The end of this academic term is coming quickly upon us. Yes, we will be doing a final self-reflective essay to end this class, but I believe that this blog has presented me with a unique opportunity to discuss where my writing has come this semester in context of intertextuality. This blog also gives us a medium that is more free than a formal academic paper.
Looking at my previous papers is how I most effectively track the progress of my writing. Setting my written pieces adjacent to each other is the only way I can honestly asses where my writing was, where it is currently, and where it is (likely) going.
I always find myself coming back to this theme when writing for this class- The only way we can efficiently progress is by building upon what we’ve already done. I firmly believe that this is also true in academic writing.
Coming out of high school, I thought I was a good writer. I was always good at looking at a prompt, understanding what it was asking, and creating a rational, clear argument with strong textual evidence. I’d been doing it since eight grade, and I has no reason to think that college would bring me any serious problems. “Sure,” I thought, “the prompts will be more complicated, but I can adjust. I know what I’m doing.” My first college essay proved that this was absolutely not the case. I had so much trouble with the concept of finding an assertion that was truly my own. My writing was firmly stuck in senior year of high school. I never had trouble clearly finding and stating what the author’s assertion was, but finding my own assertion was something that was completely foreign to me (and believe me, my first essay showed this). My second essay taught me that I was starting to write my essay far too early. Finding an assertion takes time. It takes a lot of planning, and a more complete understanding of the text(s) I was discussing. Also, making an assertion can be scary. For the first time, I was writing things that people could disagree with. I was putting my own ideas out there, and on a subconscious level, I backed away from that.
Thankfully, I learned my lesson. Obviously the way I write now is far from perfect. I honestly think that I spend more time taking notes, finding and tweaking my assertion, and reading than I do physically writing my essay. Planning makes a huge difference. Making an assertion is still something that doesn’t come easily. I’m the type of person that doesn’t like making any enemies. Making an assertion opens the door to that. When my own ideas are out there, people can disagree with them. It is something that to this day makes me uneasy. However, I’ve found it comes easier with practice.
I see now that being able to make an assertion is a much more valuable skill than finding an author’s assertion. That is where I’d like my writing to get to. I want to be able to comfortably make a clear assertion about a topic. The only way to do this is by looking at my previous works intertextually. After all, looking back on what we’ve done is the only way we can effectively progress.