Word: subjoin

 

subjoin

\ suhb-JOIN \  , verb;

1. to add at the end, as of something said or written; append.

2. to place in sequence or juxtaposition to something else.

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Catlin looked at the big “C” printed in blue ink at the top of the page and blinked in disbelief.  She had worked hard on the story and to find it was only worth a C was horrifying.  She sat at her desk and flipped through the pages to try and find any hint of what went wrong.  The pages were littered with red ink, but not in any way that gave her a hint as to the poor grade.  Paragraphs and sentences were circled seemingly at random, some were even crossed out entirely.  There were also more than a few of the more standard grammatical corrections, but it was those circled out areas that made her really wonder.

She stuffed her notebook into the shoulder bag she used to carry her things in, but held on to the story.  She approached her professor, Prof. Greenwood and waited in front of his desk.  He was busy looking at a few papers that Catlin could tell had nothing to do with the class that had just ended, and he wasn’t paying any attention to anything else.  She waited politely for him to take notice of her presence, but soon started getting impatient.  She cleared her throat lightly and Prof. Greenwood slowly looked up at her, peering over the rims of his thick, square rimmed glasses.

“Yes, Ms. Park, what can I do for you?”  He said.

“I was just curious about the grade I got on the story.”

“I see.  I hope you’re not going to try and get me to change it.”

“No, sir.”  She knew better than to change Prof. Greenwood’s mind about a grade.  He was legendary for never faltering on that front.  “I was just wondering why I got a C.  I mean, I did everything you told me to on the last draft.”

“Suggested, not told.  I don’t tell you to do anything when writing a story.”

“Ok, I did everything you suggested.”  She put her emphasis on the word ‘suggested’ when she spoke.

“Yes, I know.  That’s the problem really.”

“Huh?”

“You did everything I suggested, exactly as I suggested, and that’s all you did.  You kept to the letter of the law, whist ignoring its spirit.”

“But I thought it was what you wanted me to do.”

“What I wanted you to do is to take those suggestions I made and make them your own.  Use them to improve it, but don’t necessarily stick to them 100%.  After all, I might make suggestions on how to improve it, but it’s still your story.  Only you know what will truly fit.”

“So what exactly did I do wrong?”  She said, feeling ashamed with herself.  In hindsight, it was quite obvious.  It was what he had talked about on the very first day of class.  She had just forgotten about his ideas on the subject of suggestions and improving stories.

“Did you look over the story?”

“Yeah.”

“Take a look at those sections I circled, do you notice anything about them?”

Catlin looked closer at the pages.  She read over what she had written, paying particular attention to the highlighted areas.  At first, she didn’t notice anything really different about them.  Then it dawned on her.  Most of them were things she added for the most recent draft.  Not all of them, but most. 

“It’s all the revisions I made.”  She said after coming to that conclusion.

“Correct.  Do you know why I pointed those out to you?”  He asked.  Catlin shook her head.  “Reread the story as it is later, and then go over some of your earlier drafts.  It should become clear then.”

“Why?  Is there something wrong with them?  I mean, other than taking your suggestions too literally?”  Prof. Greenwood leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.  She had seen him doing that before.  It meant he was thinking about what to say.

“Simply put, they feel tacked on.  Like they don’t really belong in the story they were put it.  You try and force the story to go in directions it doesn’t want to go, and use descriptive language that doesn’t belong.  In some parts you use too much descriptive language all at once, like you just put a string of adjectives together without any thought.  In others, you have no descriptions where you should put some of those words from earlier.  Spread that kind of language out over the pages, not all jumbled together in a few sentences.”

Catlin nodded and wished she had kept a pen handy to write his words down.  As it was, she could only try and keep as much of it in her memory as she could.

“Many of the story elements don’t quite belong either.  There were times when I felt like you were trying to tell two different stories at once and just mashed them together.  The biggest offender in that regard is actually the ending.  The entire thing feels like it was simply added in after the fact.”

“But I thought you said that the story needed a proper ending in the last draft.”

“I did.  And it does.  The problem is, what you have is not the ending to the story you were telling.  It’s the ending of a different story that you changed just enough to work with the rest of it.  The problem is, it doesn’t fit.  It’s just tacked on there simply because you need an ending.”

“Oh.”  Caitlin said.  Her head hung with shame.  She thought the ending was good.  She never considered that it would feel so hastily added.  “So what should I do to fix it?”

“Well, I’d say the best thing you can do right now is start over.  Completely rewrite the story, using the previous drafts, even this one, as a starting point.  Take note of all the suggestions given to you, but don’t rely on them completely.  Use your own imagination.  Tell the story you want to tell first, and then use those comments and suggestions to make it something others would want to read.  But make sure that it is, first and foremost, your story.”

“O-ok, I’ll do my best.”  She said. 

“Very good.  Now, is there anything else you wanted?”

“No, sir.  Thanks again.”  She said.

She stuffed the pages of her story into her bag and made a beeline for the door.  She was already going over what to write in her mind, even as she started making her way across campus.

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 Those who took this kind of class in college may relate to this.  Not just writing either, but other kinds of art based classes as well.  Those who only had more fact based classes, not so much.  When you get a bad grade in those, you tend to know why.