Writing has been a common theme and a common process in my life since I began school. Writing and I have had a complicated relationship, a love-hate relationship if you will. From the days of creating “books” that got “published” by my kindergarten teacher, to thinking that I never want to see the word precis again, I’ve always loved writing and considered myself a writer. Over the years, my process of writing has changed and evolved, just as I have. Coming into this class, I had never considered my writing process before. I have always been a “good” writer by academic standards, so I felt no need to analyze the process to help improve my writing. If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it, right? So, beginning my exploration of my own writing was quite the challenge for me. I don’t know what I do when I write, I just do. Prior to this class, my writing style looked a little like this: sit down to begin writing and just do it. I never thought about what I was writing (or so I thought) I just wrote whatever and it kind of worked for me. That process, to an extent, still does work for me. However, being introspective about my writing has allowed me to tweak, develop, and further my writing process. Largely through the power of reflection, my theory of writing has evolved to what it is today.

I would consider my writing process to be largely one of stages. Not necessarily rigid stages, as the writing process is fluid and cannot be defined solely by such restrictive categories. My process begins with a brainstorm, of sorts, that turns into some kind of vague and hardly interpretable pseudo outline – but it works for me. The ideas in my brain make their way to paper in a rather incoherent manner, and it may almost seem like nonsense.

The brainstorming process develops from an understanding of my purpose. In the beginning of my writing process, I make a special point to ensure that my purpose is on track and correct. This can be accomplished in multiple ways. Firstly, understanding what the prompt or task at hand is. The way I (or anyone, I’d assume) approaches writing a creative and expressive haiku is very different than the way I approach writing a rigid, just for points, five paragraph essay. Writing down my purpose or my end goal also helps me to understand if I’m starting on the right track or not. Physically writing down my goals for the specific writing task helps me make an outline that is going to be more effective. Once the purpose of my task has been fully flushed out and I have a deep understanding of the task at hand, the brainstorming process can proceed, but in a slightly different manner.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, there is no rhyme or reason to the way in which I brainstorm. The process may start from somewhere in the middle, maybe the beginning, or possibly the end. During this process, however, I stress to myself the importance of the unrestricted flow of ideas. The process of brainstorming is chaotic, and it probably would look like absolutely nothing to someone else, but it works for my process. The “end goal” of my brainstorming process is to have a basic outline that will guide the rest of my writing, so I do invest time in this process. Here is largely where the major connections for the paper are made and the actual writing process (stay tuned) is simply a matter of connecting the ideas into something beautiful, and coherent. Even if my brainstorm looks like a jumbled mess of characters, and potentially symbols, it helps turn the jumbled mess in my brain into that lovely and coherent product. This process does not evolve in the same way for every piece of writing, however. Some assignments need a bit more of a push whereas others may just flow perfectly from brain to page. That’s why the brainstorming process can be extremely variable, given the circumstances of the task. Looking at the example below gives a bit more insight into my process in the early stages of writing. Below is an excerpt from the first brainstorm of the Inquiry Based essay.

As you can see, this excerpt is chaotic and anything but polished. I believe, however, that this random process is essential to the development of my writing. This process allows me to get everything I’m thinking about the topic down onto paper so that I can start the process of formulating connections. With the enhanced understanding of rhetorical terms acquired in this class, my brainstorming process has benefited from this more in depth level of critical thinking.

            Once the initial brainstorming process has been completed, I have a rough outline of my ideas for the writing task at hand. Next comes perhaps the most daunting step in the process, the writing itself. I without fail begin the actual writing process with a “jump into the deep end” kind of mentality. Once my rough outline is finished, I will jump directly into writing the introduction of the piece.

            This initial stage of writing may look drastically different based on the purpose of the work. In this stage is where I try to define the formality of the work and set the tone with language and sentence structure. Using the purpose defined in the outline, I guide my writing largely by the audience I’m trying to reach. For this reason, the thought process looks a little different each time but still has the same fundamental consideration of my audience. The Composition in Two Genres displays this idea well. Below is an excerpt from each of my compositions, addressing the same audience, albeit in a slightly different way.

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“I am writing this letter to you to voice my support for the funding of the CalFresh program. Nearly 1 in 8 people, and 1 in 6 children, in California face food insecurity every day. There have been numerous studies on the detrimental health effects, including toxic stress, stunted growth, and poor academic performance for children who face food insecurity¹. I have seen firsthand in my own community the impact that hunger and food insecurity have on my peers.”

