Purposes and processes for writing

The writing for this course (and the structure of this e-course) starts with the premise that effective communication begins with learning, and learning results — at least in part — from your written efforts to make connections and see relationships between your own observations and experience, and the written or collected knowledge of others. There are three important sources for learning, writing, and communication:

• Observing and describing the world around you
• Remembering and drawing on your own experiences
• Investigating knowledge in books and other people

Writing, as a means of learning and communicating, begins with what you see and have experienced, and then connects with what you're reading in texts, hearing in lectures, finding out at work, or learning from friends and family.

Freewriting: inventory of your writing

Before you read further in this chapter, take out a pen or pencil and a piece of paper and inventory what you have written in the last year or two. Brainstorm a list of everything you can think of: grocery lists, letters, wedding invitations, reports, school essays, notes to friends, applications for jobs, memos to your boss. Then for one of your longer writing projects, jot down several sentences describing the situation that called for that piece of writing — when you did it, whom you wrote it for, what its purpose was, where you wrote it, and how you went about writing it.

Most good writing has a personal dimension. It may be about the writer personally or it may address a subject or an idea the writer cares about. It begins with honesty, curiosity, inquiry, and vulnerability. Good writers assert themselves, knowing that they are vulnerable to other people's criticism. They take risks — sometimes writing on subjects they don't completely understand — knowing that is one way to actively engage the information that threatens to overwhelm them. By continually probing and learning, being honest with themselves, and accepting the risks, writers can use their writing to teach themselves and their readers.