In Writing 200 or “Gateway to Writing”, we were tasked to answer a simple question that writers have been pondering since we were hacking into clay tablets: “Why do I write?” We read some noted author’s thoughts about it and talked about it- see my Works Cited page. We were charged with answering this question ourselves. To be honest, I won’t give much more introduction because I don’t want to spoil the punchline. Suffice it to say, one thing I took out of this essay was genre-bending. This was intended to be creative-nonfiction meets argumentative essay put into a blender and churned into what I hope is ice cream. Admittedly, It would probably be vanilla ice cream; these two genres aren’t that radically different but it was still a chance to develop my skills in genres different than argumentative writing and play with form.
For this essay, I decided to show all the stages of my process. You’ll note that there is no pre-writing stage. That’s because I generally skip that process. I’m like Indian Jones when I write. My plan is that I have no plan. I make it up as a I go. Then, once it’s done, I think about my goals for an essay and evaluate the result. This is not a strategy I recommend for life. But it works fine with writing. Most of my other essays will be available as web pages but to show the process of reflection through my reflective comments, I have attached two stages of this essay to this page in pdf form.
Why I Write- Draft 1 + Comments
Why I Write- Draft 2 + Comments (Mine and My Professor’s)
Why I Write- Draft 2 Author’s Note
Why I Write- Final