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Logan Lowery

Professor Dees

ENC1101

November 29, 2022

My Current Conceptions on Reading and Writing

My writing process has changed drastically throughout my life. From just learning to

write, to developing my personal writing style, to where I am now, my writing has truly evolved

into what it is today. Not only has my writing evolved, but also how I read and analyze the

writing that is presented to me. In this essay, I’m going to focus on where my writing and

reading is now, and how I got to where I am now.

One of the key concepts I consider when I write is that writing is itself a social,

rhetorical, and knowledge making process. There’s a lot of evidence to back this up, but I’ll start

with this: Roozen states that “Writers are always doing the rhetorical work of addressing the

needs and interests of a particular audience, even if unconsciously.” (Roozen 17) This lines up

with how I feel about writing, as I am usually writing with my audience in mind. The few times

I’m writing without a particular audience in mind, I can admit that usually the “audience” in

these scenarios is myself. Another piece of evidence that supports this is a quote from the

textbook, “writers us writing to generate knowledge that they didn’t have before.” (Estrem 19)

This supports my opinions on writing, and my experiences with writing. For me, I usually use

writing about a subject to further my understanding of said subject. The time spent writing helps

me think about a subject in greater detail, and to come up with new ideas about a subject.

Another quote that supports this would be that “the relations that imbue a sentence with

particular meanings come not just from nearby words but also from social contexts in which the
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sentence is used.” (Dryer 24) This quote helps illustrate my thought process when writing, as it

emphasizes the importance of context in writing. The context, or lack thereof, can greatly impact

the reception of your writing. I try to keep this in mind by giving the writer the context necessary

to understand what I’m trying to say.

Another concept about writing that I’ve taken to heart is that with anything, writing

especially, there’s always room for improvement. Lots of people in the field agree with this

concept. The first quote I have about this is that writers “will never be able to demonstrate all

they do know about writing.” (Rose 59) This quote strikes home with me, as throughout my life

I’ve had various forms of writing tests, and now that I’m older I see that they weren’t testing my

overall ability as a writer, but more testing my ability to write for a certain genre. With this in

mind, knowing what genre you’re writing for, whether it be a class paper or a note to a teacher,

knowing your genre may be as important as the writing itself. Another part to this would be a

quote, which states “often, the writing we encounter has been heavily revised and edited and is

sometimes the result of a great deal of failure.” (Brooke Carr 62) This quote resonates with me,

as I definitely spent most of my high school career writing simply what I thought the teachers

wanted to hear. After this realization, I tend to experiment more with my writing, and am not as

afraid if it doesn’t work out, as I can just try it again. Another piece of evidence to support this

talks about the different types of practice you can have as a writer, and say that “Practice can

involve writing in different spaces, with different materials, and with different technologies.”

(Yancey 64) This quote helps to show how my writing process has changed up into where it is

now. I spent the majority of my time in elementary and middle school, during my introductory

years writing, writing in a classroom with a pencil and paper. Once I got to high school, I moved

to a computer, but usually still in a classroom. Now that I’m in college, I tend to do most of my
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writing, and other schoolwork, outside of the confines of a classroom. I think this move to public

places, such as picnic tables and libraries, has marked a transition in my writing. Once I got out

of the classroom, I didn’t always have my teachers in mind, but was rather writing more for

myself.

One last concept that has a prominent place in my thought process is that reading is a

look into one’s thought process, and thus the meaning of a text is shaped by both the reader and

the writer. A quote which supports this would be “Through the writing we do, we claim,

challenge, perhaps even contest and resist, our alignment with the beliefs, interests, and values of

the communities with which we engage.” (Roozen 51) This quote aligns with how I feel about

writing now, as since taking this class, I view writing less as a simple display of information, but

more a look into a writer’s ideologies and mindset. When approaching writing with this in mind,

I can more clearly understand where people are coming from, rather than trying to understand

just what they’re trying to say. Another quote which supports this would be “Rather than existing

as autonomous documents, texts always refer to other texts and rely heavily on those texts to

make meaning.” (Roozen 44) This quote does a great job of explaining what I’ve learned over

this course. Texts may remain static, but the context that surrounds them changes dynamically

over time. This aspect of reading and writing, the aspect that the meaning of a text may develop

over time, has had an impact on how I interact with texts. It makes me question how I can go

about writing in a way that is less prone to being interpreted differently than how I see it. There

is no way to make a text that will never change meaning, or have the same meaning to everyone,

but simply keeping this aspect of writing in mind helps me write to broader audiences and curate

my writing to be more digestible in current and even future contexts.

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Works Cited

Roozen, Kevin. “Writing is a Social and Rhetorical Activity.” Naming What We Know

Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies, edited by Linda Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth

Wardle, Utah State University Press, 2016, pp. 17.

Estrem, Heidi. “Writing is a Knowledge-Making Activity.” Naming What We Know Threshold

Concepts of Writing Studies, edited by Linda Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle, Utah

State University Press, 2016, pp. 19.

Dryer, Dylan B. “Words get their Meaning from Other Words.” Naming What We Know

Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies, edited by Linda Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth

Wardle, Utah State University Press, 2016, pp. 24.

Rose, Shirley. “All Writers Have More to Learn.” Naming What We Know Threshold Concepts

of Writing Studies, edited by Linda Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle, Utah State

University Press, 2016, pp. 59.

Brooke, Collin & Carr, Allison. “Failure can be an Important Part of Writing Development.”

Naming What We Know Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies, edited by Linda Adler-

Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle, Utah State University Press, 2016, pp. 62.

Yancey, Kathleen Blake. “Learning to Write Effectively Requires Different Kinds of Practice,

Time, and Effort.” Naming What We Know Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies, edited

by Linda Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle, Utah State University Press, 2016, pp. 64.

Roozen, Kevin. “Writing is Linked to Identity.” Naming What We Know Threshold Concepts of

Writing Studies, edited by Linda Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle, Utah State

University Press, 2016, pp. 51.

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Roozen, Kevin. “Texts get their Meaning from Other Texts.” Naming What We Know Threshold

Concepts of Writing Studies, edited by Linda Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle, Utah

State University Press, 2016, pp. 44.