The Evolution of My Writing
Though I have always loved writing, this semester of honors English has changed and improved my writing style. Throughout my life, I have written many novels, and though they were never published, creative writing has always been where I excel. However, rhetorical composition has been a huge challenge to me - I am used to writing stories with a poetic, stream-of-consciousness voice. Arguing is a skill that I never knew I needed – but I will bring it to my academic writing and future creative writing. While I also enjoy writing essays for literature classes, my work tends to be repetitive and unorganized. When I’m writing stories, I am all over the place – that is how my imagination works. However, in academic writing, organization is a key part of the process – as is research and learning how to weave sources into my work so they can highlight my unique ideas. While I recognize the flaws in my writing, I also know that accessing creative inspiration (one part of crafting beautiful essays to express my ideas) is something I am good at.
This semester I have been working on the weaknesses in my writing. Because I love writing, I often overwrite. This can bury my ideas inside a sea of unneeded repetition. My English 235 professor recommended that I outline my essays after finishing a first draft, and afterwards combine paragraphs that contain repeated ideas and sentences. I used this technique while revising essay 3, the evaluative argument essay, when I wrote “Finally, it is important to discuss one of the main themes of May Day: good versus evil. Marsha tells Ana that soon she will not even dream and become demonic like the other women in this unreal world. They tell the audience that being an unfeeling, dreamless being is a good thing; that it is better than being a feminine being with intuition, compassion, and empathy.” This sentence homed in on one idea I wanted to discuss, but it originally was a part of two different paragraphs in random spaces in my essay. Combining my ideas into a concise body of my essays will greatly improve my rhetorical composition skills, and I plan to practice these skills often. Later, I went back to this essay and attempted to purge it of all summaries and replace it with analysis of May Day (2021).
Further, I know that the transitions between my paragraphs are jarring – potentially, even in the way I structured this sentence. Continuously reading essays and novels is one way I can improve – this will teach me how other people write and give me ideas about how to let my voice speak fluidly in my essays. I would like to know how to craft sentences that seamlessly connect my paragraphs together. In my research proposal essay, I took a risk and concluded my essay with a narrative of Earth and a lawyer having a conversation about Earth’s foreboding, inevitable destruction - I think we all must become more environmentally conscious. I used the deification of the planet as “Mother Earth” in my argument that if we do not abolish fracking, the earth will suffer and so will we.
Another goal I have is to write every day – ranging from reading novels and analyzing them for fun, writing fanfiction, to writing argumentative essays on gender, sexuality, and feminism. One writing technique I enjoy using is freewriting – I set a timer for twenty minutes, and I write down whatever comes to mind without judgement. This is a great way to brainstorm ideas for both argumentative essays along with novels and poems. In my evaluative argument essay, I wrote about feminism, and to brainstorm for unique ideas I used clustering. In the middle of my notebook, I wrote May Day, the movie I was analyzing – then, I circled it and jotted down all of the ideas that came to mind.
Some ideas I came up with that I included were “Is war the theme in The Wizard of Oz?”, “New age spirituality and the pressure from traditional religion to conform to strict moral rules”, and “the relationship between women and evil.” One theme I discussed in this essay was the need to reclaim the word “witch” to become a strong woman. In the evaluative argument unit, we discussed reclaiming words that were used to subjugate a group of people, along with negative, simplistic tropes that are rampant in our media.
One rhetorical device I noticed in May Day was that the people who helped Ana were women but in The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy was helped by several men, who were sadly necessary for her journey home. I wrote that “May Day comments on spirituality in more subtle ways. If women are told we are witches because we are smart, then the word “witch” must be transmuted. Can women reclaim the word “witch” and be empowered?”
One of the topics I would like to study during college is mythology, and writing about witchcraft and mythology with a positive voice is something I would like to learn to do. I am good at writing narratives, dialogue, and poetic descriptions of characters as well as setting. As many people are prejudiced against witchcraft – in other words, they think people who practice it are evil – studying the Rogerian method for arguing is something I will use in my academic writing on mythology and witchcraft. While I wanted to write about autism and witchcraft in my essays this semester, I could not find a way to fit those topics into the prompts for the four essays assigned. Because these concepts are interesting to me, I will read rhetorical articles on these topics – as I know reading more is the first step towards writing better.
