Writer's Evolution Essay

"A Writer Is a Reader Moved to Emulation" - Saul Bellow

I stare in awe at my computer screen after reading a convincing opinion editorial piece from the New York Times. I raise my eyebrows and think wow after picturing in my mind a beautifully scripted passage from one of my favorite novels. I sit in a conference room chair and desire the ability to master the Prezi platform like my supervisor had done when re-pitching Nokia as a client in China.

I’ve always been drawn to the art of writing. Yes, the art of it. I believe the most successful writers are the ultimate craftsmen. They weave together various ideas, images, and research to create multifaceted, detailed pieces of work. But how do these writers create such convincing and captivating pieces? What about these works manages to grab and hold our attention, leaving us with a different way of thinking after we’ve finished?

My experience with writing throughout my undergraduate career reflects a path towards discovering how to become a successful creator like the authors I’m drawn to. Originally only focused on employing the proper rhetorical strategies, my idea now of what comprises a piece capable of altering others’ points of view has changed into a deeper, more nuanced perception. I believe that authors who truly affect readers consider the medium of their message as it relates to a specific audience and incorporate their own personal experiences and opinions in their text.

Prior to my Introduction to the Writing Minor course, I had routinely followed a traditional form of communication – academic papers comprised of relatively equal-length paragraphs, each one with one to two quotations or outside references. And although valuable practice for someone new to college writing, I look back on freshman year assignments and see completely different ways of tackling them. My Writing 220 re-purposing project allowed me to see for the first time that the medium of a message is just as important and nuanced as its text.

For the project, I transformed a traditional, argumentative essay on unpaid internships – about 8 pages in length – into a five-hundred word opinion editorial piece intended for Michigan Daily readers. Completing this assignment made me re-evaluate what my new target audience – the average Michigan student – would find interesting, compelling, and ultimately, persuasive. Interestingly enough, I hadn’t really even had an “old” target audience to work from. For the original paper I had strategically broke the topic into three clear reasons against unpaid internships, but wrote without a particular audience in mind (or if we are being honest, really just my professor):

Multiple negative consequences arise from the prevalence of unpaid internships in the workplace. Companies frequently exploit individuals based on the necessity of internship experience to get ahead in a desired field. As the demand for internships increases and supply remains constant, employers can manipulate those seeking experience. As more and more internships at most offer college credit as compensation, affluent students have an edge over those unable to afford working without pay. This advantage widens the gap between wealthy and less well-off students. Furthermore, unpaid internships affect the economy at large by displacing previously low-skilled workers and choosing well-connected members of society for jobs over those with the most skill and talent.

But when taking into consideration my targeted college student reader, I realized that a shorter opinion editorial piece would have better reach and impact. This format allowed me to speak to the reader on the same playing field and engage with them on a more personal level.

My re-purposing project enlightened me on how certain textual mediums of communication can impact whether someone finds a work successful, or even at least worthy of reading.

On a similar note, a couple of months ago I applied to a position at Google. In line with the knowledge I had acquired regarding the importance of mediums, I decided not to submit my resume in its standard format. Instead, I researched how Google displayed their own case studies and mimicked my resume features to follow that format.

By transforming my resume to fit the format of a Google Case Study, I sought to show my audience that I understood how they think and that my mind could work like theirs. As an underclassman applying for jobs that valued creativity and innovation, I never thought twice about changing my resume. Yet now I try to think of any way my resume can stand out. In this case, I didn’t limit myself to what most people consider the “right” way to present resume content. I like to think this unique presentation landed me the interview.

But to give the medium of a message sole importance would be incorrect. As I’ve learned especially through my argumentative essay class, various rhetorical strategies comprise the meat of successful writing. In the class I was given the assignment of selecting an article I found particularly persuasive and then analyzing the reasons why I thought so. Analyzing how another writer successfully communicated an argument in turn altered my view of how every word, line, and phrase I incorporate into my writing should serve a purpose. Through this assignment I came to see writers and craftsmen as one in the same.

By the end of my junior year I was proud of my writing evolution. On a whim, I decided as a first semester senior to take another class with the same argumentative writing professor. I had connected with his teaching style and assumed another class with him would be quite similar in topic. To my initial disappointment, personal narrative writing formed the class. Um, personal narrative? Like I’m writing just about myself? Well, crap I suck at creative writing, I thought. My inexperienced mind automatically categorized this type of writing as completely separate from the influential, argumentative style I was used to and enjoyed.

