"I hate it when I can't write what I read."

A student came into the writing center tonight incredibly stressed out about the MTEL exam she has tomorrow. We were discussing summary, and she had written a small summary of an article about the benefits of school breakfast programs.

As she was reading it to me, she strained at one part - struggling to dicipher the word (which frankly didn't matter because her summary was much too detailed as it was). She couldn't figure it out, so she said (under her breath and absent-mindedly), "I hate it when I can't write what I read."

But I loved it!

Of course, she meant "I hate it when I can't read what I wrote," but the way it came out was even better because she literally couldn't write a summary of what she had read. And as she was struggling, I thought a little bit about what I have read (specifically, Sidney's "Strephon & Klaius"came to mind). I wished I could write something like that.

So I said, "me too" (meaning I wished I could write what I read), but I don't think she really appreciated it.