Theory of Writing

Theory of Writing

        In order to conceptualize a theory of writing you must look at why we write. What’s the purpose? What is the end goal of any piece? To pass your class certainly a popular one in high school and college but maybe you’re an astrophysicist and you want to prove to the scientific community the elements found in a black hole. Maybe even you’re a fiction writer and you want to entertain and hook your reader with your story about a school for wizards and witches. While these are all very various forms of writing they all aim to accomplish something, a purpose. In my eyes then the theory of writing is simply the words, you write down on that paper or type on that computer, to express meaning and purpose to all that read them.

        My theory of writing coming into this WRIT 1133 was pretty much the same but this course has rather deepened my understand of theory behind writing. What this course has really evolved for me in terms of my understanding of writing is proper application of a piece for whatever purposes it is trying to achieve. To simplify this it is understand the rhetorical situation. Bitzer described in our reading “The Rhetorical Situation” the means of finding your rhetorical situation for the rhetorical discourse that is your aim. “When I ask. What is a rhetorical situation?, I want to know the nature of those contexts in which speakers or writers create rhetorical discourse: How should they be described? What are their characteristics?” (Bitzer pg.1). To best understand the rhetorical situation for the rhetorical discourse you must understand your genre and audience. To quote myself from our blogger posts, “Genre is key to understanding rhetorical situations. One of the most important parts of genre is understand whom your audience and how to properly display your message to them.” To even further that point and my theory in the article “Navigating Theory” by Kerry Dirk she talk about the application and importance of knowing your genre in order to achieve the goals of your peice, knowing what a genre is used for can help people to accomplish goals, “In other words, knowing what a genre is used for can help people to accomplish goals, whether that goal be getting a job by knowing how to write a stellar resume, winning a person’s heart by writing a romantic love letter, or getting into college by writing an effective personal statement” (Dirk, pg. 253).

Each piece of composition in this course highlighted and demanded different rhetorical situations that really helped us evolve and practice different styles of writing demanded by the various rhetorical discourse. For instance in the research report for our final papers the focus was simply to report the findings of our primary and secondary research efforts. In this specific piece the goal is to be concise and clear about the various findings the research revealed about the topic at hand. While other pieces were much more analytic focused like the various “MAPS” exercises. During these we were asked to delve deeper into the means of the various key terms and knowledge we collected through the duration of the course and make connections and meaning of each one. This one for example of my visualization of my theory of writing an effective piece of research based writing using the metaphor of the colonization and expansion of the United States.

       

Prior knowledge plays a major role in how you tackle writing in any genre and how you approach any rhetorical situation. Instead of the term prior knowledge I rather prefer to use the term prior experience. My prior experience as a writer before this course writing like writing opinion columns for the Clarion and various creative writing pieces for my English really gave me a certain take or flavor of writing I enjoy and try to model. This course however, has given me a bit of a remix in my background of my prior knowledge in the field of writing. During my first WRIT 1122 course I took straight out of high school gave me a major retake on writing on how I present my ideals in sed pieces. This critical incident was because was prior knowledge of writing in high school was very regimented with a specific numbers body paragraphs with a specific number of support ideas in each one. Coming to college really taught me to develop my own style in which I best think my information and message is displayed. So having taken this course later in my college career it has been much more of a remix of my prior knowledge. For instance as an opinions writer I almost always want to add my own two cents to every piece I create. This course however has taught me that it is not always appropriate methodology for the rhetorical situation in which I am writing. The main paper for instance of this course is to research a topic and publish the findings and answer the question surrounding the paper. It is much less subjective form of writing and more objective because it's not there to make an argument but rather to directly publish findings and leave the interpretation up to the reader if you have successfully answered the question you originally asked.

        Of course I’ve used this theory of writing before it is applicable to every form of writing I’ve ever tackled and will ever in the future. The most critical element in my theory is to find your purpose in whatever type of piece you are trying to generate. So essentially to find the right purpose you must be conscience of the genre and audience of the piece. What goes along with genre and audience is rhetorical situation. In the course I’ve used this with great deliberation while composing the final essay. First the audience which is our campus and making the findings of the research as applicable to members of the entire DU community. At the same time it is strictly a research piece not so much for the expression of my personal views. Realizing this I’ve focused my paper strictly on findings within the research with minimized use of person voice and views.

        This theory transfers to all rhetorical situations across the field of academic and non-academic pieces. All pieces of writing inquire a certain purpose and audience. For instance on my NOLS trip I wrote personal journals and pieces about the desolate environment I was surrounded by the entire time. The audience was myself, the purpose a tool of reflection and memory. Meanwhile in an academic form of writing I pursue in my future endeavors as a student simply looking at he purpose of the piece and what I aim to accomplish. By looking at the goals finding the right rhetorical situation in which you are composing the piece for your piece will hold proper purpose and meaning.