Learning "Write"

As an expressivist, I tend to write to learn about myself and the truth of the world around me. In order to truly understand the depth of a certain topic, I must write about it. As much as I encourage my students to engage in those little "WTL"s, or "write to learn," I find myself needing a similar exercise in my own understanding of the world.

I keep a journal, and have since I was five years old (I recently revisited an old entry in which my mom lost the bid for a stuffed bear I wanted at an auction, and it nearly broke my heart). While a good deal of my entries consist of "OMG this boy likes me!" or "wahhh, this boy doesn't like me" (who here remembers high school fondly? No?), I still see the value of working through the process of growing up via a written journal. I may still have my fair share of painfully "cringe-worthy" journal entries, as I've matured, I use this journal to understand myself as a teacher, a student, a daughter, a friend.

Upon exiting that lovely adolescent stage of narcissism, I have also used these informal journal entries to understand those around me. In CO150, we encourage writing as a collaborative process, yet I haven't realized until now that I extend that same mindset to a seemingly solitary activity. I have used the space of my journal to understand and communicate with my boyfriend--as he is Native American, we run into a lot of unintentional instances of cultural insensitivity, and rather than turn into the raging, domineering white person I was many moons ago, I simply write out how my behaviors could be interpreted the way they were, and what I may do to remedy the situation.

From a more academic standpoint, I still find that writing to understand myself and the world around me enriches my education. In both my tutoring class and my Rhetorical Traditions class, I was assigned to construct an "I-Search paper." Essentially, I was to search for the answer to any burning question I had about life, the universe, and beyond, and I was to tell the story of my search. To an expressivist, this assignment is an absolute dream. I was ecstatic to write about my search for proper meditation techniques and what feminism means to me, in this current day and age.

Through the I-Search paper, not only did I learn how to successfully craft a longer paper, but I learned how to research, how to engage both myself and an audience, and how to remain genuinely curious.

In viewing writing as learning, I think that's what successful writing really boils down to: curiosity. Curiosity lends itself to that spark--you know the one that leaps off the page--that you see in good writing.  Curiosity gives us the drive to become engaged and courageous thinkers. Curiosity is what makes our writing go from bland, tasteless companions to the red pen, to a real, lively conversation.