College Writing Review

            Writing has always been a strange thing for me. I was an absolutely box-minded, horrible writer when I was younger until I was inspired by a teacher of mine in 5^th grade (see “Writing Review Week” post during Week 8).  Since, I have had no real trouble with it, that is, until recently. This past semester I have written more than I have in over two years. This class, as well as my Law & Society class, has forced me out of my comfort zone of technical writing into a more creative realm I hadn’t visited in quite some time. Writing without the strict constraints of  “hypothesis, steps, justification, etc.”  has been incredibly difficult for me to get used to. Many would argue that there is no “wrong” writing, and anyone who has written a technical report would quickly refute that: hence my struggle. Many times I sat down with my fingers resting on my keyboard and no idea what to do. I didn’t have an outline. I didn’t have a set goal. I was just supposed to write. And I did, and more often than not, beauty fell out.

            Writing, especially in a college setting, always seems to have so many constraints placed upon it. “Make sure it’s five pages. Have an obvious thesis. Stay on topic. Follow this format.” and so on and so on. I always sit there with a rubric in my hands, holding back a little scream and all of my creativity. It’s a little backwards. If I can adequately convey my point in four and a half pages, why must it be five? What if my thesis isn’t blatantly stated by design? It’s a big no-no to cross the rubric in collegiate writing, and granted the constraints are there to weed out the excuses, but is completely restricting my thinking better than half a page of babble? I’m not sure I know that answer but to that I say:

            I am SO incredibly thankful that I ended up taking this course. While it may have been stressful at times to think of a story and execute it with proper grammar and punctuation, it re-opened my thought processes and my love of literature and prose. I am really excited to finally have time to read over the summer for the first time in months. I’ve even decided to start a blog of some sort for me to babble about my struggles and successes, at least through the summer. Hopefully throughout the rest of my college experience as well.  I have a feeling that blog is going to be a lot like me: confusing, random, ridiculous and overly sarcastic… but that’s beside the point.  “Epics of India” was much more than just another class to get through, but an eye opener to culture, stories, writing…creativity! I would have thought I would enjoy something like this as much as I did and I am so glad that a strange series of events led me to this rekindling of such a wonderful thing.

Image which reads
"Find your voice.
Express yourself.
Creative Writing"
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