top of page

Escaping the Essay

Throughout the Sweetland Minor in Writing, I've realized that my identity as a writer isn't just defined by my ability to write an essay (despite what high school may have tried to teach me). While I am proud of my academic argumentative essays, I have discovered through the minor that my identity as a writer incorporates many other genres of writing.
 
When most students think of "writing", they usually think about formal research essays or lab reports because they seem the most "legitimate" because they require the most formal language and structure. Throughout this minor in writing, I've realized that writing is writing, regardless of whether you are integrating and analyzing quotes from academic journals or just making a snarky comment on Facebook. Across different genres, we make different choices based on differences audiences and purpose. But the formality of this context doesn't make some genres of writing "more important" than others.
 
My identity as a writer is defined by the choices I make across every genre, and not just by my ability to churn out a 5-6 page research paper. Therefore, my identity as a writer eclipses my academic argmentation. This identity includes my ability to illustrate written solutions in consulting decks and my ability to utilize parallel structure when writing a resume. This identity also includes the ability to write in a stream-of-conciousness style when writing blogs, and the ability to express my thoughts creatively through spoken word poetry. While this minor hasn't necesarily caused me to denounce my passion for essay-writing, it has taught me (so far) that being a writer is about much more than your ability to write in that formal genre. Writing is about using your words effectively to achieve a purpose, and I do this across many genres:
Academic Essays

 

 

 

Consulting Decks

 

 

Script-Writing

​

 

Resume

​

 

​

Spoken Word Poetry

​

Blog Posts

 

 

 

These academic essays were written in English 125 and Writing 225. In high school, I wrote essays in all of my IB classes, and I thereby quickly became very comfortable writing them.  I still consider essays as the bread and butter of my writing repooirtoire, but I am more aware of other writing genres and mediums. 

Consultants usually present their recommendations to companies using powerpoint presentations. These presentations were created for case competitions I've participated in on campus. As an aspiring consultant, these decks reflect my professional goals. 

I first starting writing blog posts in Honors 352, a class called "Cyberscience" that I took sophomore year. Since then, I have written many blog posts on the Sweetland Blog for the gateway course, and I also wrote my repurposing project as a personal blog. 

I didn't have any significant exposure to poetry until I took English 221, "Literature Outside the Classroom." In this class we imitated notable poets and short-story writers, as well as writing in our own style. The Bell Curve is spoken word poem I wrote about the way some classes are graded on a strict bell curve. 

Resume-writing is a very specific type of writing with a very specific set of rules. I've spent dozens of hours revising my resume to demonstrate my experiences within these rules (parallel structure, elimination of white space, etc). This is a unique style of writing that prioritizes conciseness over fluidity.

I've never had any experience writing screenplays or TV show scripts, so my attempt to write and perform a satirical news piece for my remediation project was definitely overwhelming. The script-writing process involved finding funny clips or quotes and integrating them into dialogue effectively. 

bottom of page