I grew into loving writing, but that love has not always been the case. My writing development has not been a linear path. Prior to coming to Wake Forest, I was not a fan of writing. I always liked numbers and solutions rather than words and arguments. I preferred my math courses over my English ones. I was able to write well enough in my high school courses to receive good marks, but I did not know what capacities writing truly held besides the stereotypical five paragraph essay structure. I remember dreading having to take a required writing class during my first semester at Wake Forest. Little did I know that this course would be something that would open my eyes to a new world of study and that it would spark a passion in me for writing that I never knew existed.

 

Writing 111, the required writing course that I had to take as a freshman at Wake Forest, at first intimidated me. I felt out of place, as I had never taken a course fully devoted to writing within my academic experiences so far. I was forced to be pushed out of my comfort zone and write in ways that I did not fully understand yet.

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My first college essay was a very formative writing experience for me because it gave me hope and allowed me to believe in myself. The class topic was writing about home. For this particular assignment, I had to figure out my definition of home while also accounting for a different author’s definition of home from a class reading. I had to synthesize my thoughts and experiences relative to the reading I choose in order to find similarities and differences in both my and the author’s idea of home. I was intimidated by the idea of using “I” statements and my own anecdotes in an academic paper because it was so dissimilar to my high school writings. For this reason, my first draft barely even mentioned my experiences and thoughts. Additionally, when I wrote the first draft of this paper, I struggled with meeting the page count, received criticism in peer reviews, and did not know where to continue following my first draft. I felt defeated and thought to myself that all I needed to do was pass the class and then I would be done with writing classes forever. I thought that writing was not for me. I felt this way until my writing professor normalized this feeling and told the class about the power of revision and that we should not let assignments beat us because everyone, even experts, write “sh***y first drafts”.

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As a person who tends to be a perfectionist, these comments struck a chord within me. The comments awakened a competitive spirit in me where I had to conquer the paper because I did not like losing or having an imperfect item. I began diligently going over the feedback I received, made multiple writing center and office hours appointments, and revised my whole paper three times completely through which consisted of cutting many parts and rewriting others. Even nowadays, I still diligently go over my papers, revise, and seek help when needed. During this revision, I gained skills such as: paying close attention to detail, organizing my paper, cutting unnecessary information, and drawing more specificity. I have been able to use these skills, that I initially gained my freshman year, throughout my college writing and even now in the present. It was when I received a great grade on my first college essay that I realized that writing was something that I could do if I worked with the determination that I did for this first assignment. Quickly, the required freshman writing course that I dreaded taking became my favorite course during my first semester.

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I decided to pursue writing within my coursework ever since. I declared a writing minor and took many upper level writing courses that went towards the minor. I have taken writing discipline courses such as: WRI 341 Writing Center Pedagogy, WRI 210 Academic Writing, WRI 212 Literary Nonfiction Art of the Essay Writing, and WRI 306 Analyzing Writing. As a second semester freshman, I was recommended by my WRI 111 professor to take WRI 341 to become a writing center tutor. I have been working as a writing center tutor ever since my sophomore year of college. Further, in my social science major of Communication and minor of Sociology, I have been exposed to a copious amount of scholarly writings and have had many assignments of my own that have incorporated writing. In sum, my academic areas of interest have allowed me to be exposed to various writing styles, genres, and assignments.

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Throughout my time as an undergraduate at Wake Forest, I have not stopped writing. Whether I was writing for a class, internship, or club, my writing has accumulated, and I have grown as a writer as a result. I have grown in my ability to use writing in various genres, disciplines, and in my confidence to write papers. Prior to Wake Forest, I could more or less formulate an argumentative essay and a five-paragraph essay and that was it. Moreover, I never felt true confidence in my writing abilities. Now, as a result of writing experience during my undergraduate times, I identify as a confident writer who is comfortable with the work I produce. Moreover, I am comfortable to take risks in my writing like putting my thesis in different places in my paper, using multiple small paragraphs, or even putting “I” statements in my academic pieces where it is appropriate to do so. I have developed into a brave and bold writer.

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I am the type of writer that uses writing for an eclectic range of purposes. In particular, I use writing to interrogate topics that pique my interests; to name a few these have included topics such as: gender roles, family relationships, mental health, food, environmental risks, etc. Writing has had a transformative quality within my life. It has allowed me to self-reflect. It has allowed me to understand why things are the way they are. It has allowed me to gain knowledge on items that I am interested in. It has allowed me to make sense of the world around me. It has allowed me to communicate my ideas as well as communicate to various audiences. I could never have developed to this extent as a writer without my Wake Forest education. In particular, I think throughout my time at Wake Forest I have developed the most as an academic writer. I have developed as an academic writer through personal experience in my disciplinary courses, different discourse communities, and through genre writing within my major and minors. In large part this has been due to my knowledge acquired via the disciplines I have studied: Communication major, Sociology minor, and Writing minor. I have been able to enter the discourse communities of the Communication, Sociology, and Writing disciplines. In these disciplines, I have written in genres such as: research papers, case studies, argumentative essays, narratives, etc. I acquired knowledge as to how to write a proper academic paper within each of these disciplines, this includes the skills of: argumentation, developing a central idea, evidence collecting, analysis, revision, and paper organization. I have learned to be able to use my skills to adapt to the situational context of any writing assignment. Whether I am writing a memoir or a formal research paper, I can approach these papers with the fundamental skills that I have learned. In return, these transferable skills have allowed me to become a better writer who is also more comfortable with approaching assignments.

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Further, the discourse communities I belong to have allowed me to gain knowledge about multiple genres. As a novice writer prior to my Wake Forest experience, I did not know about the genres that academic writing taught me. I have learned to write in various genres that I never knew existed or that I would even think that I would be capable of executing. To name a few, these genres include: social scientific research papers, writing guides, online editorials, and writing discipline-based works including a rhetorical analysis and case study. These genres have required me to use different writing styles, tones, language, and knowledge to complete them properly. Despite this, I am not intimidated by genre differentiation, rather these choices and considerations for genre specific writing have excited and challenged me. I no longer see writing as a burden. I now see it as a challenge that I am capable of accomplishing.

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As I finish my Wake Forest undergraduate education and graduate, I realize that my writing experiences do not stop here. I recognize that my writing may look different in the future in comparison to what it looks like right now, but I am grateful for the writing foundations that my Wake Forest education has given me. As I further my education at law school upon graduating from Wake Forest University, I will learn how to write legally. This will be a new experience for me, as I have never written in this discipline and the genres that it includes before. Despite this, my Wake Forest education has equipped me with writing tools and skills, like evidence gathering and argumentation, that I can use while learning this new writing form. I expect my writing capacities to grow and be expanded throughout my law school experience and future career.

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I have had a journey in my writing experiences throughout my education. I went from someone who hated writing and saw it as a chore to someone who loves writing. I have been able to gain confidence and skills that have helped me become a better writer. I enjoy writing in almost every capacity and feel comfortable doing so, but I am still continuing to learn more about writing and what it has to offer as I mature and gain more knowledge. My writing experience is a work in progress, as I constantly continue to acquire novel information pertaining to writing very frequently. I want to continue learning and further develop as a writer so that I can become even stronger. In this portfolio, I aim to highlight my development as a writer through the frames of academic writings that I have done in my disciplines of study. The portfolio will be structured as followed: Writing in Sociology, Writing in Communication, Writing Guides, Writing in Rhetoric, and Online Editorials. I will showcase papers that highlight my writing skills in these domains and my skills as a writer in general.