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Emiliano Ramirez

ENC 1101

November 27th, 2017

Final Draft

From the Roots to the Leafs

Ever since I have memory of my appreciation for writing, Ive noticed that up until now,

my methodologies for when approaching a text have changed significantly. From planning out

my writing with days, sometimes even weeks in anticipation to the proliferation of effective and

structured text within the time frame of two hours. It is as an experienced writer that one is more

or less able to define ones writing methodologies; considering which one is the most effective,

the most enjoyable to the writer, and the easiest to the writer. It is extremely hard to narrow

down the options if you are not an active writer (as one must be in ENC 1101), making it distant

or even in some cases impossible for the individual to figure out what his approach to writings

are like. I believe that I found mine, but I also believe that a writer shouldnt constrain yourself

to what you think you are, because there is always room for growth even when you dont see it.

So, for now, I will focus on what I am and what I have (most prominently) been as a writer;

conclusively making predictions of what I believe I will become and why that is so.

Coming out into the real world as a student from the Orange County Public School

System, I couldnt help but notice the difficulties that many people have with writing, including

myself. Students constantly face writing against their will, but they are forced to do so in the

wrong way. Not only that but it is noteworthy to mention that a lot of them begin disliking

writing at an early stage in their academic careers because they are forced to write and express
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their ideas that in a lot of cases, are completely fake, now that every student is expected to have

an opinion on everything. For the sake of a simpler viewpoint to what Im trying to get to, it just

means that students who do not enjoy writing are being forced to write. Now, the intentions of

the public-school system may be noble; to get students into writing at an early age (as early as

middle school) so that they can already have the set foundations of what writing is and from

there decide if they will continue liking the subject or not. Another possible incentive as to why

students are introduced into writing at such an early age is the mass market of school curriculum

that (at least in OCPS) schools partake in. Writing curriculum is decided by a bunch of

politicians in Tallahassee that have no knowledge on Educational Writing and that adopt

interventionist acts in what they believe is the most appropriate writing curriculum for the

students. So, by now, you might have guessed that my initial writing habits are very similar to

that of many of then classmates. What are those writing habits? Let me explain.

First steps

Writing across all OCPS (Orange County Public Schools) is extremely structured

structured to the point to where it loses its essence. I dont even think that calling it structured is

being fair with the nonsense that teachers are told to teach students. This is the big market that

I was talking about earlier, making reference to the careless content being distributed just for the

money and making the students take these standardized tests which end up having no relevance

in determining their academic level of writing once these students reach the university level.

For those of you that dont know how OCPS operates with writing, it is fairly

straightforward. Since middle school, students are exposed to different writing styles such as

writing informatively, persuasively, and rhetorically. From such a young age, they are exposed

to what becomes the eccentricity of their writing career for their remaining years in school: timed
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writing. Students are drilled into this standard not in gentle manners. Workshops for timed

writing take place all throughout the years in their English classes, and these workshops can be

as intense as practicing for a competitive sport. For example, in high school, students are meant

to practice timed writing at least once per month. How students are meant to approach the

writing is by having a prepared outline prior to the day of the drill. The problem here is that

students might have their ideas noted down, but the format in which they are supposed to mold

them into is confusing for many of them. This confusion leads to the student loosing interest in

writing, performing bad in the subject, and the idea that writing is just another grade well, at

least I thought about it that way.

As far as my writing methods go, these are them. When attacking these types of writing,

first we are taught to brainstorm ideas by compiling all of the information and supporting

evidence that we may have at our disposition. In every essay written, there has to be at least a

certain number of supporting sources in order to make my point valid (for a persuasive essay, the

number significantly increases). After this step is done, we proceed to making an outline. This

outline consists of an introduction, about 3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion to be considered

valid in accordance to the framework that we are taught. When drafting, writers are not permitted

to use personal pronouns in any of the three types of essays, now that the main argument against

from the teachers part is: You arent supposed to be talking about yourself. You should word

your ideas so that your argument doesnt seem like your opinion. The main conflict with this is

that the purpose of writing such an essay is to make your own opinion known to the reader; but if

no personal pronouns are allowed, then it is not possible to create such an argument and establish

immediacy at the same time. The day of the examination, the students will be timed constrained

to a single class period and receive an evaluation on how well you copy the model that we taught
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to you. This is the type of issues that I struggled with the most throughout my writing career in

middle school and high school not the mere process of writing itself, but the preparation stages.

