John Swierczynski
Well when I try to reflect on this summer class and what it has taught me, I guess the biggest thing is confidence in my own writing. I have always been timid in speaking with others and that transfers into my writing style as well. I usually tend to be very short with my sentences and extremely unnatural sounding.
Day 1 of class: Ms. Andrews tells us to open our daybooks and describe our writing style using only three words!
My daybook entry is as follows: "often lacks words" , "keeps sentences short" , "blunt and without flow"
Basically, I have all these crazy thoughts swirling around in my head but when it comes to putting them down on paper, I don't know how to do it without sounding robotic and choppy.
One of the first discussions we had in class was about how good writers need to sound genuine and personal otherwise their messages will never get across to the audience reading their work. This was defined as 'telepathy' in Stephen King's "What Writing Is" article. His article really struck a note deep within me. Writing is telepathy by definition - my thoughts are being read by you while the two of us never start a face to face verbal conversation. That is, my thoughts will only be read correctly by you if I am able to coherently and uniquely form my own thoughts into sentences for you to understand and visualize. In King's example he describes a visual in an extremely detailed and specific way, and every individual reading the text - you, me, someone across the world, anyone - pictures in his or her head what he is illustrating. Even though only King himself is sitting beside the actual thing being described, all of his readers are, in a way, experiencing it too. This article had a powerful effect on me because King's visual worked for me too. In that moment I felt like I was sitting beside him experiencing the same thing he was.
And I realized that there's more to writing than just structured essays and correct grammar/syntax. Writing needs to be personal and affectionate. The reader needs to somehow connect with the writer and 'feel' what the writer is feeling. Like the connection I felt with Stephen King.
So that's what I tried to do within my website, starting from the blogs and finishing with this reflective letter. Every time I sat down to write a blog post, I set aside all worries about how my writing would sound, what the teacher would think when he or she read it, and if my opinions and thoughts where right or wrong, correct or incorrect. Basically, I tried to write with as much flow as possible. Everything that came to my mind I put down on paper. The editing and revision process happened after I was done spewing my random junk out of my head and onto the computer screen. Kind of what I'm doing now. Because this is a reflective letter, I'm keeping all the junk that I type onto this page just so you can get an idea of how free my writing feels now.
Another aspect of this class that I really enjoyed and I thought helped me grow as a writer and a thinker was peer response. In many cases throughout the summer session, I was required to respond to what my classmates were writing about. I had never done something like this before in my previous English classes, whether in college or high school. At first it was a huge challenge because I was worried if my peers would be insulted over the criticism I responded with. However, as time went on I realized that my classmates were also responding with criticism. I began to feel more loose and I was able to provide genuine thoughts and ideas on how to help improve their writing. On the flip side, the responses that I got from my peers about my writing was great too. Many of their ideas I had never thought about and I was glad I had a new angle to approach my work from.
Most importantly, I think peer response taught me that sharing my writing with others and getting their opinion is an essential component to writing, as it allows you to understand if what you are writing is making sense or not to others. It also gives the writer an opportunity to critique others' works, which helps him or her realize what others are writing and maybe incorporate some of those ideas into his or her work. Basically, peer response is a research pool of thoughts and ideas where everyone can give and receive this information and learn from it in a positive way.
The last thing I want to mention is the sense of liberty in my writing that I have experienced this summer session. I have always been a supporter of personal autonomy and control over one's life, but that usually applies to the practical world and what we as individuals do daily. I had never thought that writing could be a form of expressing one's personal autonomy. However, I believe that this can only be accomplished if your writing is 100% personal and genuine. Do not follow any rules or guidelines set before you because those rules will define your writing. It should be the exact opposite. The only influence on your writing should be you and your thoughts. Nothing else should define the way you want to telepathically transmit information to your audience. After all, actions speak louder than words but if your words represent exactly how you act, I think you can make your writing extremely powerful.