Ariana A. Rivera

5/4/20

 

                                                                                Forming My Theory of Writing

 

When asked to come up with my Theory of Writing, I felt like I was in uncharted territory. For this class and most of my other high school courses I never really gave much thought into my writing process (not to say I didn’t put my all into every assignment that I had been given but to me) I simply just wrote what I was told to write and left it at that. That being said, after putting some thought into my writing process and how I went about completing both my Source-Based Essay and my Inquiry-Based Essay I found that maybe there is some method to my madness. Maybe even within the most restrictive writing assignments, there is always some room to implement my voice into what I write however distant it may be. And suddenly, as I began to reflect on my writing and what runs through my head when I put a pen to the paper, or begin typing out the first words of what is to become a complete essay a theory began to form in my mind.

 

Before coming into this class I considered myself to be a pretty well-rounded writer. Writing to me had always been about expression and though I find myself writing plenty of research papers nowadays that demand attention to detail and well-cited quotes, my main priority has always been to get my voice across. Upon viewing my new syllabus after being transferred to a different Freshman Composition class I couldn’t help but feel a bit overwhelmed. I had no doubt in my mind that I would get everything that needed to be completed and in the end, feel satisfied with my final grade but it was the journey to the end of the semester that felt the most troublesome. I had never before written a six to seven-page research paper let alone an eight to ten-page essay and knowing that as a Sophomore I was at a disadvantage to those Juniors and even Seniors who had taken college courses in the past I felt even more discouraged. I had wanted a challenge and definitely got more than what I bargained for. How was I to express myself freely in my writing when there were so many restrictions holding me back? And even though it was a tiring process that came with many trials and errors I think looking back it’s safe to say that I found a way to combine my love for using writing as a tool to get a message across with the long list of requirements that came with each and every assignment.

 

One of the main ways I went about forming my Theory of Writing is by thinking back to how I go about beginning an essay. For me, the hardest part of any lengthy assignment is starting it. It always seems like so much more work to me than it actually is when I think about an assignment I have yet to begin, but once I get into the flow of things and begin to lose myself in my writing it becomes easier and easier to continue. From what I have gathered over the years of doing peer revisions and observing different people’s writing processes I find that many people get stuck planning ahead. Some people want to perfect even their first draft once they finally come around to starting an essay and as a result lose their voice as an author in the process. Planning can be a great way to ensure that what you are writing has some sort of structure and so that when you are writing you are not simply going in blind. It has always been quite the opposite for me when writing an essay. Though I come up with the general idea of what I am trying to convey through what I am writing I find it easier to just get all of my ideas onto the page and worry about the revision later. Excessive planning causes me to lose a sense of purpose in my writing and where I stand on the issue I am discussing in my essay. It constricts my writing and prevents it from ever coming to any real conclusion. Though I may refer back to the guiding questions that are put into place to structure my essay I never look back to what I have written and just soldier on.

 

From what I have noticed when looking back at what I went through to complete my former essays there are some aspects of myself that are consistent within my writing and my process overall. I have always been a lover of poetry for its ability to convey a deeper meaning all the while maintaining the poet’s voice. Poetry to me is writing in motion, it is an entity in and of itself and it lives on even after the poet is long gone. I myself write a lot of poetry and implement my techniques when writing a poem into even my most structured essays. Poetry almost always has a flow and I try to implement that same flow I use in my poems into my essays so that all of my ideas come together nicely. I pride myself on speaking the way I write so that there is no disconnect between me as a person and the ideas I put forth into my writing. Because of this, a big part of my writing process is speaking out loud as I write. I try to refrain from doing this in front of my classmates for obvious reasons but when I am alone in my room expected to complete an essay speaking out loud allows me to form a connection between my stream of conscious thoughts and my writing. My room does not have to be completely silent when I write as I find that a bit of background noise helps me to hone in what I am writing and once I begin to write I do not like to stop because it disrupts my train of thoughts. Consequently, I do not take many breaks in between. I simply go into starting an essay knowing what needs to get done and allow myself some room to just get out all of my thoughts on what I am writing and focus on revising later on.

 

For my Source-Based Essay, I feel like I got in my head a bit too much mainly because it was the first major assignment of the class (other than the Personal Narrative) that I felt would determine how the rest of my semester would go. I struggled mainly with the key terms that were given to me, primarily the rhetorical situations of my sources. All of the definitions seemed so similar to me that I had a hard time differentiating each key term as they applied to each of my sources within my essay. For example, the rhetorical situation and purpose always seemed quite similar to me since both words have to do with why the author is choosing to write something and what they are trying to convey to an audience. In addition to this, I felt that the format for the assignment was a bit confusing so to better understand the instructions,  I conquered each of the key terms individually and divided my essay into subsections. Looking back, I feel like the way I formatted my Source-Based Essay said a lot about where my head was when writing it. I needed to focus on one thing at a time and could not rely on my ability to just start writing and let what I have to say flow naturally for that specific assignment. In doing this, I completed my essay piece by piece and began to realize that the reason why all of these key terms are so similar is that they are meant to flow in writing. The key terms we went over in this class were meant to exist in a body of work together not separately. They go together to form and structure bodies of work all the while allowing the author’s ideas to flow freely. And once I realized this and that these key terms were not meant to restrict an author’s freedom of expression but to guide their ideas along smoothly it was easier for me to implement them into my work both inside and out of school. These words did not exist solely within research papers but instead in all writing even in my beloved poetry. 

 

For my Inquiry-Based essay, I felt as if I were more in my element. The whole idea of this assignment was to go where the research takes you, not necessarily abide by the same cookie-cutter restrictions as my fellow students. Naturally, I chose a model essay that I felt flowed nicely yet still kept a sense of structure that was easy to replicate. I was finally able to rely on my ability to take an idea and run with it and even chose a topic that I felt strongly about so that I was able to include a part of myself in what I wrote. One of the lessons I learned from writing this essay is that you can include your voice and sense of self in your work by writing about something that you believe in. Though I included all that was required and made sure to revise my essay carefully it was refreshing to finally be able to do what I do best and elaborate on a topic I am interested in. I think if people implemented this idea more into their own work then the act of writing even the most lengthy essay would feel less like a chore and more like an opportunity to discuss a topic they feel should be talked about more often.

 

One thing that has stuck with me even outside of school is the ability to give good constructive criticism. I have always enjoyed being able to give feedback to my peers during the process of revising an essay and it is one of the things I look forward to the most in my Composition and English classes. I myself think that constructive criticism is one of the most helpful ways to improve your writing so when my professor complimented my critiques on my partner’s essay I knew going forward that I would do my best to give my peers feedback for their work they could actually implement in their writing. 

 

Overall, though my journey to discovering my own Theory of Writing has been a long one I think it was pivotal to my development as a better writer. I now know so many useful techniques to implement into my writing and have learned how to balance restrictions with my desire to express myself freely. And if there is one thing I have taken away from this experience is that having a sense of self in your writing is pivotal to honing the craft and that sometimes even the most detail-oriented and seemingly restrictive forms of writing are not so different then the free-flowing artfully crafted wording of poetry.