“Senator Feinstein, the time has come, yet again, to decide what our country prioritizes through your “power of the purse.” Many pieces of legislation with your support have yielded great results, but one thing remains clear: many Californians still face food insecurity on a daily basis. Food insecurity is the occasional or constant lack of access to the food one needs for a healthy, active life.”

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In the first excerpt, we can see a certain level of formality and professionalism, with emphasis on credibility through the usage of facts that necessitate a citation. In the second excerpt, we can see a different tone established, one of less formality, more dynamic word choice, and varied sentence structure.

            My process of writing, as it stands now, is largely guided by some of the main rhetorical terms. As previously mentioned, audience is the largest factor that I take into consideration upon beginning my writing.  The audience is of utmost importance as the way you address a senator is different from the way in which you address your mother or your best friend. In the same respect, my thought process varies but follows this principle consideration.

Another major thing I take into consideration is the tone and language of my writing. Personally, I love being able to communicate personality through my writing but there also needs to be a consideration of, you guessed it, the audience and the relevance of displaying personality for the audience. In a rigidly structured essay, I’m not necessarily as concerned with how my personality shines through and moves the reader. In a love letter, I might be concerned with precisely those two things.

Lastly, I also consider the genre of the writing. There is a lot to be said about not just what you say but how you say it, which is where genre can come in. It’s probably not the smartest idea to send your senator a text message littered with an obnoxious amount of emoji’s when you want to ask them to help your community (although, wouldn’t that be really, really cool). This is where genre comes in. Guided by, you guessed it, your intended audience. This awareness is extremely important as an inappropriate genre can completely derail the intention of your message before it has even been given the chance to be received. Knowledge and awareness of the rhetorical terms that I learned in this class have by far had the largest impact on my writing. Before coming into this class, I may have subconsciously considered a few of the rhetorical terms, but there was certainly no cognizant effort to implement them in my writing. Now, my writing process feels very deliberate in that sense – I always consider many of the rhetorical terms before even beginning the writing stage, and my writing is without question stronger because of it.

            Take this composition, for instance. I found using an article format to be the most effective genre for my theory of writing. An article allows a certain amount of freedom that other genres don’t. Due to the personal nature of my theory of writing, I wanted to be able to show my personality in my writing, which an article format allows me to do. For me, being able to show my own voice in a reflection makes the process more authentic to me and my overall theory of writing. My own process of writing is, inevitably, very personal. The way in which I order things, think about things, consider my environment, and write are all specific to me and my own process. Therefore, using an article format for my theory of writing was of the utmost importance as I felt this genre would allow me to let my ideas flow in the most authentic way to me and my process.

            With these careful considerations in mind, the writing process generally flows smoothly for me. Although there clearly isn’t “no” method to the madness, I would almost say that there’s no method to the madness. I like to write in a relaxed state, the Instrumental Study playlist on Spotify playing in the background. I find that the white noise quality of some light background music allows me to focus more intensely on the task at hand. Then, seemingly like magic, there appears a work of writing in front of me.

            The last, and perhaps least discrete, stage of them all is the revision and editing stage. Once I have labored through the other two stages, most of the hard work in my process has already been completed. Writing for me in a first draft tends to always come out well, so I always have a good idea of what the full finished product will look like. To help explain this, here is a sentence from the first draft of my Source Based Essay, and the following revised sentence that made the final draft:

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“Still today, there are thousands of private prisons in the United States that largely run without calls for regulation, health, safety and well-being of their inmates.”

“Still today, there are thousands of private prisons in the United States that largely run without calls for regulation, health, safety, and well-being of their inmates.”

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Don’t see any difference? Please, I added an Oxford comma! This example, although obviously a bit drastic, displays all that I consider to be a discrete revision stage of my writing. I pride myself on my abilities as a writer, and although in no way shape or form am I eluding to the fact that my writing is free of error and doesn’t need improvement, but, I am generally happy with what I write in a first draft. Is this absolutely always the case? No, however, this does seem to be the case for the majority of the writing that I compose.

