WP4: The Journey of a Writing Skeptic
Writing has always been a fascinating subject to me, especially when it comes to how it is taught in schools. Writing isn’t like math, where there are right and wrong answers, or like history, where there are right and wrong dates. It’s an art that is just as open to interpretation as painting. This is why I’ve always struggled with the idea of writing being a graded class, because I never understood how such an open-ended subject can and is fairly assessed. As we discussed this semester, every individual has their own unique voice, and it is incredibly important to be heard in that voice… So how can one professor be able to accurately assign value to that in the form of a grade?
I have always loved writing, bringing my thoughts and ideas into the tangible world with simply a pen and paper. However, throughout school, my predicament previously mentioned made me skeptical of writing for classes. It made me hesitant to put my whole truth into my writing, and I definitely wasn’t using the genuine voice of who I was. Why? Because if I put my heart and soul into a piece, as vulnerable and authentic as I could, and it got a bad grade, what would that say about my writing? That it was bad? It was unworthy and didn’t have value? I don’t think I could have taken that. So instead, if I got a lower grade on a writing project, I could rest well knowing that at least it wasn’t my full effort and ability.
I was not looking forward to the notorious WRIT150 at the beginning of this semester. My taking of this specific WRIT150 was completely by chance — I didn’t know about Rate My Professor yet, my scheduling date had gotten completely mixed up, so I got the last pick of classes, and I wasn’t even supposed to take WRIT150 this first semester. This was the only class topic by description that somewhat interested me, so I registered. And I dreaded it. If the grading in high school on writing was hard and didn’t make sense to me, I could only imagine how rough a university’s required writing class would be. I was completely prepared to hate every minute and continue to suffocate my ability. Instead, Prof. D changed the game with the way he structured his class — everything changed.
Throughout this semester my purpose with writing changed drastically. I felt that a safer space than anywhere else I’d experienced in school was created for my writing, especially with Professor Dissinger’s emphasis on expressing your true, inner voice. The goal of discussing something that was essential to my own personal identity also made it easier to tap into that part of my writing that I had suffocated for so long. I’ve never been encouraged to truly be myself or think about things that are important to me when in class, and instead worry about the grade. The slow emergence of my voice in my writing with this new environment has made me feel better about my ability to write, and I think will continue to allow my writing to grow.
Whereas in high school my focus was always on sounding smart and “academic,” here I learned the most important part of a piece of writing was the idea. I have never learned to frontload my writing with ideas instead of long introductions or summaries. After learning how to do so with some trial and error, I realize my writing is so much more concise and effective, and therefore there’s some extra room for my own personal voice I just learned to share.
After reading my posts and old writing projects, I realize that being able to express my voice makes a huge difference in the effectiveness of my writing by tenfold, even though I’ve always thought that my writing was decent. It has increased a sense of pride in my work now, instead of the reserve I initially used. WP3 especially was one of my pieces of work that made me feel really proud of where I’ve come compared to where I used to be with my writing ability, and I think the difference can even be seen from WP1 to WP3. Feedback on my WP1 said that I could have used my own personal experiences a little more in the essay, focusing more about myself rather than outside statements or resources, while my WP3 applauded me for the use of my voice and my specific writing style. All these little things came together and improved my writing more than it seemed like during the semester, and instead the improvement was only noticed when comparing my work from beginning to the end.
After getting through this semester, when looking at writing classes, I feel significantly better about being graded for my work. The progress I’ve made with being comfortable writing in my own voice and also being guided through how I’m graded on my writing has made me feel much more confident about the system of grading writing classes and my own pieces. This was one of the most positive experiences I’ve had with a writing class, and almost makes me sad that I will only have to take one more in my entire life. Being more confident in my own personal voice will make my writing more impactful and make me more likely to write from the heart, as I’ve always wanted to do.
