WRITING ABOUT WRITING

From: http://www.cgu.edu/pages/792.asp

Why do professors assign papers? Answering this question may be an "impenetrable fog" in itself. But as a Writing Center Peer Tutor, I've read a lot of paper assignment sheets, and I've noticed a few trends. Professors want students to begin to pave the road of their understanding of a particular topic from the course. By articulating their ideas in writing, students begin to see connections between the content in the course and their own interests. They begin to learn the words to their own ideas. Sometimes the reasons professors assign papers are two-fold: 1. to see how well students can articulate their understanding of a particular topic, 2. to help students develop/expand their writing and researching skills. So why are writing skills so emphasized in college courses? Is it fair to compare students' learning through a written discourse?

Perhaps it is unreasonable to claim that in all future endeavors we will need to be able to write successfully. But I do think it is reasonable to highlight a few skills that writing practice inherently develops that will be useful, not only vocationally, but as a human with a fine-tuned capacity to think. Writing enhances:

1. critical thinking: the mental process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information to reach an answer or conclusion
2. creativity: the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination
3. argumentation and logic: the setting forth of reasons together with the conclusion drawn from them
4. synthesis: the combining of the constituent elements of separate material or abstract entities into a single or unified entity
5. value distinctions: making informed decisions about relative worth, merit, or importance

(http://www.dictionary.com/)

It may also be helpful to consider the importance of functioning in an uncomfortable field of study or discourse. For example, a projected-chemistry major may have a hard time in a FYS course based on the study of literature, since they are geared toward grappling with distinct information. But our society requires us to sometimes participate in activities out of our "comfort zone", which arguably press us into accommodating these situations and broadening the scope of our "comfort zones".

Before beginning to write a difficult paper, take a moment to answer a few of these questions for yourself. Who is the audience of this paper? Why did my professor assign this paper? Where do I intersect with the topic of this paper? Why am I invested in this topic? What are my passions or convictions about this topic? What skills may I develop in writing this paper? Who am I as a writer? What am I particularly good at in writing papers? What slows me down or constipates my writing process? What is my purpose of writing?

Hopefully the answers you generate will spark some ideas for where to begin your paper.

METACOGNITION

From: http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/802papers/Adkins/TWOFROGS.GIF

meta·cog·ni·tion noun
"awareness and understanding one's thinking and cognitive processes; thinking about thinking."

From: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/metacognition

Do you ever think about your own thinking process? Perhaps at the end of the semester, do you reflect upon your previous state, before you'd taken a particular course? What do you know now that you didn't know then?

I think it is somewhat like looking at photographs of myself from when I was younger. Was I really ever that small? How did I get from that state of naiveté to where I am now? What did I think about then? What were the words that ran accross the tv screen of my mind; what was the language of that ticker?

I think it is useful to think about the thinking process you, in particular, go through when processing a particular concept, idea, or topic. Do certain words or concepts contain an inevitable baggage for you and remind you of something else, leading your mind on an endless loop of associations? What do you use to control this impulse, to avoid derailing from the topic at hand? Are the tangents sometimes worth exploring? What new meaning can you derive from the unique baggage some words have for you? How do you move from a state of sensory and information overload, to filter out the most important information and make sense of all you are exposed to in one day?

WRITE YOUR DIFFERENCE

What makes you different from everyone else you know? Do you have weird family traditions or daily rituals? Have you traveled somewhere exotic (or so mundane, no one else thinks to visit there)? Have you won some award or performed some amazing feat? What do you dream about?

As a reader, what makes you unique? What baggage or preconceptions do you bring to a text? How does your interpretation and reaction differ from everyone else's? How can you read through your own difference?

Tell a story that is completely yours.

TRUTH OR DARE

Remember this thrilling pass-time from elementary school playgrounds and sleepless nights spent at your best friend's house? Which did you usually pick, Truth or Dare? I think I once had to wash my hands in the toilet from a "dare". But I secretly craved someone asking me to reveal a "truth", some never-before uttered secret about my ten-year-old thoughts and desires. Which do you think is more courageous: promising to answer some unknown question truthfully, or promising to perform some disgusting or borderline-erotic feat?

Aside from the game, how close can we ever really get to uttering a complete "truth" about ourselves? Does truth require a comprehensive history? Is it entirely subjective? Who's the judge? What is the difference between "fact" and "truth"?

Respond to any of the questions above or to the following passage, an excerpt from my senior I.S. proposal.

"I am fascinated by the power of truth, especially in narratives. I long to hear and read stories that are true. They are somehow more significant to me. I want to know what is real, what is concrete, and to get as close as I can to articulating it. Not only my perception of the truth, but the actual facts. Four US dollars can buy 100 oranges for orphans in Ghana. Today they received no oranges. This weighs on me. I want to write about guilt. The guilt I feel about knowing intimately the suffering in Ghana, and yet doing nothing."