Kerne 1
Dane A. Kerne
Dr. Johanna Schmertz
English 3305
20 October 2015
When I sat down to write my literary autobiography, I found myself pausing to reflect on
some memory or contemplate an idea. More often than not, I would stare at my kindergarten-age
daughter’s drawings hanging near my desk, a collection of multi-colored representations of the
musings of a six year old. My favorite one is her depiction of what my workspace (I’m a
technical writer) must look like in her mind: keyboard, mouse, and monitor. The monitor screen
is a collage of letters and text, along with stick-figure representations (all smiling, of course) of
the people that “daddy” writes about at work. To her, writing is a still-mystical means of saying
something about the people, places, and events that make up our world.
Growing up, let’s just say that I had a more…antiseptic view of literacy. My parents were
loving, hard-working, and unfailingly supportive and good to me and my siblings, and for that I
owe them a lifetime of gratitude and appreciation. One thing they weren’t, however, was wellread. In my childhood household, books weren’t fully understood or appreciated, but they were
always respected.
Books were written by people who “knew things” on a level that we did not, and
therefore writing’s primary purpose was to inform and educate. Creativity was shunted aside, as
it wasn’t seen as productive a use of one’s learning time as reading a book (or writing on the
contents of something I had read). Imagination was stimulated as a result, sure, but reading and
writing was a means to an end (to learn) rather than an end unto itself.
Kerne 2
I still remember my favorite book from childhood, which wasn’t age-based at all. My
father attended one semester of community college as a young man, and the one impression that
this experience made on him was to get him hooked on history. One of his courses was a World
History course that interested him so much that he dropped out of school (just kidding, though
true). Seriously, he kept that textbook (called “Civilizations”) for years afterwards. I must have
read that book from cover to cover at least a dozen times, intrigued by with the straightforward
depictions of the rise and fall of nations throughout history. Other kids collected comic books,
and I read textbooks. Go figure.
I continued to view writing and reading in this “means to an end” manner well into
adulthood, with my own personal writing style still more outcome-based (I studied pre-law in an
earlier stint in college, as if the world doesn’t have enough lawyers) than free-flowing and
introspective. Words were chosen carefully for their meaning and intent, such as meeting the
stylistic norms of a solid legal brief or school essay.
In fact, the reason why I left college the first time was due to an unexpected and
intriguing job opportunity: becoming a junior-level technical writer. Lawyering wasn’t really my
bag anyway (I don’t like to argue), but here was a more-than-acceptable substitute for me: a
means of communicating technical concepts through the use of formal, purpose-driven language
and structured formats. Technical types---engineers, mostly---devise these extravagant systems
and solutions that require extensive training and documentation for the end user (operators,
technicians) to use. I find helping to bridge the communication gap between the two both
interesting and personally satisfying. Some 15 years later, I am still writing, editing, and
producing copy that informs, intrigues, and clarifies.
Kerne 3
Some of my “best” and most considered writing comes from my own personal resume
and cover letter---if you’re a professional writer sans degree, you best have a compelling resume
to get your foot in the door at most companies. Here is an excerpt:
As a professional writer, I use a systematic approach to document development that
keeps my writing concise, accurate, and timely. I serve as an interpreter of sorts, one who
collaborates with others to create documents that are clearly written and technically
accurate.
As I mentioned previously, I am a father to a young child (two, actually). Parenthood has
changed many things in my life, of course, but one that really tickles me is seeing the interest my
children have in learning literally blossom in front of me in real time. I spend plenty of time at
home these days communicating with my children in a way that matters-to connect, to inform,
but most of all to intrigue. I’ve experienced enough in life to date (I’m comfortably in my 40s) to
know how much there is for a young person to know as they grow and prosper, and I want my
children’s relationship with language and literacy to be more full spectrum than my own. Can
books introduce big and important things? Of course, but they’re also great for just plain old
having fun, which is actually another manner of teaching and inspiring for kids and their young
and developing minds.
Kerne 4
My children are firmly children of the Information Age, and there is no real escaping that
fact. The condensed and clipped writing found in social media will be a part of their lives one
day, like it or not, and it will impact their relationship with language in ways that younger me
never could. I truly believe that the best way to grow and prosper developmentally is to be as
broad-based in one’s interests as possible. I hope that my children’s relationships with language
and literacy continue to grow and change as they grow and change, as my own views have
(slowly) begun to grow and change as well.