Trevor Scannell
Inquiry 4 Roughdraft
4/26/11
Throughout the spring semester of my freshman year of college, I have seen my writing
evolve more than ever. Most of my life, I have been told the right and wrong ways of writing,
and been given assignments which do not really allow for self-expression. However, these last
two semesters, and particularly this last one, have allowed me to experiment with my writing
styles. Through this, I have seen my styles change in good ways and bad. In all though, I would
probably say that my writing has seen a general improvement.
For the first few weeks of the semester, I was not sure how to blog and it was weird
having the ability to write whatever I wanted and share whatever I concluded about a certain
reading or assignment. Most of the time in high school, specifically when I was a freshman and
sophomore, my writing was strictly assigned on readings and the subject we had to write about
was strictly structured. With classes so strongly structured like that, it was hard to really
experiment with how to write; teachers basically wanted a word count (or page count), short
sentences, an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. They also did not
acknowledge different styles or ways of writing. Rather, they spent time making sure words were
spelled correctly and punctuation was in the right place. Perhaps this was because of my age, and
I guess when someone first begins to write these seem like the most important components.
However, when writing turns into something which can be reflective and introspective, rather
than just concluding something read, this is when people truly begin to know themselves as a
writer.
This semester, I have definitely composed some pieces of writing which have made me
proud, as well as a few which I am not necessarily embarrassed about but wish I would have
spent more time on. The reason I am not embarrassed about them or mad at myself about them is
because it is all part of the process. Writing is something everybody needs to fail at before
succeeding. I have not yet strictly “succeeded” as a writer (and few people in the world actually
have), but I have seen success in my own writing. The difference between the two could
probably be looked at as this: F. Scott Fitzgerald compared to someone who finally learns how to
tie a conclusion together. Fitzgerald succeeded as a writer, and the other saw success as a writer.
When I was younger, I hated writing. Every assignment was the same exact thing. I
would read or watch something and regurgitate exactly what I saw, read, or heard back onto
paper. I am not sure if this really helped me as a writer or not; maybe it helped me become a
better summarizer eventually. However, summarization and regurgitation only gets us so far: not
very. Summarizing is a powerful tool in rhetorical writing when used correctly, but summarizing
something for the sake of summarization in and of itself does very little unless you work for
Sparknotes.
The biggest lesson I have learned this semester is how to effectively express myself.
When I was in grade school, middle school, and even high school, I was told there was only one
way to write. There were strict writing rules which deterred students from writing how they
actually wanted to write. To start out, I think it is highly important for teachers to teach the rules
of writing, including spelling, punctuation, grammatical structures, parts of speech, and all the
basics. After that, I think students should be given more leeway with how they write. Sometimes
the use of quotes, in my opinion, is effective because it gives emphasis to certain words, even
when someone is not being quoted. Sometimes the use of parentheses is effective to include an
after-thought, inclusion, or exclusion of the point made by the author. These are all tools which
are not necessarily directly introduced to writers in school; they must discover them on their
own. But why? I understand for formal writing such as research papers or thesis papers or
business letters, among other types of writing, this is not necessarily the correct way to write.
But, sometimes this is a great way to write when reflecting on something. It makes the reader
feel like he or she is conversing with the author. Writing like you talk is obviously not the right
way to go about a heavily-researched paper or book, but novels and short stories are written in
this way all the time.
One of my writings I would like to focus on (and I will add more for my final draft which
will probably put on a substantial amount of more length) is my essay I sent with my
applications to colleges. In fourth grade, I was in a terrible car crash and was in the hospital for a
few weeks and underwent a few surgeries. Although really none of that background information
is necessarily pertinent to this assignment, I just figured I would add a tidbit of background
information behind what is next so that the reader understands what is going on. This was the
first body paragraph to my college application essay, and I think this really captures the moment
and tells the reader exactly what was going on without telling the story from a bland boring
perspective. I tried to relive the moment (as shitty as that was):
I wake up with paramedics surrounding me, as I lay helpless in the back of an ambulance
with no recollection of what has happened. The paramedic at the head of my stretcher
informs me I have been in a severe car accident on the way back home from
Breckenridge. Little do I realize, being a fourth-grader, that this will impact the rest of
my life. I don’t have any feeling in my body due to the fact that I am being pumped with
morphine and dozens of other pain-killers, so I don’t realize the exhausting months that
lay ahead. The healing process will be a long one, but a positive one, nonetheless. The
grueling months that lay ahead, I am told, are going to be used to heal what has been
damaged or broken in the crash, including my eye-temple, nose, jaw, and cheekbone. The
worst, I can easily tell, will be my jaw because I need to get a mold wired into the bottom
of my mouth and attached to my teeth to move the bones back into place.
In writing this essay for my admission, I did not write it for sympathy or anything like that; I
don’t want any. I simply wrote about it because it was a defining moment of my life and one
which I distinctly remember to this day. It shaped who I have become, and I am to this day
thankful for that incident. In this writing, I believe I found a new light in the room of writing. I
had never really written about something I, myself, had gone through. This allowed me to first of
all reflect, which I enjoy doing. But, it secondly allowed me to think about perspective. Do I
want to write in past or present tense? Do I want to write looking back on what happened or do I
want to write it so that the reader can also be the rider? In this case, and many other cases, I tried
to write in a manner that would intrigue the reader. It even intrigued me writing it, because even
though I already knew the story, I wanted to hear how it would be told. And the great thing about
it being on paper is that I could edit it and edit it over and over until it was how I wanted it to be,
when I finally felt compelled to share it with others.
Throughout the past few years, specifically towards the end of my high school career and
into the very beginning of my college career, I have tried to become my own writer. Even when I
read, I have noticed myself often paying more attention to the style of the writing than the story
itself. This takes away from my comprehension without a doubt, but I believe it has given me a
little boost in my knack for finding different ways to write.