December 15th, 2018

Dear Journal,

As the semester is coming to an end, I want to go over the material I learned in my English 11000 Freshman Composition class. I have written so much in this class and my writing has remarkably developed. I came to a greater realization of how I write and what affects my writing — I have developed my own theory of writing. When the concept of a theory of writing was being first discussed in class, I was very confused. I had almost no idea what the professor was talking about and consistently asked others what the professor meant by a “theory of writing.”  The major assignments for this class were what contributed to my theory of writing the most as I suddenly became very familiar about this topic through these assignments.

Before taking this course, I thought that I just wrote in whatever way I was expected to. For example, if I was assigned to write an essay for one of my high school courses, I would make sure that I wrote no less than five paragraphs, my thesis was at the end of my first paragraph, and my essay was written formally. Moreover, I would consider what ideas I have to cover in the essay and organize these ideas to fit into the five paragraphs. Fortunately, I realized that there was much more to this when writing.

Learning about the rhetorical elements of a text was the first yet major step I took to understanding my theory of writing. I did this by writing the first major essay assignment for this class: the source-based essay. In this essay, I had to identify the rhetorical elements (rhetorical situation, audience, purpose, genre, and stance) of four different sources, and then analyze the aspects of these elements in the sources. Throughout the essay, I was able to provide a great analysis on most of these rhetorical elements, but based on the feedback I received from my professor and peers, I noticed that my analysis of the rhetorical situation and genre were constructed poorly. For the last source I analyzed in this assignment, I determined that the rhetorical situation was “… to determine what abortion patients believe the choice should be for abortion legality” (Source-Based Essay). I was confusing the rhetorical situation with purpose. While most of the students had a hard time understanding what a rhetorical situation was, I had an even more difficult time. Thinking about it now, I realize that this shows why I desperately struggled with understanding the concept of a theory of writing as well.

Overall, the definition I came up with for a theory of writing is that there is always a reason for why a person writes, how they write, and there are techniques that authors use to write a certain way.

“Why” a person writes is the rhetorical situation that enforces the author to write and “how” a person writes is the genre the author writes in. Deep down I knew why I was writing (the rhetorical situation) and how I was writing (genre) but I simply couldn’t grasp the idea. Similarly, I struggled while identifying the rhetorical situation and genre of my sources in the first essay. The things I had a hard time understanding in my source-based essay were a part of my theory of writing after all.

This became even more surreal to me when I wrote my inquiry-based research essay. As I prepared to write a draft for this assignment, Professor Harris had told us to identify the rhetorical elements of our soon-to-be-written draft. After a long thought process, I finally came to understand that the rhetorical situation of my essay was the recent news of the Supreme Court’s rehearsal of Roe v. Wade. I demonstrated this under the “Abstract” subheading of the inquiry-based essay:

Supreme Court Justices are currently reviewing the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case to determine whether or not abortion should remain legal… The criminalization of abortion could be a possible consequence from this revision, leaving women’s rights at stake… If abortion is completely banned, then some natural rights will be taken away from women.

The main reason I wrote about this is that I was concerned with women’s rights and how they could potentially be taken away. Without this rhetorical situation, I would not be able to compose many of my works for this class. I wrote the source-based, inquiry-based research, and composition in two genres essays based on this same idea. In other cases, someone may create a shopping list because he or she may plan on going shopping or are running out of necessities. Alternatively, someone may write an email to a Congress member because he or she has different opinions from the legislator. This came to be the first part of my theory of writing, that everything I write is caused by something with a personal significance; there is always a “why” I write something.

The second part of my theory is “how” a person writes. This idea evolved my theory after I had completed the Composition in Two Genres assignment, where I chose to use a political cartoon and meme as my genres. These genres would attract my audience and present my ideas effectively: “My genres are attractive to my audience because they deliver the message in a concise manner” (Composition in Two Genres). Also, they would help me persuade my audience to believe in what I believe, fulfilling my purpose of this assignment. Personally, I choose genres that would help me implement my ideas more efficiently and deliver my purpose and message effectively. I also believe this is the case for many others. For instance, referencing back to my “shopping list” example, when people write what they need for their household and living, they tend to write in a list genre, because this is easier for them to write and interpret later on while they are shopping. They are their own audience and are presenting their ideas to fit their own liking. This shows that even when writing for the littlest things, we always choose genres that present our ideas effectively.

The third part of my theory is that writers adopt techniques to get rid of any boundaries that are preventing them from writing, especially if they are writing something lengthy. I noticed that my behaviors repeated everytime I had an assignment to do for this class, whether it be a 250-word composition or a 5-page essay. Writing is a difficult process and knowing what to write next tended to be difficult if there were distractions surrounding me. That’s why I would try to turn off anything that would make disturbing sounds like the TV, my phone, and other devices. Generally, when I do work I like to listen to music, however, since writing requires a lot of brain use, the high-bassy songs that I usually preferred to listen to weren’t pleasant when writing. In turn, I would listen to YouTube videos that played rain sounds to increase my concentration. Additionally, if possible, I would write my assignments during the night time because when the sun came down, there would be less noise and it would be more calming to write. If I didn’t put an end to all bothersome sounds, I would suffer a lot from writer’s block and I wouldn’t be able to think as well.

The basic goal of this course was to compose writings and gather an idea of what my own theory of writing is based on these writings. By processing how I incorporate my own ideas into writing, I can apply this knowledge in future writing assignments both inside and outside the classroom to ultimately become an even better writer and develop my theory of writing even further. For one thing, my theory of writing has taught me how to better understand the context of an email and how I can exceptionally respond to one. Being able to compose well-written emails is something necessary for me in the career I wish to pursue. By writing this journal entry, I was simply aiming to explain the best version of my current theory of writing.

Sincerely,

Saiful

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