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I have always had a ton of raw and undeveloped ideas lingering in the back of my head akin to an unsolved jigsaw puzzle. In this semester, writing has played a significant role in helping me develop these ideas and my intellectual identity and present them in an unrestricted and direct fashion.
I mention “this semester” specifically because I previously have never had the opportunity to engage with my own ideas derived from my own experiences in an academic setting. In my previous “encounters” with the subject of writing, the focus of my work was always analyzing someone else’s ideas and experiences. Every essay I wrote was really just another practice essay for the rhetorical analysis portion of the SAT.
There’s a huge difference between writing about your own identity and analyzing the rhetoric of others. I spent more hours sitting in front of a blank white screen pondering why and how medicine and music have shaped my intellectual identity than I have on my phone to avoid writing my next rhetorical analysis paper. Every time I would have to write another “SAT practice paper” it was the same monotonous routine: read the essay, look for rhetorical techniques, and write about why they are effective. Eventually, I got to the point where I’ve written so many of these papers that it became second nature and I wasn’t cultivating any new knowledge about the world or my identity.
Whereas in this semester I had the opportunity to connect my ideas and gain a better understanding of my intellectual identity. The writing I did this semester forced me to have a deep level of self-investment because I was writing about MY identity and MY ideas. My work was about more than just getting an A for the sake of boosting my GPA and pleasing med school admissions officials. The work I was doing was actually representative of who I am.
In my WP3, “Rehumanization of Medicine”, I delved into how my professional interests in the medical field are influenced by my experiences with the arts and humanities. Before I started writing this piece, I actually had no clue how my experiences with music, comedy, and other art were connected to my identity as an aspiring healthcare professional. Writing played a huge role in helping me understand this connection between two very different interests of mine. This is because in order to write a piece that is clear and comprehensible to others, I, myself, had to actually understand what I was writing about.
The writing process was really a journey of developing a better understanding of my own intellectual identity. In my preliminary outline and first draft of my WP3, I had a bunch of loosely connected ideas and experiences about fast-food medicine, music, and comedy. I couldn’t tie these ideas together because I was missing the “why” and the “how” these ideas and experiences were connected through my intellectual identity. The reason I was missing the “why” and the “how” was that I didn’t have the answers yet. I never thought about the “why” and the “how”. And so writing about my intellectual identity put me in a position to be deeply reflective about myself and develop the answers to how these different pieces of my intellectual identity (art and medicine) come together to form a complete picture. Every time I wrote a new draft, these ideas and experiences about fast-food medicine, music, and comedy would seem more connected because I would have more answers about the “why” and the “how”. With every new drat, I would have more answers to the “why” and the “how”. And so writing played a huge role in helping me develop a better understanding of my own ideas and intellectual identity.
Writing about myself really forced me to actually give a shit about what I was writing and how I was presenting it to my peers. This semester, I had to take my time to develop my ideas in order to present my intellectual identity in a way that puts my best foot forward. Basically, it’s the equivalent of taking a million photos for the gram until you finally get one that you think is worthy of posting. EXCEPT, you aren’t really limited to writing a short metaphoric caption when you are writing an essay.
Even though expressing your ideas and identity on social media platforms is widely encouraged (unlike my past experiences in an academic setting), the norms and restrictions of social media are very limiting when it comes to doing so. On Twitter, I only have 280 characters to share whatever ideas I have. If I try to type a whole essay into multiple tweets, I just know I’m going to get blocked for spamming people’s timelines (or at least that’s what I would do). The norm on Twitter and other social media platforms is to keep your ideas or message short.
These norms don’t exist when it comes to writing essays about my ideas and intellectual identity. When it comes to writing essays in an academic space, the norm is to take up as much space as I need in order to explain whatever ideas I have. There isn’t a 280 character limit. I don’t have to include an aesthetic picture to go along with my work. I don’t have to use a short metaphoric caption to validate my ideas and make them seem special. The beauty of writing is that I get to express myself and my ideas in a direct fashion. I can just get to the point and explain. Simple.
More specifically, Medium has been the perfect platform to present my long and complex explanations about my ideas and intellectual identity. The norm on Medium is to have long pieces that have a direct message or idea that needs to be shared. The audience on this platform doesn’t condemn the idea of having to read more than 280 characters.
So the answer to this question:
“For WP4, I want you to REFLECT on your writing journey this semester and discuss what you’ve DISCOVERED, specifically, the ROLE WRITING has played in teaching you _________________________ about you.”
is to not fill in the blank.
One more thing. The CRAZIEST thing to me about writing this semester is that I actually get to use the word “I” in a sentence without being penalized for it. All I’ve ever heard from my past teachers is that you never use the word “I” in your essay because nobody cares about what you think or say. So I dedicate this entire WP4 to all the teachers that feel that way about writing.
Works Cited
Dissinger, D. (2020, November 9). WP4: The Role of Writing. https://medium.com/writing-150-fall-2020/wp4-the-role-of-writing-8a2664430e10
Shah, A. (2020, October 11). Rehumanization of Medicine. https://medium.com/writing-150-fall-2020/rehumanizing-medicine-a77c59d19a61
