by David D. Horowitz.
“I’m lost. I don’t know where to start. I can’t write this essay. And it’s due in two days!”
Often I heard this refrain when over two decades ago I tutored English at Seattle Central Community College. Many English 098 and 101 students would sign up for help, stressed and dispirited but with just enough hope and much fear of failing. And, after an initial greeting and calming minute, we’d get down to business.
“Can you give me,” I’d ask, “one word that describes what you want this essay to be about? One word. That’s it.” And I’d wait. And wait.
“Courage. Or maybe difficulty.”
“Why ‘courage’?”
“Because we were so afraid. It was so difficult.”
“What was ‘difficult’?
“Escaping Vietnam and making a new life in America.”
“What were, or are, some of these difficulties?”
“Escaping while we were shot at—at the beach in the middle of the night as we ran to the boat. Then we were afraid of being caught at sea by patrol boats. And we had little food, and we’d heard rumors cannibalism had occurred before in these situations. And then, if we arrived, learning English, getting a job, making enough money to live, being accepted as citizens.”
“You know what? You just stated the basis for your entire essay!”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. How about this for a thesis: escaping Vietnam was difficult for me and my family, and living in the United States has posed serious challenges, but we’re coping well and learning how to succeed here.”
“Yes, that’s what I want to say.”
“Then say it! Yes, right in your opening paragraph. And then you could focus each successive paragraph on a particular difficulty or story that illustrates it. And you might conclude with an anecdote that reflects hope and gratitude.”
The students would often look at me dumbfounded, as if to suggest: you mean that’s how simple writing this essay will be, and why didn’t I think of that?
Teaching is the best way to learn, and tutoring these students helped me appreciate precision and concision. Ask the fundamental questions, and focus, if necessary, on articulating a single word that signifies an essay’s core thesis.
As a citizen and voter, I can apply this principle when analyzing issues. To me, no contemporary issues are more central than the Middle East conflicts. How can we achieve lasting, just peace in that region? How can we defuse religious disputes that feed that region’s political and military conflicts? How many people there would consider modifying their religious perspectives—for example, de-emphasizing “holy books” featuring a Messiah or presumed prophets of God?
Oh, and I have other several other essential questions to ask. How can we humanely limit world population growth? How can we slow or stop global warming? How can we defuse racial tension in the United States and elsewhere, without resorting to the too-frequent, too-easy blaming that accompanies most discussions about doing so? Is traditional monogamy a realistic model for coupling when people often live to be eighty, ninety, ninety-five? Isn’t it time to more fully discuss the positive value of open marriage and polyamory without demonizing their advocates? These are not easy questions. They are essential, though, and I work every day, little by little, to articulate tentative answers to them. Let me stress “tentative” here. I’m just now articulating some of these questions. Finding credible answers will take much more time and effort—and a lot of listening. And to answer any of these questions, a single word might help guide us, but it won’t constitute a credible answer.
That said, one word comes to mind as a good starting point: honesty. And “honesty” entails two others: “courage” and “difficulty.”