Making Room for Growth

This English composition class was supposed to be the same. The same format, structure, and themes that I have learned throughout my academic career. English is English so what’s the difference? Prior to this course, I’ve always considered writing a chore. I always seemed to get stumped when thinking about what to write and how to begin. I knew that as long as I satisfied every requirement in the rubric, my essay would be adequate. So, coming into this class that’s what I aimed for, adequate writing. I later realized that the more creative leeway an assignment had, the more my literary voice grew, and the more I began to enjoy writing.

Our first assignment was to identify the rhetorical elements from five different sources. My topic was on socialized medicine, and I discussed different perceptions that existed across the world. In the second paragraph, I wrote “Dr. Maria-Theresa C. Okafor is an assistant research scientist at the Center for Aging Studies… In the article “Socialized Medicine” Okafor discusses the universal healthcare system of countries around the world. The purpose of her work…” This was so that I clearly list the article, author, and purpose which was part of the assignment’s objective. Looking back now, not very much of my own ideas or interpretations went into that essay.  I did not enjoy writing it at all.

As we began to research our second essay, my professor said something that I have never heard in all my years of academic writing. “What do you have to say about your topic?” That question stumped me because I always separated my opinion from my work. What did I have to say? Writing these essays weren’t just to list information, its purpose was to use my voice and have a conversation with the reader. For assignments similar to our source-based essay, there wasn’t much room for me to add my own thoughts. As the semester went on, assignments such as the Composition in Two Genres gave me more creative leeway to develop my literary voice.

The short story narrative that I wrote fulfilled the essay requirements, but it felt different. I wasn’t forcing myself to develop a story, I just did. I noticed that I was able to connect more with my audience when I included my voice.  I appealed more to pathos when I wrote “My heart drops. This cannot be happening. The doctor predicted that the surgery would help my mom function better. I don’t make enough money to pay for this procedure out of pocket. My head starts spinning.” I enjoyed writing that essay more than any other assignment this semester.

This semester I learned that the audience is very important when writing. My voice should be directed towards them. I feel like my most recent work is the clearest to the audience because of the creative freedom I had when writing it.

“Growth; development from a simpler to a more complex stage

A new stage, a clean slate, a blank page

Saying I knew how to write would be inaccurate

I am a soldier, created by the academic system

Made to write what the instructor wants

Filling the page with useless thoughts

My writing lacked voice, a reader would never engage

My mind jumbled by the words listed on the page

Coming in I had no idea what was instore

Now the ink to the page, my mind in a daze

My writing in its infancy, the child that I used to be”

Comparing my first writing sample to my most recent one is like night and day. When there is creative leeway, I am not stuck sitting at a computer for hours. I can make my writing my own. This class and my new college experience has contributed to theory the most. In the future, I will try to consistently add my voice into my writing. It is not just about packing evidence and information into an essay. The writing process is meant for me to learn and grown in how I write. I want to learn how to bring the strength of my voice from other genres to future English classes and research papers. My voice can be brought outside the classroom when considering speaking up about my opinions.

 

Works Cited:

Jean Michel, Myrna. A Divided Nation on Socialized Medicine. Sept. 22, 2019 https://mjmenglishcomp.commons.gc.cuny.edu/source-based-essay/

Jean Michel, Myrna. A Short Story. Nov. 20, 2019 https://mjmenglishcomp.commons.gc.cuny.edu/composition-in-two-genre-2/

Jean Michel, Myrna. “Growth.” Nov. 26, 2019.