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English Phrase: Put pen to paper
Slowly but surely, testing systems are changing in Japan, and students will need to learn how to put pen to paper.
In Japan, one of the most popular ways of testing students is through a multiple-choice test.
They rarely have to write short essays, book reports or papers of any kind.
For this reason, students lack crucial critical thinking skills that North American students learn from a young age.
The challenge of putting pen to paper is unnerving for most students, whether in Japan or elsewhere, but it is an essential skill.
Especially in this day and age when most communication is accomplished through writing.
To put pen to paper means to write something.
Of course, the phrase was created when people wrote on paper, but we can apply it to using digital media as well.
The main challenge of putting pen to paper is what to write.
My advice to anyone beginning a writing project is to sit down and write.
Get the words on the page or screen.
Don’t worry too much about grammar, spelling or even if what you write makes sense or not.
You have carte blanche because you’re the writer.
Write without fear.
Looking at a blank screen or sheet of paper for minutes or hours at a time is not going to help you.
If you’re not going to write, you might as well go for a walk, watch a movie, or get drunk.
Once you put pen to paper, the words will flow out of your fingertips like fresh water from a spring.
The second most important practice is to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) every day at the same time.
Make writing a habit so you don’t have to think about it – you just do it.
Edit without mercy.
Words on a page are something you can work with.
The key to putting pen to paper is: Write without fear. Edit without mercy.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 77.
The higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100, the easier the passage is to read.