When thoughts become words

It always seems strange to put my thoughts on paper (or, in HTML terms, on textarea) because it is futile to think that I can do them any degree of justice. Even when one clear sentence is somehow created, I feel that it can always be better. And so I make it better. Or is it better?

Today in English we completed the 11th grade writing assessment. This 45-minute (suggested time) essay involved writing an analysis of the speaker’s attitude in a poem. I thought I did extraordinarily well. Not to be presumptuous, but I was able to get the meaning of the poem and clearly express the author’s attitude and approach to life in a well-organized, five paragraph essay. I was quite happy with myself. When class ended, I overheard a group of students as we were walking out. One said, “alliteration, word choice, just use things like that.” The others, to varying degrees, seemed to agree. They were happy that they had covered all the literary techniques in their essay.

I did none of those things. I didn’t even use a single one of those words.