The Extravagant Theory of Writing from a WRD 103 Student
The Tale of my Writing Process
Before I begin any piece of writing, I always give myself some time to simply let my mind speak. No No, I don’t mean have my mind literally speak. Instead, I make sure to have a pen and paper in hand, allowing me to write down any ideas that come to mind regarding the topic I'm writing about. This simple writing tactic can help structure your paper in a more efficient way and break up each paragraph in a better format.
Key Terms in Writing
When thoughts and ideas are flowing through my head regarding a piece of writing, I always make sure to stay on track with what the topic is and what questions need to be answered. Doing so, I always keep an eye out on the formality of the paper. Making sure to fully answer the questions that are being asked based on a specific topic is key and encorproating sufficient evidence to back up a claim can truly help create a much more formal paper. Monitoring the formality of a paper also means to provide proper transitions within each paragraph and breaking up each section based off of the information that is being presented. Another term I often think of when writing is the creativity of my paper. Whether the topic is peaceful, happy, wild, or sad, the content within each paragraph should have some sort of creativity amongst each sentence. Placing emphasis on the creativity of the material that you are presenting to others can help the reader become more engaged in the material that they are reading and almost feel as if they are a part of the story also. The third word I often think of when writing is revising. Throughout my writing career, I have NEVER had a piece of writing that had an amazing first draft. To me, I feel it is hard to even have a completed first draft since most of us newly young writers have so much information to include into our papers that we just compile a bunch of our thoughts onto a document and hope that it makes sense. Revising each draft can help eliminate any sentences that may seem out of place or any information that does not seem to make any sense at all as to what claim you are trying to present to a certain audience. While often referencing revisions throughout my writing, I also recommend peer revisions to many writers to help them receive feedback on the information they have created from a different perspective of others who may experince different beliefs and/or different style of writing as well. Throughout the course of my academic career, I often times implemented this theory in all writing that I do, no matter what course it is needed for. This process, in my opinion, has been the most sufficient and effective for me, and has allowed me to expand my range of creativity and include new ideas within a specific piece of writing that is being asked to accomplish.
Progression of Writing from the eyes of Dino
Before starting the WRD 103 course, I was not exactly sure what qualities writing had consisted of. Personally, I always thought writing was just a story were a few characters and a conflict had arose and the problem was solved towards the end of the story. However, after working through Projects 1–3 and composing multiple in-class activities, my definition completely turned around. In response to our first Reading Response, we were asked to simply define our defintion of writing. Once we completed that, we were then told to read a passage within our WAW books, then explain once again what our definition was and whether or not it changed or stayed the same. This response was the turning point of where my viewpoint about writing had changed. My definition changed dramatically and I was able to finally state the correct definition with using the context from our past readings. Other in-class activities that sparked a pivotal point in my definition of writing was our Key Terms maps. Throughout the creation of my first map, I had simply listed any important ideas that had to do with writing. During the time I had created this, my understanding of writing was at a beginners stage so my key terms that I had thought were important included past experiences, significance, and meaningful. As I transitioned into my second Key Terms map, my understanding had gotten a lot better and I was able to generate more ideas such as the type of writings there are (Persuasive, Informative, etc.), along with genre, rhetorical analysis, audience, context, etc. With my understanding of writing reaching its peak heading into the final week of the course, my theory has become more focused on the aspects that make up a story, such as the fluency of each paragraph and the formal evidence backing up a claim, while also describing the claim’s emphasis towards the reader. Doing so, allows a connection to form between the reader and the publisher, almost viewing their statement in a way that is most understandable for them.
Contributions towards my Writing
Throughout my writing experience here in WRD 103, my theory of writing has definitely changed from where it was at during the beginning of this course. One activity that had a tremendous impact on my understand of writing were the Key Terms maps done in class. Being able to write out your thoughts and ideas that come to mind when thinking about writing has helped me become more aware of the terms that are combined and encoporated all together within a piece of writing. Doing so, you also write down more ideas that also come to mind when thinking about writing that you previously did not have on your list before. Another activity that had played a role in the creation of my theory of writing were the in-class discussions with the students around me. Hearing what ideas everyone has to say about the readings and listening to their input that they have regarding what their own definitions might be about writing helps not only myself, but others around me in reformatting our own defintions to make them more understanding. This has also helped me with not only the WRD 103 class, but other classes as well, as it serves as a great resource for better understanding what a certain subject may be talking about and how to better understand the concepts revolved around them also.
Relationship between my Practices and Writing Theory
Whenever I am writing any kind of writing, I always be sure to include the following steps in the following order: first draft, revisions, second draft, final revisions and peer reviews, then final draft. I had implemented this way of writing since the beginning of the course and it has not changed ever since, However, I prefer including peer review, as well as peer comments amongst the revisions section, to ensure the quality of my paper is up to par and it can be fully understood from multiple perspectives other than mine.
Theory of Writing: In and Out of classroom
Throughout the WRD 103 class, our own theory of writing is highly emphasized and utilized within all pieces of our writing. However, others tend to wonder how you can encoporate this theory amongst pieces of writing done in other classes. Well, let’s take my course, PSY 105, for example. In this course, every two weeks, we are asked to compose a Thought Paper based off of the given topic and requirements listed along with the assignment. As I read the guidelines, I also list some ideas that I may would like to put into my paper. Since we don’t have as much time to work on this paper as we may have for WRD 103, I usually only focus on creating two drafts, a rought draft and final draft. In the rough draft, I begin putting in all my ideas and answering some of the questions listed within the guidelines. Once I complete this, I begin reading my draft aloud and marking any sentences that may sound a bit off. Once this step is completed, I re-read the paper once more to make sure all the questions asked in the assignment were answered completely and effectively.
