Dear Student,

You’re almost done with the semester and you’re probably up to the theory of writing assignment. Well you’re probably wondering, “wait theory of writing?” What does that mean? I had the same expression when I first heard of it. I looked around my class and everyone was saying the same thing, “What’s a theory of writing?’ with a confused look of their face. Basically the theory of writing is your writing process. You must be thinking, “That is the most vague statement ever”. Being straight to the point, that is exactly what the theory of writing is. You’re explaining your thinking process and how your environment affects the way you write. I’m writing this letter to help you understand what the theory of writing is. I’ll be showing you what I do before and during writing and some examples of my past assignments.

Everyone has a different theory of writing. For me some of the things I like to do before writing is to complete chores that I have for the day. College students like us have other responsibilities than school so completing those task will help reduce distractions and maintain a clear mind. Outlining is very important as it gives me a direction in my paper instead of aimlessly writing. It’s a great way to become more efficient in free writing as you target key points that you want to include in the paper. You may be someone who likes to write first thing in the morning to have a fresh mind. Maybe even going to a different location like a coffee shop or a library to write. However, my theory of writing is to finish all my chores and responsibilities before I start. This way I can eliminate any distractions throughout the day and have a clear mind for writing. I want to be one hundred percent focused on completing my assignment. What I tend to do before I do my chores is to read the assignment sheet so that I can plan and outline. While I do my chore I brainstorm and ask questions like, “How am I going to start?”, “What am I gonna write for my body paragraphs?”, or “Do I have my sources already?”. This helps me get an idea of what I’m going to write so I won’t have trouble later on. The number one enemy for college students is procrastination. To counter this I use the Pomodoro Technique which is my favorite way to study. Push aside all devices that can distract you and set a timer for twenty five minutes. During that time focus all your energy on work and when the timer goes off you can get a break for five minutes then repeat the cycle. By creating small goals in your assignment you’re not overwhelmed with writing the paper all at once. The point is to make as much progress as you can in that small time frame.

Advice that I can give to students coming into this class is to change your habits from high school. Before I entered the class my theory of writing was to procrastinate and start the night before. I always believed that I can produce a great amount of work in such a small time period because it would motivate me to complete the paper. This led me to have many sleepless nights and produce mediocre papers which I would be disappointed when I received my grade. Reading the syllabus, I saw the amount of work this class had and realized I needed to change my writing habits. I evolved my theory of writing through the many blackboard assignments between papers. It taught me the fundamentals of outlining and choosing my sources. These blackboard assignments broke down each part of the essay such as potential genre proposal and audience strategy. It also taught me the fundamentals of outlining and choosing my sources. For these assignments when analyzing, you are using rhetorical elements such as purpose, audience, stance and genre. It was a great way for me to understand what I should be focusing on since it broke down each source. For example in the composition of two genres I created a vision board. The purpose of my vision board is to motivate and inspire those who are in the space field. My focus demographic is the general public or those working in the space field. The stance is support towards space due to the motivating phrases and images on the vision board. Rhetorical elements was a great way on outlining and organizing how I complete my assignments.

Free writing is one of the important factors that contributed to my theory of writing. By writing continuously it helped me become more productive and efficient. Normally I spend a good amount of time focused on one sentence trying to perfect it. The sentence was constantly rephrased and I used a thesaurus to find the right diction. I also became distracted my opening a new tab for the thesaurus. While I opened a new tab I opened YouTube and eventually procrastinate. Free writing has prevented these issues by writing without worrying. Waiting until the end of writing became more efficient to edit and revise.

An issue that I had in the beginning of the semester which evolved was writing introductions. In the first paper my introduction were short and didn’t provide enough detail for the audience to describe what their reading. This can be seen in my “Asteroid Mining” essay where I only gave statements about the sources instead of giving a brief summary.

 

Introductions provide a small summary of the paper and attracts the reader’s attention. However, this did the opposite as it was mundane and provided statements about the paper. It didn’t do the best job in giving some background information and the claim wasn’t clear making it difficult for the reader to understand. I then developed a new method in improving my introductions. Instead of starting out with the introduction, I began with the body paragraphs so I have a bigger idea of the paper already in mind. Writing the introduction became easier and it was more clear for the reader giving them a glimpse of what they’re reading about. I also included a pop culture reference to capture the attention of my audience.

 

According to “Why is the development of robotics so significant in space exploration?”, “Space, The Final Frontier”. Imagine exploring the universe in a massive spaceship, looking for new planets and life just like in the Star Trek series. “(Miranda). This introduction did a better job in providing a small summary and attracted the reader’s attention. By including a pop culture reference they have an image of what space is and connect to something they’re more familiar with. Compared to the previous introduction it did a better job in stating what my claim is and provided background information to help the reader understand.

 

The theory of writing that I developed here has helped me in my papers outside of this classroom. In my Anthropology class I was required to write a reaction paper about the book called “Latino Heartland”. I used rhetorical analysis for each chapter so that I can get a better understanding of the book. From this I found out which chapter I was interested in and mainly focused my reaction on that chapter.

Since the audience of the reaction paper is my professor I used the words “tragically”, “striking” and “eye opening” to show how I felt about the events in the book. My stance towards immigration is positive because of the injustice they faced everyday. For the purpose its to show my reaction to the events in the book.
In another assignment I created a Twitter social media account for the composition of Two Genres. The aim was to create a genre that attracted a specific audience. I used rhetorical elements in order to outline and plan how I will reach my audience. Since I create a social media account my main demographic would be younger generation who knows how to use technology. This account was created in order to inform and raise the interest of a younger generation about space. By using influential figures, emojis in my post and exciting images I was able to reach that audience.
I hope that you learn from the mistakes that I made and take something out of this letter. Everyone has a different way of writing their essays. You already developed a theory of writing but you just haven’t thought about your actual process. The theory of writing can be modeled after your teachers in previous grades or you just found what works best for you and took specific parts. Just brainstorm and explore ideas on what you do before, after and during writing and you can branch off of that.

Goodluck,
Josh Miranda