Throughout my college career, I have grown in so many different ways (except unfortunately height). Perhaps one of my most signifiant and impactful developments has been my writing. When comparing all the papers I've written in my four years at Wake Forest, my development and growth as a writer is evident. Although in class, we have often talked about what "good" writing is and if it can even be defined. I don't have the answer to that and maybe there will never be a concrete definition of what good writing is.
The art of writing gives insight into how a person thinks and it through writing that we communicate ideas, perspectives and beliefs. Maybe we don't need to know what makes up good writing, maybe the purpose of minoring in writing is to show growth and development in the form of articulation. I realize that "development" can also be deemed vague, but in my papers I can see a clear growth in terms of my papers have a sense of purpose, my ability to write research papers with a creative twist and how I learned to write for different genres. With that being said, I can see growth in my writing voice, grammar and construction of arguments; however, what I want emphasis is my macro developments. I haven't even graduated yet and all of these developments have already impacted my strengths in the workplace.
1) Have A Sense of Purpose It is clear that in my more advanced papers (by advanced I am referring to my upper level papers) there is a real sense of purpose of why I am writing a paper. Instead of just being assigned another paper to write, my upperclassman papers illustrate real significance as to why every word and sentence is written. In other words, there is a clear division between my lower level papers and my upper level classes in terms of how I write and why I write. To be explicit, Douglas Vipond defines the difference of how to write and why I write in his journal called, “Social Motives for Writing Psychology: Writing for and With Younger Readers.” My interpretations of Vipond’s definitions as I understand are “how to write” is about the style, grammar rules, writing process and structure of my writing. Whereas, “why I write” is the significance of writing, the actual purpose of the paper.
During sophomore year I wrote a paper titled “Why I write,” and revisiting this paper now shows that I didn’t fully grasp the message. I talked about why I initially started to write and then how writers use different voices – I missed finding the significance of answering the question of why I write. Link to paper here: Why I Write
Although, I most definitely missed the mark with that paper, my development of purpose becomes evident in my later papers. For example, during my senior year I wrote a comparative cross national content analysis of the Las Vegas shooting (Link to paper). This paper had a clear purpose, which was founded in the thesis that bluntly states, “This paper examines the relationships between perfect witnesses and observing news outlets. This paper aggressive distinguishes the cultural differences between Canada and the United States presented in newspapers.” Comparing this to one of my freshman year thesis of Witchcraft (Link to paper), which states “For the sake of this paper, I will examine a large overview of witchcraft, meaning I will look at the general presence of witchcraft throughout the continent of Africa.” Obviously, each thesis is about different themes and genres, however, in my Mass Shooting paper I was able to stick to the thesis and reinforce that main “point” throughout the paper. Answering the big question of “why I am writing this paper.” Whereas, in my Witchcraft paper, it was clear that the point of my paper was only to write a paper for class, it didn’t have any clear significance.
2) Combining Creativity with Research So often in my college career I was asked to write a “research paper” that either (a) unveils new insight, (b) researches something deeply, or (c) finds a solution. I always dreaded this as I like writing more creative and narrative-based papers. I think that this has been one of my biggest, if not the biggest, development as a writer – my ability to combine research with a creative outlook. Freshman year, I was a nervous writer. I strictly followed protocol and tried my best to sound “academic” when writing papers. I was the thesaurus girl. During my freshman year first semester, I took a class called Empirical Research (Com 220), a mandatory course for the major. Coming out of high school, I always thought of my writing as a strength and figured I could take an upper-level course and do well in it. However, when looking at my thesis for this paper now, it is clear how “scared” I was to write something that was purely researched focused. For example, my paper’s thesis was: I am interested in how Social Networking Sites can affect the satisfaction of a romantic relationship while also looking at how people present themselves online. This study will look at two impacts Facebook can have on a person. I’m interested in how the surveillance of Facebook can lessen the satisfaction of a relationship and how Facebook affects the way different genders project themselves online. When reading this now, I am embarrassed. My writing is so straight-forward and concise. Although it is accurate, I find this so boring! Now, flash forward to senior year, where I’ve gotten more confidence in my ability to write, my theses are way more sophisticated and creative. In my most recent research paper for Sports and Media (Link), we were asked to research a topic that interest you and then present your findings. Nothing new in terms of what was being asked, however, instead of strictly following protocol, I took a different approach as a writer. My thesis began: The Olympic Games must adapt to the ever-changing ways of society, instead of being focused on its ancient traditions. The likelihood of the survival of the Olympics will derive from how quickly it can develop pa new business plan in order to prevail with the progression the 21st century brings. I then go on to discuss the problems with the current Olympics and create a new business model. This second part, creating a business model, is something I never would have had the confidence (or writing ability) to do freshman or sophomore year. It was only through development that I gained the experience in order to take research and turn it into something more than your typical research paper.
While I realize that students don't have the ability to do this is all our classes, especially sciences, however, in the communications department it is sign of true knowledge. The ability to use research, bring your own idea and be able to articulate all of these concepts into a well-written, thought provoking “research” article. At this point I want to point out that it is more than interpreting research, it is looking at the research/data and shining a new outlook or fresh idea onto it. Although I’m not sure when I specifically learned how to do this, I do believe that it was derived from class discussions in my classes. Often in the communication department we would look at previous research or studies and talk about how they are relevant to the 21st century. We would pull on concepts that we’ve learned in other classes and our own personal experiences.
My ability to turn research into a compelling paper has helped me outside of school as well. In terms of internships where I had to read data and turn it into powerpoint presentations for clients or using SEO platforms to create competitive reviews. I want to go into the marketing technology world and it is crucial to be able to use data, research, theories and turn it into more “storytelling” in order for the client and businesses to understand.
3) Crossing Over Genres: My Ability to Write For Difference Discourses One of my biggest strengths as a writer is my ability to adapt my writing for different courses. Since Wake is a liberal art school, you have to take your divisionals in social sciences, mathematics, science, humanities etc. In each of these courses, there is writing involved at varying degrees. This can be challenging and difficult to figure out how to write for each discipline and the criteria each course calls for. Through instructor’s feedback, readings, rubrics, and class discussions I have learned to be able to adapt my writing to follow protocol. Although a person’s ability to write a philosophy paper and a physics lab report may seem minuscule in the larger sense of development, being able to adapt my writing voice has been instrumental in my work experience.
One of our assignments in this class was to repurpose an essay into a different genre. I took a research paper and turned it into a New York Times journalism article. Read more about this here. The media and marketing world is a crazy and ever-evolving field. With new ideas, social media platforms and technology coming out every day, a person’s ability to be able to write for across all platforms is crucial. For example, two summers ago I worked for a start-up company that developed a branded voice of being witty, fun and engaging. I would post content on social media and frequently update their blog using this writing voice. However, last summer I worked for a more serious company that had an immensely respected voice in the marketing world. I had to write more academic memo’s and request for proposals using a different type of voice. I credit my ability to do so from my liberal arts education. You wake up and go to physics at 10am and write up a lab report and then you go to your creative writing class at 11:30 and write a personal poem. It was only through my development, growth and experience of this do I feel confident enough to write for different audiences – a skill that is sought after in the marketing workplace.