Dear future self, 

I’m writing to you because I am required to do an assignment for my writing class talking about my “theory of writing”. The reason I’m writing to you because I’m interested in how my theory of writing develops over time. I guess I’ll start this letter with my opinion of writing which I assume is still similar to yours. I loathe writing for the most part. Before taking the class, I had always thought that writing, in most circumstances, was a waste of time. I still think this way. I despise writing and I think I feel this way is because beginning the process of writing has always been difficult for me. However, for this assignment specifically, I was actually a little eager to start because I had a lot of ideas going in. However, the struggle began when I tried putting my ideas into words and making it sound nice, which is another issue I have with writing. Nevertheless, despite my mostly negative impression on writing, I think I can admire it just a little. I realized this when I was reflecting on previous works of writing which this prompt requires. This is the first time I have ever done this type of reflection and I think I gained some valuable information. Moreover, these reflections allowed me to develop my own theory of writing. 

The first experience I recall is my history assignments for this semester. For this whole semester, I had to write a one page essay for my history class every single week. In retrospect, taking a short quiz every week would of been far more effective in testing my understanding and far less of a nuisance for me. Throughout the week, I was always aware of the homework. The stress of writing would never leave the back of my head. I would try to do it early, but every time I sat down on my computer, I would make excuses or instantly go on my phone to distract myself from the tedious task of writing an essay. When wednesday nights came, after much procrastination, I would get a big cup of coffee and finally start at 10:00, two hours before it was due. I wrote as much as I can before time was up. It seems that I can only focus on writing when the pressure of submitting it finally set in. And once I was finished, I submit it without rereading or revising because I wanted it to be over with. I think what really discouraged me was that I would get the same grades for my assignments regardless of how much work I put in. After awhile I stop caring about the quality because I knew I would get the same grade. This is interesting to me because I didn’t see these assignments as a way to learn, but simply to get a good grade for the class.    

However, despite recalling mostly negative memories of writing, I think I can remember a few experiences that I actually enjoyed writing. The most excited I was to write something was when I was writing my college essay. Even though this essay was probably the most important essay I wrote to that point, I was zealous. Never have I ever had the words just flow. I had so many ideas and was trying to piece them together. Normally I hate to revise essays but my college essay was different. I reread it multiple times. I would try to restructure sentences and make it flow better. I had friends,family and teachers read it over and asked for advice. I tried to make it perfect, not because I had to but because I wanted to. Reflecting on this moment enlightened me on why all the english and writing teachers have been so enthusiastic. There can be joy found in writing. When you write something that you actually want to write, it can be fun. I think there are two reasons why I enjoyed writing my college essay. The first being that it could be literally about anything. The freedom made it much for relaxing. The second is that I saw it as an opportunity to demonstrate what I was capable of as a writer. I wanted it to be the best piece of writing I ever worked on. 

For the history assignments I did this semester, I felt like I was not only forced to write but it didn’t really prove anything. Anybody can do that type of assignment. It only requires a little hard work that I knew I was capable of, if I actually cared about it. However for the college essay, I actually enjoyed writing it. The reason for this is because I could write what I wanted. It also proved more to me because I saw it as a way to show off my creativity and my writing skills. Overall, there was more of an incentive to write. 

My experience with this writing class specifically was a bit mixed. From my understanding, the main purpose of the class was to learn about rhetorical terms such as: rhetorical situation, audience, author, tone, purpose, genre, medium, stance, and language. I learned about most of these terms previously in highschool, but never went in depth like in this class. These terms made me appreciate writing because it made me realize all the nuances that come with writing. It also made me realize that writing isn’t always a typical essay written for a class. For example, this writing genre is a letter which makes it a lot easier and enjoyable. Also in this class, we did a lot of brainstorming, peer review, and revision. For brainstorming, I was reluctant to do it at first. I thought it was unnecessary and at first didn’t even do it. However, after a while I tried and found it helpful. For this assignment specifically I found brainstorming necessary because there was a lot of different routes I could of taken and ideas that I had. The peer review was somewhat helpful. I always hated having others read my work because I thought it was kinda embarrassing. I didn’t think I was a good writer. Also the feedback I got wasn’t the best. However, I thought reading what others had written was very helpful because I could see what I need to improve by noticing what they did that i didn’t      

Initially, writing this assignment was a stressful experience. I had to write about my “theory of writing.” I had no idea what that means. I think what made oppose the prompt at first was that it intimidated me. It was a difficult prompt. It required reflection and critical thinking. Earlier in the class we had to write a research paper. That task was difficult as well but it was difficult because it required me to write as much as I can. This assignment required me to think more in depth. However after recalling all the things I learned in the class, I realized it didn’t have to be a typical essay, so I decided to write a letter. I also used informal language at times because not only did it fit the genre, but also its a break from always using formal or academic language for school. This made this assignment much more approachable and less stressful compared to other assignments.    

Finally, after a ton of reflection, I think I can now actually answer the prompt. My theory of writing is simply that we write what we think and say. The reason why I had always dislike writing for school is because most things we learn in school doesn’t catch my attention. The reason why the history assignments was difficult for me is because I didn’t have much to say about the topics we were writing about. I didn’t care to think of it. I think this is why I struggled with it. This is in contrast with my college essay which I had a lot to say. For this essay, the reason it’s a letter to myself is because as I wrote it, I was talking to myself, telling myself what I was thinking. I was also talking to myself with informal language as I usually do. I think the rhetorical situation fits into all this by describing the different aspects in what we think and say. Whenever we talk, we always have a tone,purpose, audience, etc. It simply translates over to writing. Our writing also needs revision because our train of thoughts are not always coherent. I think this is a decent theory of writing. I know it’s really broad, but I think it encompasses all of writing well enough. Hopefully knowing this, i could grow my appreciation for writing and one day enjoy it.  

Sincerely, 

Mahmoud 

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