Theory of Writing

 

Words on paper have always said what my voice has not. For me, writing is more than a scholarly activity, as I’ve written to express, create, and process for about 5 years now. I began writing in my spare time to release what should have probably been spoken to a therapist- ha. 

 It became my way of understanding and organizing my brain. 

Feelings are difficult for me to come to terms with. Thinking leads to more thinking, and I’m suddenly stuck in a continuous loop where everything is jumbled and all based on the voice inside my head- I prefer to be a visual creative rather than an auditory. Writing is vision. It is repeatable and re-readable and understandable. Every piece of knowledge is there. With word. It lays out, constructs, and formulates. I love words. Thesaurus is one of my favorite tools, especially with concern to writing. 

When it comes to writing for class or other organized activity, my process of writing is about the same. The research and determination changes with the given topic and restrictions, but my word flow tends to be at the same speed. When my thoughts or ideas are unorganized inside, it isn’t difficult for me to sit down and quickly organize them as I write. 

Throughout this semester, the focus on different aspects of sharing ideas through writing has changed for me. The rhetorical situation was the term that I feel my eyes were most opened on. Within understanding the situation at hand, the focus on the audience and purpose became more important to me. When I write for myself, the audience isn’t ever in the front of my mind, because usually, the words aren’t seen by eyes other than my own; therefore, remembering who I’m speaking to, and why I’m speaking to this specific group altered the way I wrote. Language and tone play hand in hand, and they’ve both been a key part of every piece of writing I’ve created, because most of it has some feeling attached. Understanding how each piece of a rhetorical work go together create a seamless knowledge and stance is necessary to writing an impactful product. 

I believe writing is necessary. It helps organize, strengthen memory, create physical proof and it connects people who otherwise aren’t in contact. 

Coming into class, I wasn’t sure what to expect to be writing. I was quickly adapting to understanding the rhetorical aspect of each piece we wrote, reviewed and dissected. I found the consistent reading of different styles of rhetoric created an increase in knowledge and awareness of the ways to spread ideas and facts. Picking apart example works helped me realize what my work was missing, and what was excess. Reading and reviewing other students’ work helped draw the conclusion of what a writing of my educational background should look like. It was also interesting to see the passion in which others put into their topics. I felt that the peer review also gave me important feedback such as layout and grammar, because when I write quickly (yet thoughtfully), I sometimes miss small mistakes. The peer review on our inquiry based report helped me see the progress of my classmates and the different styles in which they were working in. 

Within my theory of writing, the process created a simple way to express new and old knowledge. With the new knowledge, came factual evidence from multiple perspectives, emphasis on directing the language, genre and tone to a certain group, and displaying information so that the readers take it in and process it correct- to say the least, it was the backbone of the ethos and logos aspects of rhetoric. My previous knowledge- the pathos aspect- brought in a different understanding and tone to my writing. Because I was already so passionate about my topic, writing was easy. Not letting my pathos overshadow the ethos and logos was probably the most difficult part. Writing the inquiry based essay was not difficult for me, especially with the build up from the rhetorical analysis essay we began the semester with. I found that previous knowledge and viewpoint helped influence mine, as well as creating a strong and personal admiration for my topic. 

As you can see, I tend to lay everything out in different paragraphs before reorganizing to create a flow. I throw things together and organize after. This is consistent with most of my personal writing and my writing for class. I find it more simple for me to lay everything out. I am a very visual person, so for me, writing creates tangible substance for thought. Laying out each idea that collides with another allows me to see what my process actually looks like. 

All in all, I feel that each piece of writing for me is different. They have the same baseline, but the development depends on the structure, the genre, the audience, tone, purpose and meaning. These all create depth, reasoning and method to writing. 

This semester absolutely changed my views on the process of writing. My personal theory changes and develops each time I put pen to paper. The creation changes and varies, as does the outcome of each piece. Writing has been and will continue to be a very important part of my life. Visual though is not easily put, and to ensure things are clear, I turn on auto pilot and let my brain do the words. It isn’t a very common process but it helps me create.