{"id":3835,"date":"2011-11-05T05:45:49","date_gmt":"2011-11-05T09:45:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/?p=3835"},"modified":"2019-06-07T13:40:20","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T17:40:20","slug":"in-which-i-reflect-on-being-told-my-writing-doesnt-pass-muster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/in-which-i-reflect-on-being-told-my-writing-doesnt-pass-muster\/","title":{"rendered":"In which I reflect on being told my writing doesn't pass muster"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
I love to write and I love many things that go with writing, like fountain pens. It shook me to flunk my business school writing test -- not once, but twice.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nWhen I began my MBA at University of Michigan, I was intimidated by classes in topics brand new to me \u2013 finance, statistics, operations management \u2013 and nervous about a forced-curve grading system that would evaluate me against\u00a0 numerous classmates who worked in quantitative fields like engineering.
\nWhat I was not<\/em> worried about was the writing proficiency requirement.
\nRoss Business School gave us the option to either take a communications class or pass a writing test. With a journalism degree under my belt, I figured I\u2019d rather focus my 60 credits on building new skills than go for easy credits in a writing class.
\nAbout halfway through my five years in the evening MBA program, I took the writing test. I received a few pages of background information and was instructed to write a memo.
\nWhen results came back, I was surprised to find I\u2019d flunked. I knew Indian engineers who passed, and the business school seemed to be telling me these guys who do math for a living and who learned English as a second language were better writers than me. That bruised my pride, but laughed it off a little.
\nI swallowed my pride and went to talk to someone in the writing office about what they were looking for in successful tests.
\nArmed with that information, I took the test again. And I failed again.
\nWhile I was going to school at night, I was a writer at University of Michigan News Service during the day. So the same university that paid me a full-time salary and gave me a break on tuition because of my work as a writer didn\u2019t feel I had strong enough writing skills to earn my MBA.
\nI went back to the writing office and asked if there was anything I could do to sway them. I had been earning a paycheck for writing since I was 17 so I had plenty of writing samples, including a few years\u2019 worth from the Ann Arbor News, the daily newspaper in town. I suggested maybe I could get a letter from one of my university bosses saying they felt I was a competent writer.
\nNo, they said, they don\u2019t consider anything but the test itself in determining writing competency.
\nThat is when I began to panic.
\nThe test was only offered a few times a year, and I was already close enough to my scheduled graduation date that I risked not making it. The test wouldn\u2019t be offered again before I was supposed to finish my degree and I couldn\u2019t take a writing class before then.
\nWhat would I tell my family or friends if I had to take an extra semester to graduate because I\u2019d been judged bad at the one thing I most identified myself with?
\nWhen I took the Dale Carnegie course, my teacher talked about being self referent \u2013 that is, to care less about what the external world says than about your own assessment of how you\u2019re doing.
\nI had been editor of my high school newspaper, a reporter and editor on my college newspaper, a reporter and editor at daily, weekly and monthly publications \u2013 I had been a writer my entire adult life. To have someone evaluate my writing as inadequate tested my ability to be self referent. What if I wasn\u2019t good at writing? What would that mean for my career path, my hobbies, my identity?
\nI talked to some writer friends. They conceded that maybe I\u2019m wordier than I need to be \u2013 and I totally accept I\u2019m not perfect as a writer.
\nBut I am<\/em> a writer, no matter what a test grader at my business school said.
\nI suppose the experience was like being an author or actor or musician who reads a harsh review and has to decide whether to care. Do you quit because someone doesn\u2019t like your work? Or do you take a deep breath, remind yourself that taste is subjective, look to see if there\u2019s anything in the criticism that you think is valid, then get back to work?
\nI went for the latter.
\nAnd the story has a happy ending.
\nAs my final project for a negotiation class I was taking, I convinced the writing office to give me another shot at the test. I explained that I hadn\u2019t waited until the last minute to take the test and I had figured surely I would pass it on my second try. I wasn\u2019t asking for them to weigh my experience as proof of writing competency, only as a reason to let me take the test again before making me miss my graduation date.
\nThey very generously gave me a break, and let me take a third writing test. I found out mere hours before commencement that I\u2019d passed. I was scheduled to help read the names of graduating MBAs and thankfully, I was one of them.
\nHave you faced criticism at something you consider a central part of your identity or something you love doing? How did you handle it?<\/strong>
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I began my MBA at University of Michigan, I was intimidated by classes in topics brand new to me \u2013 finance, statistics, operations management \u2013 and nervous about a forced-curve grading system that would evaluate me against\u00a0 numerous classmates who worked in quantitative fields like engineering. What I was not worried about was the writing proficiency requirement. Ross Business…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[53,54],"tags":[545,708,2280,2289,2292,2596,2819,2820],"yoast_head":"\nIn which I reflect on being told my writing doesn't pass muster - Newvine Growing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/in-which-i-reflect-on-being-told-my-writing-doesnt-pass-muster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In which I reflect on being told my writing doesn't pass muster - Newvine Growing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I began my MBA at University of Michigan, I was intimidated by classes in topics brand new to me \u2013 finance, statistics, operations management \u2013 and nervous about a forced-curve grading system that would evaluate me against\u00a0 numerous classmates who worked in quantitative fields like engineering. 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