Blog Post #4 - with BTU Reflection

Reading about what holds people back from writing was really interesting and caused me to reflect on my own process. Even prior to the reading Mike Rose’s study, I thought about the boundary between rules and heuristics. I struggle to determine that faint line a when structuring an argument, formatting paragraphs and even brainstorming. I hope that reflecting on this paper when I go to write my next paper will help me to determine what I do that is impairing my ability to write.

This week was my second week volunteering at the BTU. Last week, I had a very rewarding session with a 5th grade girl who was researching for a paper on earthquakes. Prior to her arrival, we were briefed about the building, services the Writer’s Room offers and the assignment the 5th graders would come in to work on. Despite being briefed on the grade’s writing ability and their comfortability working with new adults, I was still surprised by how open, excited, and advanced their research ability was.

I find structured essay writing very difficult. When I go to try and structure a paper, I think about how it should flow. So, I can come up with a format in hope that is guides in my sporadic thought process, but more often than not, as I try to make connections and search for the significance of what I am trying to relay to my reader, the more overwhelmed I can become with nuanced and the infinitely interconnected nature of subtopics that relate to my thesis. Therefore, the act of consolidating and directing this scrambled brainstorm is challenging.

The student I worked with from the BTU was not unlike me in this was. She had a scattered outline that was full of arrows and vague one word descriptions. Meanwhile, the student who sat across from us was a the textbook example of what the writing process “should” look like. She effortlessly followed the prescribed format by adhering to the outline. She wrote in a neat font and her worksheets were highly structured and detailed. She did not waste time delving too deep into specific questions, but remained appropriately inquisitive by seeking the proper amount of content. I found myself so drawn to her process because somehow I felt like this fifth grader has a secret to writing that I was missing. But, as I worked more with my student, I realized why that will never be me.

As we were reviewing a scholarly source (which I was shocked she could even read because I struggled to help her simplify such dense publications and because I certainly didn’t attempt to use scholarly sources until high-school), we stumbled upon how to measure the strength of an earthquake. She did not just accept that the Richter scale was a logarithm, she wanted to know what a logarithm was and how it worked, so I did my best to explain it to her. Then she went on to ask me a series of related questions. Somehow, I was able to draw I line for her that I so often am not able to draw for myself. I told her that some scientists spend their whole career studying one topic and still have questions, so it is important not to get too distracted with related, but not significant questions. Then I saw as this redirection hugely helped her concentrate on productive information. It was really rewarding making such an impact, especially because I am so familiar with alternative time consuming path she would have otherwise been consumed in.

In this interaction I felt more at peace with my own writing style and claimed it as mine with gratitude. I felt familiar. Though I know it has its drawbacks, it has a lot of strengths and can be used to create powerful papers, so long as I harness it.