Ever since, I decided to throw the towel on the writing methodologies of the public-school

system and write on my own, without constraints, Ive noticed immense improvement in my

communication skills overall. I hold this improvement very dearly to me because I feel authentic

in the way that I express myself. Im no longer tied to a set of rules as to how I should

communicate my thoughts on paper. Luckily, now in college, I have been able to give fruition to

my natural writing style (for now) and enjoy myself while writing. Now I dont see writing as

such a burden on me, but rather as a way to relieve and enjoy myself. Dr. G has done an

excellent job as not only a professor but also a mentor in the process of self-discovery in

writing that is supposed to take place in ENC 1101. Especially now for the millennial

generations, it is particularly challenging to go through this new process because the public-

school system is so engrained in the culture that it is hard to face reality; just like in Platos

Allegory of the Cave.

My method

I am a very volatile individual I admit it. It is hard for me to maintain a routine as I like

to be constantly trying out new things. This is why I have adopted a way of writing (including

diction, grammar, and sentence structure) so that I can identify my strongest aspects and exploit

them to always certify that my writing is qualitative, not quantitative.

This method is a hybrid of what I like to call the school writing; which is a faster paced

method, and the leisure writing; which is a more concise, planned, but slower type of writing.

As Ive gained more experience throughout the semester, I have been able to find the perfect

balance between both, retaining the pace with which I proliferate ideas, but also incorporating
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the planning process and the amount of detail to make it descriptive enough but not redundant.

This is a rather simple style that when used, it is the most effective with respect to my time

availability. Although it is not very specific, the steps are worth describing for purposes of

development later on. It all starts with me planning a day or two, sometimes even a week in

advance what I am supposed to write; whether the task is a progress report for my engineering

class, or a discussion entry for my English class.

Before I get into my process in detail, I want to clarify a common misconception that

students in general have about writing and the planning process: planning does not necessarily

mean to write something down on paper by definition, a plan is a scheme or method of

acting, doing, proceeding, making, etc. developed in advance. (Dictionary.com). Note that

nowhere the definition explicitly mentions the act of writing in the process; although the act of

following the dictionary definition of a word can turn into a completely philosophical argument

if desired so. But for the sake of simplicity, lets stick to the socially accepted definition.

My writing process begins with the planning in advance. When I plan, I usually begin

just thinking about the assignment and creating expectations of what I will tackle and from there,

begin guiding myself by the name of the assignment. For important assignments such as papers

and progress reports, I usually reach out to a few of my classmates to get ideas on how they will

format their writing and what they are doing with respect to the constraints of what we are able

and arent able to do. On my own, I might do some research on the topic depending on how

much time I have available to write and from there, extract just a few ideas to add a little spice to

my own style. Before making the final draft, I take a look at my peers drafts online to gain some

inspiration whenever I feel lost. Using some of the items that they included in their drafts such as

specific types of information or evidence really opens up my eyes to approaches that I hadnt
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thought of before; and many times the essays that they write are so good that reading them is

quite humbling to me.

Before I begin writing, there is this strange event that always happens to me. When it

comes to assignments this important, I like to switch my mindset by relaxing in some leisure

time for about 20 minutes, just so that I am completely focused on the writing - its like a switch

that I turn on to writing mode. Since I currently live with my parents, sometimes it is very hard

to focus on my assignments because they can be doing anything noisy outside of my room and I

cannot tell them to quit doing that because since we coexist under the same roof, they also have

the right to do whatever they please without being bothered. This is why I try to do as much

homework in school during the day, because I know where to go to focus the best. This sacred

place for me would be either the 3rd floor of the library, where noise level is minimal, or the 2nd

floor of Classroom Building I because there are very few classrooms in that floor (ironic), so the

transit of students is considerably low; apart from the fact that people have respect for the

appropriateness of noise levels in such an environment. However, once I get home, I first take

care of the homework for other classes and leave English for last (best for last). This way, I can

begin writing in the nighttime, which is when I flow the easiest. For example, when Im going to

write an entry on my philosophical journal, I tend to have long hours of meditation on the topic.