And I was completely wrong.

I chastise my initial weary and negative mind about trying something new. As it would turn out, the class became perhaps my favorite one at the University. It completely expanded my horizons on how to employ my own unique tone, paragraph formatting, dialogue (both internal and external), and descriptive scene setting. I was essentially allowed to write about anything of my choosing, as long as it followed a personal narrative format. I wrote about topics I never imagined I would be writing about for a class, taking on a diverse, sometimes serious and sometimes comic spectrum of subjects: questions of identity triggered by an offbeat nickname, my ambivalent relationship with my spoken voice, and my bearing witness to adolescent and post-adolescent pressures of female body image.

Throughout the semester I developed confidence in my writing, specifically regarding the value of my own voice and experiences as important things worth contributing to society. In fact, my classmates resonated most with the parts of my paper where I incorporated my thoughts and opinions on complex subject matter. I've included an excerpt from one of my essay's on identity formation below:

How do we form our identities?

I’m not sure I could’ve answered that question a couple of years ago, let alone recognize the importance of inquiring on such a topic. Yet, receiving an unusual nickname during my sophomore year of college quickly propelled me into a realm of thought never previously explored. Can we truly understand the complexities of our personalities without understanding how others perceive us? I can’t attribute coincidence to the paralleling trend between the more unique relationships I’ve cultivated and my level of self-awareness. I no longer view identities as containing neat, clearly defined boarders. Instead, I embrace their variability, and paradoxically, permanently changing nature. (Biaggi, 2013)

Perhaps most significantly from this class did I see from others and my own work how narrative, personal experiences can get others thinking about a subject just as much, or even more so, than traditionally structured pieces.

For example, I read one story for a workshop about a student’s experience losing his passed-away father’s glasses in the ocean, only to run into a man later that day who had retrieved them. The story, although simple, created beautiful and extremely detailed imagery of a young man experiencing an event he just couldn’t attribute to coincidence. It was one of those pieces that mutes all of the sound surrounding you. Although not forced nor directly stated, but instead hidden among his story, I left the piece sincerely questioning my own opinions about afterlife as well. I’m not sure another genre of writing could have had as great of an effect on me. Through writing experiences like this have I developed a more nuanced perspective on what it takes to engage audiences and leave them with a different way of thinking.

My Writing Minor Capstone Project

I have formulated my Capstone Project – an autoethnography on the impact of social media and engagement – based on an upper-level Communications class I am currently enrolled in on the social consequences of mobile communication. Ironically, the author of one of the articles I analyzed for my Michigan English placement essay – Sherry Turkle – is the same author who wrote the book I referred to for my Capstone Project.

The placement essay prompt was informal, yet for some reason I didn’t incorporate any personal examples to support my thesis or opinion. My initial perceptions of what constitutes persuasive evidences shines clearly in this essay. Although such a relatable topic, I never once incorporated scenic writing to place my reader directly into a situation where technology induces laziness. Instead, I explain, “driving to the clothing store five minutes away or even to a nearby gym shows how the car’s invention has induced individual laziness.” Wouldn’t this be the perfect opportunity to take a moment to pause between facts and quotes from the article and engage the reader on a more personal level? On the same token, I not once used the word “I” in the placement essay. At the time, I had a preconceived notion that academic papers always meant removing yourself from the material, or not writing subjectively. I didn’t believe I could incorporate my own voice and experiences to persuade an audience to take interest in a particular topic. I now have a completely different view on what it means to write academically.

Four years later and I have formulated my Capstone Project so differently.

I completely emerged myself into the study of social media and how it relates to various categories of individuals' levels of engagement. By withdrawing from all social media platforms for three weeks, my personal experiences encompassed the large majority of my research. I take my audience on the journey with me, not just reporting on social media effects from a removed perspective. Since my target audience is predominately college-aged students, I have presented my research and findings in an interactive Tumblr page. This medium I believe will complement the aspects of my project much better than a traditional paper.

Please click here to be directed to my Capstone Project. Also, click here for my original project proposal. Enjoy!

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Annotated Bibliography For Writer's Evolution Essay

As a writing minor at the University of Michigan, I have taken a plethora of courses aimed at broadening my writing skill set. From traditional argumentative essays to narrative pieces, the essay below reflects how my writing has progressed over the past four years.