On Beginning to Write at 40

• Published in: Writing for Scholarly Publication pp. 81 - 102
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2003
• Subjects: Sociopolitical Issues; Yes; Private Office; Close To My Heart; Strong; Professional Conversation; Photographers; Follow; Manipulative Motivations; Heavier Teaching Loads; Main Character; Full Length Article; TESOL; Semester Sabbatical; Graduate Assistant; Supportive Dean; Holding; Do; ESL Instructor; Unlimited; University’s Faculty Union; Newsletter Articles; Administrators; Teaching Load; Quantitative Research
• DOI: 10.4324/9781410609137-10

I have always been an avid, even addicted, reader, and I have always been in love with words and language. I have always loved the academic world, the world of the university campus, of classes, of the library, of scholarly and intellectual discussions and pursuits. Thus although throughout high school and college I had little idea of what I wanted to do with my future, it gradually became clear that of course that future had to include books, ideas, and campuses. As a new graduate assistant in the English Department at the age of 21, I was assigned to teach English as a second language (ESL), and after my first day of teaching, I knew that teaching at the college level would be my career. I pursued that career and have taught ESL and other subjects (literature, Women’s Studies) my whole adult life. But I didn’t begin seriously writing for scholarly publication until I was forty. Before that, I wrote some short pieces, some newsletter articles, some reviews, but not a lot. I was in writing, as I have been in other parts of my life, a late-bloomer.