Theory Of Writing: A Letter To The Past

 

Dear Michael,

When this letter gets to you I hope you can take the time to read this and that you’ll still be all right. You’ll be going through some tough times soon. Mrs. Baker will try to get you suspended because she doesn’t like you being in her class. She’ll think you’re rude and a disturbance, but you know better. The puns and jokes you say are just a way to feel accepted in a class where you feel like you don’t belong. I understand that you don’t enjoy writing. It always takes a long time to finish, you have trouble focusing and staying on topic, and that it feels like everyone in class is way better at it than you… They are. But writing isn’t difficult to master; it just takes a lot of time and effort to improve. And while you may think that you’re not capable of writing at higher levels, I’m telling you as your future self that you can and will write better. So, to give you a head start, here are some tips you can follow whenever you’re asked to write another essay.

 

The first thing you should do is identify and develop your current theory of writing. A theory of writing is a series of principles you should follow every time you write. You might believe that you don’t have one; but that’s not the case. You’ve just never thought about your theory of writing before.

 

For instance, before you write, you tend to think about how much you need to get done. And then you think about how much you hate writing, so you put it off until later, right? This is part of your theory of writing. And while it’s not a good thing to practice, that’s just how we function. It’s important to note that our productivity depends entirely on our mental state. When I was writing my 2500 word research paper on desertification, I spent three hours writing the first two paragraphs because I failed reel in my mental state. However, after taking the time to shower and consolidate my thoughts, I managed to write the rest of my rough draft in just two and a half hours. And upon this revelation, I began to experiment in what ways I could keep my mind focused. In the future, one thing you’ll do to combat this is to take some time beforehand to address your mood and energy level. I personally enjoy taking cold showers or going for a quick run because it makes me to feel awake and refreshed; allowing me to focus on assignments better. Since you probably don’t like either of those things right now, you could perhaps try playing Dance Dance Revolution at home, or splashing your face with cold water at school; anything that might make you more alert, you should try. And if you follow this step, you should be able to complete assignments faster and have with more time to do them.

 

Some other techniques you can try to add to your theory of writing is thinking about what your objective is, who your audience is, and how you want to organize all that information.

 

Sometimes, when we write, it’s really easy to get lost in all of our words and thoughts and end up forgetting why we were writing in the first place. We may even get off topic in our writing. However, by writing down what we want to accomplish in what we’re writing, we can mitigate the amount of times we veer off topic, improve the quality of our content, and allow ourselves to quickly think of ideas that fit our subject. For example, when I wrote a rhetorical analysis of four different sources reporting on prison privatization, I lost track of the purpose of my essay, and instead wrote three pages summarizing what one source wrote. If I had kept a physical copy of what I was looking for and what I needed to write about as a reference, I could’ve not only prevented this from happening, but also reduced the amount of time I spent on research.

 

You’ve probably never thought about who the audience of your work is before, since your teachers never explained that aspect of writing to you and often chose who your audience was for you. However, it’s important to understand who you’re writing to, because your word choice, what information you use, how you explain your topics and even what format you’re writing in changes depending on who your audience is. So by identifying your target demographic and how they’ll react, you’ll have a better idea of how you want to approach whatever assignment you have. Through some prior brainstorming, planning, and outlining, all this information can be put into a much smoother presentation. In addition, through this process you can reduce the amount of chronological errors, speed up writing time, and reduce the number of conflicting statements.

 

When developing the body of an essay, there are several rhetorical devices aside from who your audience is that should be considered. For instance, the exigency of the topic is vital to giving the work more meaning and drawing in the audience. Exigence is the “so what” factor of what you’re writing about. It’s the reason why we and the audience should care about the topic we’re writing about. Like, if we’re reading a story about a district court judge who is in the middle of some sexual harassment controversy, the exigence of the story would be why this judge would not be fit to preside over court cases involving sexual harassment.

 

Some other rhetorical devices I like to use in my work include, but are not limited to, explaining topics in their context on a regional/national level, supporting claims with evidence and proper citation, and discussing the background and credibility of any sources when necessary. Relating topics to their context on a micro/macro level gives both you and the audience a greater understanding on what influences and what is influenced by the subject. Remember that 2500 word research paper? When I wrote that, I needed to explain what ways we can combat it and why we should care. However, every time I made a claim such as desertification creating more climate refugees, I had to support it with evidence such as “the UNCCD (United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification) states that climate refugees increased from 222 million in 2010 to 244 million in 2015 and continues to rise to this day. (Bafana Quoted in, Cheung)” By providing these statistics, my argument became more compelling and the citation supporting these claims made it more credible, as if from a scientific source. And the audience better understood the scale at which desertification affects everyone. Discussing who and where the information comes from, allows us to judge and further determine the credibility of our claims and the source as well.

 

Revision, is by far one of the most important steps in my current theory of writing. When I first started writing, I did very little revision after the rough draft was completed. This was evident in my first essay this semester, the rhetorical analysis I talked about earlier. Because I revised as I wrote, I ended up losing thoughts that I held onto while revising. In the end, I wound up spending too much time reorganizing and rewording sentences and my essay was not as refined or polished as the work of some of my classmates. Switching to a process where we simply write down everything that’s on our mind first, and then edit our work afterwards allows us to complete assignments in a timely manner and gives us more time to do other things in life as well. This will ease stress, and also improve our focus while writing.

 

I know that this is a lot to take in and that you don’t like listening to advice from others. But keep in mind that I’m also you so you’re just getting advice from yourself. When I was developing my personal theory of writing, most of the ideas and steps I chose were introduced by my current English 110 professor. And I’m 23 now, so you won’t have the opportunity to learn this information from anywhere else for a quite a while. It’s important that you develop your theory of writing as soon as possible because it will save you a lot of trouble and insecurity later on. Our theory of writing can be applied anywhere; not just the classroom. And they have a major impact on the professional scene as well. For instance, the rhetorical devices used in our writing can also be applied to non-literary works such as posters and other advertisements. When civil engineers need to submit written proposals for structural assessments and improvements, they use techniques similar to the ones I’ve discussed earlier. Business associates usually have to present monthly pitches to improve quarterly dividends. By taking the time to access their goals, understand their audience and and refine their work, they find that their projects are much more successful and concise on average.

 

In retrospect, I owe a lot to my English 110 professor. He was the first teacher to go in depth about rhetorical situation and help me understand the ways that writing impacts both my daily life and my future endeavors. Developing my theory of writing is without a doubt once of the most impactful decisions I’ve made in my life and for both our sake, I hope you make that choice as well.