Dear Professor Bottai and My Classmates,
When my summer started, it would be an understatement to say I was intimidated by what was on my plate. I had just been hired for an internship with Sandia National Labs; I would be working full-time in a new town. I also needed to enroll in a summer english class. Needless to say, my plate was going to be quite full.
What intimidated me most about my summer was this english class. I could handle a full work week, but I’ve never been fond of writing. Writing has always been a stressful process for me. I associate the subject with long nights in front of my computer and digging through sources to find support for my claims. All this stress, however, did not come from writing itself; it came from my approach.
I’ve always been what Winet et al. would describe as a heavy reviser as well as a procrastinator (47). In my first blog post on my writing style I wrote, “Often when I write my paper, I will get my thoughts onto the page fairly early. However, because I don't enjoy revising my work, I tend to push the revision step (which is quite important) as far into the future as possible.” I went on to describe how stressful this process is. I become anxious as I write because I have put little planning into my work before putting pen to paper.
I developed this writing style in high school. I took both Advanced Placement english classes, which, to this day, were the most challenging english classes I’ve taken. I contend (with universal agreement from my classmates at the time) that my teacher for these classes (the same lady for both) treated us as graduate students. The first month with her was called boot camp, a tribute to the military practice to get new recruits in shape. We wrote multiple essays each week (I can not tell you how many as I have blocked those weeks from my memory). By the end of the course my portfolio resembled a phone book more than a collection of my work.
This intense workload forced me into becoming a heavy reviser and also improved my procrastination skills. The only reasonable way to complete all the work was to limit planning time. I wrote quickly and read through my work a few times to prevent major mistakes. This made writing a full length essay possible in one night, even with homework for my other six classes.
This heavy writing load was a very stressful experience. I learned how to express my ideas quickly and concisely, but this style of writing was lacking real world applicability. Sure, in various careers quick composition can be valuable, but in the “real world” we are given more time for long pieces of writing. These classes failed to emphasize a part of writing that is quite important: planning.
After high school English, the only real skill I had gained was the ability to write a mediocre essay on queue. I was actually more comfortable with timed writings since I knew I was expected to put less planning into my work. I simply did not know how to plan for a paper. English 109H was invaluable to my growth as a writer as it showed me what the planning stages should look like and some good questions to ask myself along the way.
The first lesson I learned was how to properly find a topic and figure out my stance. We were encouraged to search for information about a controversy in our field. Only once I was well versed did I choose my sources and the position I would take. For example, the planning stages of our first project had us finding, properly citing, and analyzing ten sources for an annotated bibliography. I can’t tell you the last time I used that many sources for a paper. I am used to forming an argument in my head (independent of the evidence I have to support it) and then taking off writing. I have no concern for the support for my claims and this often would result in a poorly formed argument.
Since we started by extensive research before writing, my arguments and ideas benefitted immensely. I no longer was forced to scour the internet for information that could support my ideas. When I was describing my process, I wrote, “With no concrete plan behind my work, I often fear that my argument would lead me to a dead end in terms of supporting evidence.” I had an idea of what to say, but no evidence. This was a fatal flaw in my writing process, but this class has shown me the correct order of the pre-composition stages. I will no longer plunge directly into composition, but will form my argument from the texts I find.
After the research stage came analysis of the rhetorical situation. This is something I was quite unfamiliar with. In past composition classes I wrote for the teacher. I failed to actually analyze what the purpose of my paper was, the context surrounding my issue, and who my audience could be (besides the person grading my piece). This class’s emphasis on understanding the rhetorical situation changed my approach to each project. I learned some expository questions I could ask myself to give me an idea of how to frame my writing. For project three the rhetorical situation was analyzed using three separate blog posts: Analyzing Context, Analyzing Purpose, and Audience and Genre. In these posts I learned some valuable questions I can ask myself from Writing Public Lives such as “What are some plausible reactions to you piece?” (Minnix and Nowotny-Young 326) or “What are the dominating schools of thought?” (Minnix and Nowotny-Young 340). These questions helped my writing process and gave me a good idea of how to shape my tone and vocabulary. I had never considered the situation when composing, but I realized that it removes much of the ambiguity from my writing process.
The next step of the planning phase was to consider the genre I was writing in. Normally, an english class is limited to a select few genres. Essays seem to be the only thing I ever wrote in high school. This class demonstrated how to write in multiple genres, including typical essay style. Furthermore, the course offered information on how to determine the conventions of a certain genre, even if I was unfamiliar with it. In my post entitled QRGs: The Genre I responded to a variety of questions posed about some sample QRGs. The questions, such as “What does the purpose of these QRGs seem to be?”, could be extended to any new genre. This internal dialogue will be especially useful as I start to make my first explorations into the field of scientific writing. There are a vast amount of specialized conventions that go into a scientific paper and the lens I was given by this class will allow me to identify those details and implement them as I create my first scientific works. The analysis of genre has made me a more adaptable writer, no longer limited to standard, boring essay formats.
The combination of all these planning steps made the outlining stage so easy. By the time I had reached this step I already had a very clear idea of what my piece would look like. My outlines flowed easily and I mapped out my papers quickly. After that it was only a matter of filling in the connections between my points and Voila!, my draft was complete. The best part was that my revisions were pain free. As I’ve mentioned, I don’t like revising very much, and planning extensively made my need for revisions minimal. The process overall was very low stress.
I also have a few words for all my classmates. Although I never met any of you in person, I have a good idea of your personalities and interests from your writing, which makes me feel like I know you well. I am grateful for all the feedback I received on my work. This class consisted of students from a variety of different backgrounds and from different age groups, so the information I learned from your work was diverse and interesting. I am glad to have survived with you who stuck it out.
This class, while not the most challenging composition course I have taken, was every helpful in showing me techniques to become a heavy planner. As I said in my first blog post, I’d like to be one as it is low-stress and makes that writing more manageable. My field, being a science discipline, also requires heavy planning. It is impossible to write a coherent scientific article without properly researching and planning your writing first. I am thankful to Professor Bottai for showing me what proper planning looks like and I am sure to utilize the techniques show to me this summer in my future studies.
Sincerely,
Mark Mellott
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