            The Inquiry Based Essay was an exception to this general rule. I found myself doing significant revisions and restructuring of that essay. This stemmed from a couple of things: a loose grasp on my intended audience and a sincere want to make that paper the best that it could be. I added two subsections under the third section of the paper because I felt that more elaboration was necessary to add support to my overall claim. In the Inquiry Based Essay, I focused on public school funding schemes in New York and, further, how race and socioeconomic status effect this funding. Quite the mouth full, I know. That’s why I found myself a bit lost in directing the purpose of my paper. Sometimes I get so invested and passionate about the topic I’m writing about that it can prevent me from being able to organize my thoughts properly. This assignment showed me that, but I also learned to trust in my own process and to know that I will be able to work out the inherent “problems” in my writing, the process just may take a bit longer than anticipated. In the section “The Courts and Public Education,” I added this subsection:

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A. CAMPAIGN FOR FISCAL EQUITY V. STATE OF NEW YORK

The 1995 court case Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. State of New York concerned the State of New York neglecting the educational needs of New York City kids through a lack of proper funding. The state supreme court upheld the right of a “sound basic education,” in the states constitution and that as a result of that, the funding scheme was inadequate to provide that opportunity to New York City students. The Appellate court decided against the CFE and the Court of Appeals reversed this decision, requiring the state take action to change the funding scheme for New York City students (NYCLU). This case has been used as a legal precedent in many school finance litigations that have followed.

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            However succinct this section may seem in the grand scheme of a seven-page essay, I found that this small block of text added a major piece of context that helped bring the point of the entire section home. This subsection represents a rare but necessary major revision to my initial Inquiry Based Essay that added a tremendous amount of value to the finished result. This process was an important one as it showed me that sometimes there will be major foundational issues with my writing but that, in the end, the sun will rise again and I will be able to get an end result that I’m happy with

            If trying to put revision in a singular box, I would say that my writing generally benefits from the rearranging of sentence structure and word choice. In general, there aren’t any major foundational or structural issues (minus, of course, the example above) that would necessitate drastic changes in my writing. However, if that were the case, this would be the stage in which those issues would be addressed.

            If anything, the revision process for me is a fluid one rather than one of a discrete stage, as the other two steps can be represented in the process. While in the writing stage is when I make many of the revisions, on the spot. This is largely the reason I claim that my first drafts of papers oftentimes end up looking very much like the final draft does. Revision is a constant process that happens when I’m writing and rereading what I wrote to ensure the clarity of the idea, no matter the context or audience considerations. For this reason, revision is largely hard to pinpoint in my process of writing. One thing may appear on the page one moment of the writing process, and it could be completely gone the next moment due to the revision process sneaking its way in.

            The skills that I have learned through the course of this class have already helped me succeed in other classes. For my U.S. Government and Politics class, we’ve had to write multiple essays, all with a different purpose. From an opinion piece to a persuasive essay, employing the rhetorical terms throughout my writing process has undoubtedly allowed me to excel in that class. The elements of my theory of writing can also be applied to writing outside of the classroom. I am currently studying Biomedical Engineering and being able to communicate technical ideas in writing to laypeople is a critical part of the job. This level of communication can be achieved through careful consideration of the rhetorical terms such as language, genre, tone, and audience. Now that I have a proper foundation in place, harnessing and improving these skills in the years to come will help set me apart from other engineers who are less competent in their communication skills.

            My theory of writing can be applied to scenarios that don’t even involve writing. For example, verbal communications can be greatly improved through the implementation of the rhetorical terms as I’ve learned them throughout this class. When addressing my professors, it’s probably not the best idea to address them by their first name, unless, of course, you have that kind of relationship. Either way, this awareness comes from your position as an author and your awareness of your audience.

Undoubtedly, the journey of writing in my life and more specifically in this class have shaped me into the writer that I am today. Writing in different styles and incorporating reflection has forced me to consider my processes in a way I never had before, and my writing has become better as a result of this challenge. Each piece of writing that I’ve encountered in my life has challenged me in a different way and brought me to the process that I currently possess.  Although my writing process has certainly not reached a peak in its evolution, I am proud of what it has evolved to be. In the future, I will welcome more change in this process as I grow and evolve as a writer myself.

            While we may never be able to define an exact process of writing due to the complex cognitive processes that writing involves, my theory of writing largely follows the format of the three stages: brainstorm, writing, and revision. The first process, brainstorming, is dependent on the free flow of ideas that may lead to some connections down the line. The writing process is dependent on audience and language considerations and a work environment that is conducive to the composition of my writing. The revision stage is not a discrete process, but rather a constant and overarching process that finds its way into both discrete levels of the process. I welcome the evolution of my writing in the future and know that the valuable skills attained in this class will help me not only in my academics but also in my personal and professional life moving forward.