The Personal and Societal Applications of Writing
ERH 101, Section 1
Date Due: 3 July 2014
Date Sub.: 3 July 2014
Paper No. 1
Help Received: WC
Peer response with
Cody Bennet & Hunter
Starner
Andrew Campo
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Writing has never been a strength of mine. I was never good at planning
or writing long, strenuous essays. I don’t even enjoy writing; nevertheless, many
people, including myself, spend countless hours writing to improve writing and
rhetoric skills. Writing is not only necessary in academia, but also in the
business world. I have spent much of my life developing my writing skills
because writing is an essential part of any developed society.
As far back as I can remember, I have been taking English and writing
classes. In elementary school I learned the vocabulary, in middle school I was
taught sentence structure, and by the time I was in high school I was already
learning how to form paragraphs into essays. Writing was not only taught in
English classes, but was also a large part of other courses as well.
At least one of my high school history classes required me to write essays.
I was regularly assigned five-paragraph essays in response to prompts known as
“Free Response Questions” that relied on previous knowledge of a particular
subject. These essays had to be completed within very restrictive periods of time
(1-2 hours). I was also required to incorporate research, from provided historical
sources, into essays that answered much more difficult, “Data Based Questions”.
The goal of these essays was to quickly make an argumentative point based on
historical sources. I would only have minutes to throw together an outline. In
addition, finding time to proofread was virtually impossible. Because of the
restrictive time requirements, it was difficult to produce high quality essays. In
contrast, English essays are generally assigned as homework; this allows for
more time to be spent on things such as organization and editing.
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Writing a good English essay presents its own set of challenges. When
beginning an essay, I am often faces with many questions such as: “what do I
talk about?”, “what is my thesis going to be?”, and “how will my main points
support that thesis?”. In order to get a good grade, I must also satisfy all the
requirements and expectations given by my professor. Because there is so
much pressure to write successfully, starting an essay can be one of the most
discouraging elements of the writing process. To combat the difficulties
associated with beginning an essay, I have gradually come to understand and
incorporate different brainstorming techniques into my writing process.
Examples of this include: free-writing, clustering, and listing just to name a few. I
have also become more familiar with planning an essay. Some of the more
recent improvements in my writing have been in the areas of transitions and
essay organization. As I have learned new techniques in starting, organizing,
and developing essays, my papers have gotten better and the writing process
has gotten easier.
When I need to write an essay, I usually stick to the same routine. I
always like to find a setting with adequate lighting and a chair that is not too
comfortable, because of this I often go to libraries to work on writing
assignments. My preferred tools for writing are a pen and paper, even if I have
to later transfer the writings to a computer. When I sit down to work on a paper, I
usually start with brainstorming. My preferred techniques are free-writing and
bulleting ideas. Afterwards, I try to outline what my essay is going to look like. In
the case of this essay, the different sections were already broken down and I did
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little more than to write a thesis. After typing up a first draft, I enter a cycle of
printing out my essay to read and correct. This generally involves making
corrections with a pen such as changing the wording, inserting transitions to
make the essay flow better, and even adding sentences where needed. This
cycle of printing and making corrections continues until I stop finding faults or
improvements and I am happy with my final result. My personal experiences with
writing have also taught me how important writing is to society.
Writing is used in almost every aspect of society, but the most basic role is
communication. In the modern world, communication through writing is just as
common as speaking, whether it is through email, letters, or even text messages.
Family members often stay in touch by writing letters to each other; colleges
keep their students informed through frequent emails, and friends frequently
socialize by texting. Besides communication, writing has other uses as well.
Another way that writing has influenced society is through its usefulness in
expressing ideas. People generally write books and essays to share their ideas
and emotions with other people. The enlightenment and scientific revolution are
both great examples of educated people expressing their ideas and beliefs
through writing. The expression of ideas and beliefs is not the only use of
writing.
Recording data and information has been one of the oldest use of writing.
Ancient cultures used writing to record stories and events significant to their
societies. An example of this would be the hieroglyphs of the ancient Egyptians.
Most of what we know about their culture was discovered through the writings
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they left behind; before people could translate hieroglyphs, the pyramids were
believed to have been built by the Greeks. Aside from recording stories, writing
has also aided in the advancement of technology. Through the use of writing, our
society has been able to record and improve upon the information, methods, and
inventions of past generations. There are also other ways in which writing has
been used to shape society.
Writing has a long history of being used in the maintenance and
administrative work of governments. Governments, past and present, are able to
tax trade and populations through the recording of sales transactions and
income. Because of this, writing has allowed societies to expand and has
allowed governments to maintain control over large territories. Writing can also
be used to make life simpler. Instruction manuals are a good example of this.
People don’t have to spend as much time figuring out how to accomplish an
objective when the methods are spelled out for them.
A good understanding of writing and rhetoric is important for those that
wish to do well in college. An English course would help anyone who needs to
effectively express ideas. For this reason, I decided to take ERH over the
summer at VMI. One of the habits that I would like to change this summer about
my writing is procrastination. It is not uncommon for me to wait until the last day
or two to start working on major writing assignments. When I do not make
efficient use of my time, I am left with essays that are rushed and half-finished.
At VMI, I plan to learn time management skills to prevent situations such as this.
I also predict that I will be spending a significant amount of time at VMI writing.
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Much of the writing assignments will probably be for English related courses. I
am majoring in Business and Economics, so it is also likely that I will be reading
a lot of essays written by professionals. After a while, I may be tasked with
writing my own essays on business related subjects. By taking ERH over the
summer at VMI, I will be better prepared to succeed in my business courses.
Ever since elementary school, I have been learning the writing and
rhetoric skills that have helped to shape our society. Writing has allowed
humans to communicate and work together to tame the forces of nature. The
writing skills that I have spent my educational life learning will be a valuable asset
after I leave VMI. If I go into the military I will be able to efficiently write reports.
If I go into finance, I will create effective financial documents. It is likely that I will
continue to improve upon my writing throughout the rest of my life. Writing is like
any other skill, perfecting it takes practice.