Paper #2 - Memoir
My Memoir
I’ll be honest with you - I don’t like writing. I’m an English major because I love reading and then analyzing and discussing the texts. But writing? Not so much. I have never been one to get excited about writing papers for a class, and when I found out that I had to have five classes deemed “writing intensive” at Mary Washington, you can bet that I was less than ecstatic.
When I signed up for Writing Process, I thought it was going to be a course that taught me more about how to research for and write academic papers; I must admit, I wasn’t too thrilled with the idea, but thought that it was going to be a practical class anyway. Not only did it turn out to be useful, I was pleasantly surprised when I learned we were going to actually explore our own style of writing and “voice,” our own voice, not the voice of someone else. Throughout high school and college, I have never had experience with that; I have always been required to integrate so many quotes that my papers sound like someone else wrote them or have had to edit my papers specifically to a professor’s suggestions. Either way, my voice has always been lost along the way to the final paper.
“Peter Elbow, author of Writing Without Teachers, brings up some new and important issues in the writing process. For instance, he gives evidence that freewriting is a way for one to brainstorm, and then expand on those ideas. A person’s voice has a better chance of being heard if they write what they are thinking. Elbow argues that one can use freewriting as a foundation for any writing assignment, because its main usefulness is not in their immediate product, but in the gradual effect it has on future writing (Elbow 11).”
I would say that this writing process class has been a pivotal point in my writing career so far. Letting my voice come out in my writing is not only allowed, it is encouraged. I have learned so much in this course already, and it has definitely helped me appreciate different kinds of writings. This may sound ignorant, but before I took this course, I believed it was actually bad writing to use the first person in the text and let your voice come through. I thought that the only kind of real writing was academic writing - research papers with an introduction that includes a thesis, three supporting paragraphs complete with numerous facts and quotes, and a conclusion that restates what has already been said. But actually, there are all sorts of ways you can formulate a paper and different genres that give the opportunity to let your voice be heard.
During my freshman year of college, I took a writing workshop class and was restricted from using the first person in my papers. At one point, I was given the most ridiculous writing assignment: I had to write about my favorite place and include vivid descriptions, but I was not allowed to use the first person in the text. Instead, I had to refer to “one” throughout the paper (for example, “one saw this” or “one felt that”). Obviously, my voice was lost, and it made my special place so distant from me in my paper that a travel book could have given a more personal description. When I asked why the first person was restricted in such a personal paper, my professor informed me that it was incorrect to use “I” or “you” in a college essay. This experience not only contributed, but sort of finalized my thoughts that only the academic voice (in formal research papers and technical- type writing) was the correct way to let a voice come through, if any could come through at all. Since this incident occurred in my first semester of college, it shaped my thinking about academic writing and I was convinced, until this semester, that this was the correct (and only) way to write academically. I absurdly felt that if I didn’t write in this form, then I would be seen as a less intelligent person because I didn’t know how to write well.
I can see that I have already made progress in letting my voice come through in my writing. For example, I recently had to write a reflective introduction for my creative writing portfolio. That is something that I normally have a hard time with, but this time it was surprisingly painless. I felt that I was able to say what I wanted while still following the guidelines and developing a concrete idea.
Of everything I have learned in this class, I believe that free-writing has been the most helpful. Aside from letting me get out thoughts that I was not sure I even had on a topic, it has shown me that I actually have a voice, my own voice, that comes through in my writing and that it’s a good thing. I no longer have to worry about going out of my way to stifle my voice in my writing.
“I think free-writing is a great way to get out ideas. It makes you write down everything you can think of pertaining to the topic, and then presents places for you to go back and expand on later. It doesn’t give you time to think about getting the right word out on the paper, even though it usually comes eventually. It has showed me that I actually have ideas that are worth writing about in the first place, instead of constantly writing about other people’s ideas and feelings - I have my own, too. Now, I am more concerned in what is being written instead of how formal or otherwise it sounds, and I know that just like talking, my voice will convey my thoughts when I put them down on the paper.”
If you compare this freewrite to the more “academic” paragraph on the same topic presented earlier in the paper, you can see several differences between the two. Probably the first noticeable distinction is that my voice is present in the freewrite. I think the reader gets a better sense of the subject in the freewrite because I am writing about how I actually feel about the topic, rather than paraphrasing Elbow’s views. It also leaves out the distracting in - text citations, which tells the reader that I am giving someone else’s opinions; instead, I am writing about my views and expanding on them. I think that the freewrite flows better because I was able to add more into it by showing with details, than in the “formal” paragraph where I had to stick with only the dry facts.
This semester is my last in college. Having been recently introduced to the concept of voice, I feel that I could have done much better on other writing assignments in past college classes - I would have been more aware that there is no “right way” to write a paper. For example, instead of wasting time uniquely structuring my vocabulary to avoid using the first person, I can spend my time on the more important issue: the content. I mean, isn’t that the more important aspect of any paper? If I could go back and change anything, I definitely would have taken this course much earlier in my college career. Although I feel that my writing has improved through this semester, I think it would have been very beneficial if it had progressed sooner rather than later. I suppose this is why I have never considered myself a great writer. I do well enough on papers, but never exceptional. Lately, my papers are always full of comments asking what I think about the topic and to add more of my views. I have always felt that something was missing and I have finally learned what it is.
I am going to graduate school next year to get my Master’s Degree in secondary education. I want to teach English, and I am definitely going to use the concepts and writing techniques that I have learned in this class. Hopefully, my future students will appreciate these ideas and learn that letting yourself be heard in your writing does not mean that it’s wrong; on the other hand, it gives your readers the opportunity to get to know you.
Works Cited
Elbow, Peter. Writing Without Teachers. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998.