Rambling: The Dangers of... SQUIRREL!

The other day I asked for some potential topics to write about here in our class' central blog. Out of the good ideas brought forth, I have decided to focus this next blog post on the problem of rambling. While writing instructors have quite a number of pet peeves when it comes to writing, rambling or going off topic has to be one of the worst offenders. As the title above suggests, rambling is what I like to call the "Shiny Object Syndrome" of writing. Avoiding the pitfalls of rambling requires planning and the ability to recognize supporting details that do not add anything to the topic.

Like I said in class the other day, planning is an essential part of writing. Even writers like Stephen King go through some sort of planning process; and, depending on the situation, the planning varies. For most students, this requires starting with some pre-writing. Funny enough, the pre-writing stage of the writing process is the only place where rambling, or veering off topic, is perfectly acceptable. Students can allow their minds to grab at anything and everything, even if the idea has almost nothing to do with the topic. However, as they move to the next stage of the writing process, they will need to do some editing of ideas. Disregard any idea that does not or will not support the thesis statement. At this point in the planning process students should start creating an outline of the first draft of the essay. Creating an outline, a visual path, for an essay is incredibly important. As long as the outline does not stray off topic, it will be a map for the first draft. Thus, planning out the essay before starting to write--as opposed to writing the whole thing a hour or two before the due date--will help writers to avoid rambling.

In addition to planning, recognizing supporting details that do not add anything to the topic will also help. Of course, the question is "How do I know if something is off topic?" This is a little harder to pin down than planing. Planning will help you to stay on course, but students may still take another route while in the middle of writing their essay. Yes, we English teachers do tell students to include as many specific details as possible, but we don't want them to include details that are not related to their topic. For example, if a student is writing about why he/she is attending Mountain View College, then sentences about how much he/she loves a loyal cousin may seem off topic. However, it would be on topic if that student wrote about how that particular cousin went to MVC and graduated, thus inspiring him/her to do the same. Rambling is a very fine line. In order to avoid crossing that line, students must look at each supporting detail and decide whether or not it's related to the topic. If it is, then the connection between the detail and the topic must be clear. If not, then the detail would best serve the essay by not being in it.

In certain circumstances, rambling can be a good thing, but if not stalling for time or attempting to generate ideas of a paper, then students should try to avoid it in academic papers. After all, teachers have to grade those papers, and part of the reason we dislike rambling sentences and paragraphs so much is because no matter what we have to finish the paper; we have to muddle through. So, in order to make the process easier on myself, I remember the scene below from one of my favorite films, and I think, yes, humans have "Squirrel!" moments, too.

By the way, the essay above is 623 words. This should give you an idea of how long an essay needs to be when an instructor--or the Accuplacer--asks for at least 600 words.