Ryland Hager - Theory of Writing

           Some of the connections between my key terms and my word cloud involve the concepts of writing being a message and a physical form of communication. I expected to see these concepts brought up but I was surprised to see the emphasis of resources and the work being effective or successful. I think it’s very important to see our thoughts on writing in a word cloud because there may be certain aspects of writing that I haven’t acknowledged as important when defining the act of writing but since I mention these aspects multiple times in my responses, the word cloud brings it to my attention. In the grand scheme of things, the word cloud has made me recognize the importance of writing being effective because someone may be a very impressive writer but if they don’t take their audience into account or many other aspects to writing it can still be ineffective despite their skills.

            When taking the action of writing into account, one needs to understand what writing is and how to make their own writing effective. The main goal of most people writing is to communicate a certain message to their audience. The way to make their writing effective is to acknowledge their audience and the context of their work and then write accordingly to that context. This is due to the fact that not all forms of writing are appropriate to all situations such as a long and in-depth essay written to leave your roommate a note or a short and abbreviated sentence to explain a concept to a professor.

             When comparing my word map and my theory of writing with two other students in my class, I realized that they focused more on the expressive sides of writing while I focused on the communication aspect. They decided to write about how there's always a piece of the author in their writing and how one should always include their own character in their writing. 

I appreciate both my theory and my classmate’s theories but I feel more comfortable continuing on with my thoughts on how authors need to analyze their audience and the context in how their writing will be perceived to make it as effective as possible. I think that applying that theory to all of my writing would be very helpful because I’ll always be able to make sure that my writing is appropriate to the environment that it will be received, making it as effective as possible. I would still classify myself as a novice writer because I’m still being educated on all that writing is and strategies to make my writing stronger so I think I strongly benefit from creating my own theory in writing so I can begin to develop my own thoughts on the subject and apply them to what I’m taught. When identifying myself as a writer I think of all the essays and projects I’ve had to do for school and begin to consider myself as a student writer but when taken into the grand scheme of my life, I find that I’m writing all the time whether it be a text message where I’m telling my friends a story or a long facebook post. So, my informative writing gravitates more towards school but my writing where I’m expressing myself or communicating is seen throughout all aspects of my life.