Theory of Writing (TOW)

My writing has developed throughout the semester in various ways. I admit that when I began writing narratives I struggled a bit. When I wrote my first draft of the outsider narrative, I definitely knew that it wasn’t great but I didn’t know what steps to take to fix it. In this case, peer reviews were extremely helpful. Not only did the feedback help but reading my peers narratives also helped. While reading and annotating other narratives I was able to compare it to my own to see which elements my writing lacked. One of the main issues I realized was that I didn’t go into detail and give in depth description of what I wrote about. This was also a comment I received on the peer review for this essay. I realized that throughout my writing I gave only brief descriptions and if I were to expand the writing it would be easier for the reader to create an image and understand what is happening in the story. This made me realize the importance of description. As I read my revised essay with added details it became easier to understand and visualize what was happening throughout the writing. 

I also believe the author’s voice is very important in writing. Through a lot of pieces the reader can sense the writers view or stance on the topic being discussed based on the voice used in the writing. The voice of a writer is different in each person. For example, in the topic section of the narrative medicine course I got the chance to write from a different point of view. After reading a book I was assigned a task of putting myself into a character’s shoes to write about a situation in their perspective. For the character I chose, I realized that I had to change the language I’d write in because of the way he spoke in the book. This showed how the voice of a writing is altered depending on who is speaking.  In this class, I also read an article that highlighted how society constructs this idea of normal and how this can affect people. As a reader, I am able to establish the view the author has on the idea of normalcy through his voice throughout the text. He blames society for the idea of normalcy and for the issues that it brings. 

Writing preparation was proven to be extremely helpful while completing the I-Search Project. This project consisted of numerous strategies that were done in the I-search journal and greatly helped me write my paper. One of the beneficial techniques was timed free-writing. I haven’t practiced this in years and didn’t know how helpful it would be. Writing down every I knew on my topic helped to navigate my research process. Whatever I knew to be a fact required less research because it was already proven to be true. However, while completing the invention activity that required writing what I wanted to know helped direct what I needed to research. Also, writing what I thought and believed about the topic helped because I knew it had to be researched and proven a fact in order to be added to my writing. 

I knew annotation to be significant when writing a piece that required sources. Especially in my I-search paper where many sources were used. If annotating is done correctly a lot of time will be saved when writing. Instead of having to reread each source while writing to add information, each text can be read once and particular details that will be used can be highlighted, underlined or rephrased. In this way, when adding information you can go directly to the underlined text and insert it into the writing. Personally, when I underlined and highlighted the details I used, I attached a comment that stated how the quote connected with my topic. Therefore, after inserting my quote I can also place my connecting sentence to show the relationship to the topic. Creating outlines was also proven to be helpful when writing. An outline would highlight the major components that will be added to the writing. Outlines also introduce the way the writing will flow. When I made my outline for the I-search paper I described what points would be included in each paragraph, which sources I would use as evidence to support it and I included how it connected to the central topic and thesis. While writing previous essays, I found myself getting stuck at the beginning because I didn’t know how I would start it. Even when I was able to get the introductory paragraph completed, I struggled because I didn;t know how to proceed. With the outline it removes these issues by already providing what will be included in each paragraph and how it would flow before I begin writing my final draft. These strategies that I have found and rediscovered through each writing assignment this semester will help shape how I will continue to write.