Major: Double Major in Community Psychology and Culture, Literature, and the Arts
Thumbing through old copies of classic books like Gulliver’s Travels and Lord of the Flies that my grandfather had given to me many years ago, while paying close attention to the response notes that he had taken in them, it occurs to me that I’ll never truly “get” writing.
These old pages, filled with puzzling questions that my grandfather had felt were important enough to jot down, are evidence that no matter my ability to critically analyze a certain writing style or how well versed I am in all types of writing, there will always be new questions emerging from the text that I simply can’t answer. Rather than becoming frustrated with the fact that I’ve spent a good portion of my life attempting to perfect a craft that I’ve only recently realized can never be mastered, though, I have found a sense of contentment in the fact that perfection is no longer something that I have to strive for.
A good writer, to me, is someone who can clearly convey an idea while also holding the reader’s attention, not someone who knows how to write perfectly or correctly. With this understanding of the broad range of questions that can emerge from a text, I believe I can help students understand writing from various perspectives while also helping them to keep in mind that their paper doesn’t have to be perfect; it simply has to present their idea in a clear and interesting fashion.
Major: Double Major in Community Psychology and Culture, Literature, and the Arts
"Thumbing through old copies of classic books like Gulliver’s Travels and Lord of the Flies that my grandfather had given to me..."