To the future LANG 120 student reading this,

You’re probably wondering if actually reading this will propose any benefits to you. In fact, you’re probably wondering if this required writing class will help you at all. From one college student to another, trust me. The “required” part may feel like a chore, but you can learn something from it if you just try. I hope that in this letter, if you can’t find something to learn from, you can at least relate to my experiences and use what I learned to pursue your own writing.

For some context, I’m currently a music student, so I don’t usually consider writing to be my forte. My mind works better with sounds and visuals, so I wasn’t excited to take a class about writing. From the first day of class, however, I could tell that there was something different about this class and the way it would approach writing. It was more focused on writing as a whole and looking at the big picture rather than focusing on things like word choice and sentence structure. This was the beginning of me realizing that there was more to writing than I thought.

Thanks to our free writing sessions in class, I was able to set a couple of goals for myself: one, to not shy away from writing like I had in the past, and two, to learn to listen to myself using my writing. Not to improve my grammar or to perfect the five-paragraph essay, but to focus on my own experience of writing. Our first project helped me a lot with that; in fact it was the prompt! We were told to look back on our experiences with writing and figure out why we think about writing the way that we do, all to come up with a “theory of writing” (which I’ll talk about a bit more later). Allow me to try to explain what I discovered.

First, I realized that I actually enjoy writing. Once I gave it a chance, I soon began to look for any opportunity to express my thoughts. Then I had the idea, “What if my writing is more than words? What if that includes the other art forms I enjoy?” The more I pondered this, the more I felt that the term “writing” should include other art forms. For me, that meant any piece of music I wrote, any dance I choreographed, and any piece of art I created. After all, each creation came from my mind and contained a piece of me; isn’t that what writing is too? All of this went into my first project, which I enjoyed creating thanks to the outlet it gave me for exploring my thoughts on writing.

Secondly, this one took some time (ironically), but I learned that writing is a process, not something that happens immediately. I tend to be a perfectionist with my art and school assignments, so I often feel like my first draft should also be my final. Project three taught me otherwise. Our prompt was to analyze samples in a specific genre to see what professional writers do and figure out what that could mean for our own writing. Deciding what genre to analyze was simple enough, but I had no idea what my central claim would be, and I wouldn’t figure it out until most of my research was complete. The final product showed me that personalized writing should be accepted and even encouraged, but it was the process of creating this project that made me realize that good writing doesn’t happen immediately. I had to get my thoughts on paper first and write as much as I could, then chip away at the problems until the result was presentable.

So what does all of this mean for how I understand writing now? In other words, what is my theory of writing? My theory of writing is this: writing is anything you want or need it to be. Writing, at its core, is expressing your thoughts and feelings so that others can learn from and appreciate them. This art form takes time to create, so it’s not always going to be perfect. In fact, each piece should be appreciated for what makes it unique! Any writer should feel free to write what’s on their mind without the worry of making it “good” or “perfect.” The writing’s quality comes from the genuine intent behind it.

Knowing this, I will continue writing on my own mostly in journals, but also in the art I create. Now that I know I can learn about myself from any kind of self-expression, it makes me want to create more and branch out. In terms of writing for school, I’ve learned to not sweat the small details as much in my writing and to focus on bigger ideas. This idea helps me to get writing done a bit quicker, so I don’t stress myself out as much. In addition, the work I did in project two has helped me notice patterns not only in professional writing, but my own writing as well. I don’t expect to be writing everyday in the field I go into, but having this knowledge of my own writing habits will help me when I do.

So how can YOU make the most of this course and grow as a writer? My advice is to simply give writing a shot! You’ll only get anything out of this class if you put something into it and make an effort to learn, so take a chance on writing like I did. You might find that you really enjoy it, you just didn’t like the constraints and stress of writing for an assignment. Even when you feel like your writing isn’t improving, keep your pencil moving. When you give yourself the freedom to write whatever is on your mind, that’s when you can learn about your personal habits and improve upon them. I hope my advice can be helpful to you one day!

Happy writing!

Sincerely,

Laura Deaver