HN user
cartographer, writer, admin guru, novice programmer
It sounds like you've got a solid form -- for the writing part, it's just annoying/tedious/takes time to start recording your thoughts as they go. Writing is a form of thinking, literally, and if you can train yourself to document your thoughts as you are saying or thinking them, it won't hurt as much, I promise! Your first draft should always be shit, and then you revise and rebuild, like you were already doing...
Totally. I wish that was just the start of the pedagogy, though... It my beginning comp classes (if I ever have enough time to start teaching again) I want to teach the five paragraph essay for two weeks, (simple) programming or technical writing as composition for another two weeks, and other forms of essay writing (ie. not getting to the final point until the end after a long, winding description, or a lyrical essay format).
As a side note, poets make great technical writers because they can be so economic with language. There is something to engage here.
As a woman, I've been told I was bad at math and science since I was a kid. And the funny thing is, is that I'm not bad at math and science. Quite good, really. Your comment drives down to the pits of social and cultural challenges for the past few decades. Remember, women were only allowed to compete for the same jobs as men a generation ago.
Feminism is not meant to only help women, at least in the last few renditions of it. It's meant to seek justice for all persons. It's a rather complicated political-social phenomenon that has seen many renditions, so I wouldn't try to simplify it further.
Anyways, I doubt women-only-initiatives only help women in the great scheme of things, as that's not how things/communities/humans work. Women-only groups and incubators are wonderful, and of course they would support the world beyond because they exist in the same world.
It's absolutely liberating to break free from the (very American) 5 paragraph essay; that's more of a learning tool, really. And you don't need to write a five paragraph essay on the GRE; I've consistently gotten 97% with my own versions, and I stopped writing in 5 paragraphs long ago. It's all about content, synthesis... The 5 paragraph is a start, but we should be taught to shed it when we're ready!