During the Rogerian argument unit, I did a prewrite to brainstorm ideas. I wrote about religion, attempting to emphasize with traditional Christian thought. Here is the introductory paragraph I wrote for this potential essay – though as I couldn’t find an article on this to write about, I never submitted this essay:
“I used to be a Christian. I always enjoyed reading God’s Word, and I was early in the front row every Sunday. I sang along passionately with the hymns. I understood that there was a big problem in the world: evil. I didn’t know what evil was, and in fact I heard demonic voices that I was sure were evil. I was convinced that anyone who did not declare Jesus Christ as their savior would go to hell. I wondered if citizens in the middle east were forced to be Muslim when they wanted to be Christian. I told my mom’s boss to take off her hijab. I sorrowfully regret that action.”
I later wrote:
“I think the true problem is evil. I think Christians are name-calling Muslims, Buddhists, and Wiccans. I think racism is abundant on this planet we call our home. I think we, in this first world, are so greedy when it comes to food, not caring at all that kids in Africa are so thin because they have no food. I think that the Devil did not create this evil; rather, I think that we did. I did and you did. Your family and your ancestors did.” I also wrote, “Would the world be a better place if your doctors recommended yoga before recommending medication? If more people walk the world in a mindful way, would things like greed and hunger be eradicated?”
In this essay, I would have empathized with Christians and argued for a system that recognized there is evil in the world while withholding judging to people who practice religions like Wicca or Buddhism or those who study witchcraft. My argument would be that the real evil is racism and greed – not some fictional, mythological devil. Although I scrapped this essay, writing it was a great exercise in learning how to write a Rogerian argument. It gave me experience, which made it easier to write my essay about the war on drugs.
Here is one paragraph of my essay arguing against the war on drugs that I am particularly proud of:
“In your article, you spoke of safe injection sites and how incredibly atrocious they are! I strongly agree with you, Mr. Dougherty, that they do not help at all. The opioid epidemic is hurting many people. I agree with you that letting people take drugs with a supervising nurse is a bad idea. You said that these safe injection sites make the state ‘complicit in overdose deaths...this time from drugs taken at the state’s invitation and under the banner of safety.’ I think that when the state makes life-restorative herbs like cannabis illegal, the state is also complicit in not allowing cancer and depression patients get the medicine that could have saved their lives.” While I am aware that my ideas (and hopes for the world) are very radical, I have learned how important it is to back up my theories with evidence, whether as statistics or personal anecdotes.
In this paragraph, I emphasized with people who believe the war on drugs is just. I agreed with Michael Dougherty that safe injection sites are harmful, and that not allowing cancer patients to use cannabis is also harmful. This was my main argument in this essay – that many drugs, from cannabis to psychedelics, have essential healing properties that can help people with depression, cancer, or epilepsy.
Writing is my passion. Rhetorical composition is difficult, especially when I have a tendency to fall in love with my own words. Sometimes, my words don’t fit the parameters of the essay assignment, and my words tend to be problematic. It is hard to delete paragraphs that don’t fit in the essay when those words communicate ideas I would like to express. In essay 1, my original draft was far too biased – in analysis, writing should be systematic and controlled.
However, I love coming up with unique ideas. When I use too many words, those ideas get lost in overwriting. Additionally, formatting can be difficult. This semester was my second year returning to college after a thirteen-year sabbatical, and therefore I did not understand MLA formatting. I learned how to correctly format my essays and how to correctly cite the sources I use in my writing. One technique I learned that helps me is this: I click print, and then I look at what my essay will look like in its printed form.
I believe that I am good at describing and writing narratives. I have been writing since I was a child and have always been told that writing – creative writing in particular – is my gift. Learning how to write argumentative essays has enriched my writing, and while I have struggled with this style of writing, I enjoy the process. Writing is writing – and learning rhetorical composition will likely benefit my creative writing. While I have finished one novel and decided it was unpublishable, I usually am inspired often and abandon a project when I am graced with a new idea. This semester has given me enough training as a writer to finish a project – from one of the novels I have started on google documents to analyzing fiction over winter break, so I don’t lose the writing skills I gained.
In conclusion, in this semester I was challenged to learn a new style of writing – rhetorical composition and argument. This style of writing will be useful in my creative writing as well as in academic writing for future classes. I am thankful that I learned a new style of writing and plan to keep practicing it on my own. Essentially, I will write every day, and I will read and respond to the words I’ve read in rhetorical essays, novels, and academic papers. I will continuously read essays and articles so that my writing style can become more organized and graceful. I acknowledge the weaknesses in my rhetorical writing and plan to work hard to improve.
