was written on the back of a bundle of wrinkled receipts.
"I was at work," he explained. "I didn't have anything else to write on."
This morning my creative nonfiction students were chatting about what tools we need
to work as writers: pens, pencils, and paper or computers, recorders,
and iPads? Stacks of receipts didn't even enter the discussion, but I admire the dedication that inspires a student to lean on the counter at a retail store and scribble sophisticated ideas on whatever scraps of paper happen to be lying around.
"Of course I'll turn in the finished paper in the usual way," he said, but I'm not complaining. His unusual method reminded me that any hack with a word-processor can make vapid ideas look professional. Real writers, on the other hand, can transform mundane materials into writing that matters.
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