The theory of writing was a piece of composition about … writing! In this we had to look back on the course and see how our own theory of writing developed from the very beginning to the end.
My Theory of Writing
Coming into English 110, I was nonchalant about the class. I came in dreading another English class. Just writing essays and reading and writing, just sounded like another mundane task that I’ve been forced to do over and over throughout my years in school. So when I came in I wasn’t too excited to take another English course. Another reason for my attitude on yet another English class was that I was, and still am a computer science major. So I couldn’t really see how writing could help me with what I’ll eventually be doing in my career, software engineering. Which involves mostly coding. Despite my nonchalant attitude with the class, I tried to go in as optimistically as possible. My theory of writing at this point, was just to get it over with and apply as much structure to avoid using my brain. So in my previous classes, I would look at the prompt and respond directly with as much evidence, as many responses to the questions in the bullet points they gave me, and write as many pages as the essay required. I would o the bare minimum to get the grade. Even though I treated writing like just another tool to complete the task, using only as much as the task required, I can’t blame myself for my lack of interest. I didn’t realize it, but this is what planted the seed for my theory of writing now, which we’ll get to later. But during this time, I think the reason why I didn’t like to write, even going as far as to say I hated writing, (Which I still do now, but a lot less. Now I kind of enjoy it as something that calms me down, and a reason to go and sit in a coffee shop and indulge in the cafe culture. I still wouldn’t do it for fun though.) was that I wasn’t writing about something I was personally passionate about or even mildly interested. How could I enjoy writing, or develop a love for it if I was writing about one of those dumb stories you find in the SAT’s. Where they give you like 6 stories about something boring like why llamas eating lettuce is good for the environment (Although even this would be more interesting than some of the topics they force you to write about.) Why would I enjoy writing if I’m not writing out of an interest but just out of necessity to pass a class? Which leads us to the first assignment we had to do for the class, the source based essay.
The source based essay, I will have to admit, was the worst essay we had to do. However, I can’t lie it did help with the rest of the compositions. It laid the groundwork for the literary terms we needed to know, some of which I wasn’t exactly an expert on. This definitely had a part to do with my overall theory of writing. Specifically my audience, purpose and genre/medium. These components, I believe, decide whether or not a piece of writing is good or bad. First you must identify your purpose. What are you trying to do? This leads to the next step. Who would be the people that your purpose is intended to affect? Lastly, what’s the best way to reach them?. The three steps from these questions are purpose, audience, then genre/medium. I think identifying the terms in four different pieces of writing, felt boring and repetitive, but it did help when I had to identify them for my own piece of writing. It definitely made it easier knowing what type of audience my composition was going to affect, when coming up for my 2 genres for hat composition. This essay really laid the groundwork for the course. It was like the basic rules of algebra, i.e. ax= a multiplied by itself x times. These are concepts you really need to master before you continue on with the course, and that’s exactly what the research based essay did.
The next essay really is what developed my theory of writing to what it is now. I definitely spent the most time on the inquiry based essay. There’s two reasons I spent the most time on this essay, 1) I loved the topic I chose 2) I restarted the essay with different questions at least 5 times, and from those 5 times I restarted my essay for those questions at least 2 or 3 times. Although I never wrote more than a page or two for each of these, until of course the last draft I wrote, I wrote at least 20 different pages that I trashed. Luckily I wrote them on my computer because if I hadn’t the back of my room would’ve been a crumpled up paper ball pit. I think both of these reasons I spent the most time with these reasons are the fundamental components for my theory of writing. Without a passion, or at least a slight interest for what I’m writing, I won’t put any effort into my writing. Even writing this now, in the same coffee shop I wrote part of the inquiry based essay hyped up on coffee, I’m at least a little bit interested in writing this. Perhaps it’s because I’ve become a lot more comfortable with sharing my thoughts in class, and that’s translated to sharing my thoughts on paper, which I haven’t really done before. Or maybe it’s because I still hate writing with a passion and I want this writing to convey the reasons why maybe others like me hate writing too. Whatever the reason is, the reason I can actually write, a hopefully good theory of writing, and a reflection on it, is because I am slightly interested in it. The second more technical part of my theory of writing is that there must be revisions. This builds a bridge to the most fundamental part of my theory of writing, like Raymond Chandler said “Throw up into your typewriter every morning. Clean up every noon.”. Just get everything out first. Write exactly what comes to mind when it comes to mind, even if it comes out like an incoherent mess. As long as it makes sense to you it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t make sense to other people. That’s only the first draft, no one has to see it, just write and write until everything is all out. Then parse through it and throw out the completely incoherent thoughts, maybe shape and mold the slightly incoherent thoughts, and if you get lucky enough to have a thought that’s already perfectly molded, then keep it. Revise until you get your perfect piece, or as perfect as you feel you can get it before you go insane from revision or before your deadline. I like to think this of it as molding clay. You can’t start with a perfect model already. You must start with some shapeless blob, then you can mold it into what you want. Shape it as you go along. Just like molding, you have to start from a blob of ideas then you can get it to be your perfect ideal composition.
The last composition that influenced the part about being passionate and interested in something you’re writing about would be the composition in two genres. This one was really great because it allowed me to get a lot more creative with the composition. Not only was I passionate about the material I was writing about but I also love my genre/ medium. I love both of these genres(and the website also serving as a medium). I coded the whole website from scratch, and got it working on a google hosted server. Which was a huge accomplishment for me, since I self taught myself everything I know. To actually get to use my knowledge on something I’m passionate about, not only creating the website, but also the tech topic, was really great. The interview also allowed me to test out something that I’ve always consumed but never took part in, podcasting/interviewing. I’m always listening to a podcast, from doing homework, standing on the train, listening to a podcast is apart of my daily routine. To actually get to take part in it, made me like writing a bit more, even though the interview itself wasn’t technically writing, there was writing involved, specifically writing the questions for the interview. Also what is writing? All writing is, is a tool to get your thoughts out into the world, a podcast is the same, a tool used to get your thoughts out into the world. So I would consider it part of my theory of writing.
Taking everything I’ve learned and used to complete this class, I can see it applying to many things in my future. One day when I’m a software engineer I’m positive that I’ll need writing. I’ll definitely think back to my 1st semester in college where I learned the basics of writing, and use that in reports, letters of recommendation, cover letters and whatever else the professional world of my profession will require. Even outside of work, perhaps a little closer in time to where I am now, I will use it. In my computer science classes I have no doubt that I’ll use it for assignments, or for my future science classes, or next electives. I started the semester with a nonchalant attitude about writing, and an undeveloped theory of writing. However, now I can gladly and confidently say that I have developed into a more capable and better writer than I was before.
So before I finish writing this and go watch The Office, I want to summarize my theory of writing, since it is all over the place in this piece. My theory of writing consists of three parts:
1) It’s hard to write about something you’re not passionate about, or even slightly interested in. So don’t blame yourself if you don’t find the will to write for pages on pages.
2) The second part isn’t really my philosophy, but it is exactly what I do when I write. “Throw up into your typewriter every morning. Clean up every noon.” – Raymond Chandler. Just get everything out of your head then fix it later, the paper won’t go but your thoughts easily float away when you’re distracted by something. So take advantage of your thoughts coming and have the paper remember it, not you.
3) Take your purpose, audience, and medium/genre into consideration before you start writing, it’ll shape what you write into something most relevant to the people you’re trying to affect.