This only happens when the topic extends far out from just one type of study. Say, the question

of Who am I? can cover a wide variety of topics; ranging all the way from morality to

epistemology, depending on how much one wants to extend the argument.

The drafting process is a complete thrill for me. I picture it as a roller coaster because it is

so fast paced that even now that Im so used to doing this, I never know when I will reach a

plateau or when it is going to flow spontaneously. You could picture it as when you add too
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much sugar to your coffee you crash. I usually hit a plateau when my natural anxiety (although

euphoria is a more appropriate term anxiety seems more derogatory) decides to take over my

mind and just cut the flow of thoughts, and I have to stop and regain my focus through a 5-

minute music or snack break. This during writing process can yield two very different types of

results. Let me explain.

I consider myself a decent quick writer and that, hopefully, I have found (for now) my

equilibrium between ideas and pace. How well my writing turns out to be depends on how

effective my planning process was. I rely greatly on having a solid planning process not only

because it structures my thoughts a lot more and allows me to flow naturally when writing, but

also because it saves me a lot of time. Id like to mention as well that I dislike very much when

my plans change last minute, now that I have all of my week planned out every Sunday.

Whenever I have to change plans in a quick manner right before writing, that adds on stress and

pressure on me which can lead me to a plateau and therefore elongating the amount of time that I

allotted to doing work. However, by following my schedule for the week, I should have a very

solid idea of what Im going to write about and how Im going to organize it when the writing

task comes around most of the times, resulting in a good grade.

The post-writing phase is always fun to go through. I personally feel very accomplished

whenever I manage to sit through an intense session without hitting a plateau. This indicates to

me that not only have I progressed in improving my stress-management techniques, but also, Ive

put in the best effort possible into the writing. As I learned in the reading of Responding to

Writing by Richard Straub, the type of fallacies that students look for when revising someone

elses paper are not objective at all. Things like grammatical redundancies, spelling, and

rewording are the most prominent among those, and they only help the author in a minuscule
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way. What the reading taught me, on the other hand, was to look for fallacies that might hinder

the point from developing clearly and making sure that the message that the author is trying to

send and the one that the reader receives match to their totality. Added on to this, I like to go

back to the old school style of revising my own writing by reading the paper aloud looking for

how sound it is and a firm connection between the author and the receiver. This phase of the

process usually takes place immediately after the first draft is done, to the moment that the final

draft is done. The reason that I began to do this myself was to cross the barrier of embarrassment

(if you havent already noticed, Im very big on self-actualization), assume whatever I had

written down as my own writing, and develop a logical viewpoint on my ideas. What I mean by

this is that this self-revising process allows me to become objective on what I have to do

developing maturity and letting me become more independent and self-reliant on my work to

stop relying on the revision of my partners, waiting on some sort of approval, and begin taking

initiative myself. In other words, what Im trying to get across is that writing should never be

forced through, because when you do that the only person you are hurting is yourself. I saw

writing as an opportunity to not only to improve my communication skills, but as a method of

finding myself. It is proven by psychology that adolescents of our age go through an identity

crisis. You can even prove it yourself go have a deep conversation with someone that you

consider intimate with you at an emotional level, and you will see that even though they seem

very firm on the outside, their minds are still reluctant to define a personality. Writing could

serve as an escape to all of this uncertainty if assimilated the right way, not just as another grade.

When one lets go of ones emotional setbacks while writing, thats when you know youve

discovered your true self. Im still going through the process of doing so, because it really isnt

an easy task, and it requires a lot of persistence; meaning a lot of writing.