ABOUT ME
MY JOURNEY AS A WRITER
Though I would certainly call myself someone who loves to write, I have often struggled with the title of “writer,” for myself. Perhaps this is because I have seen my development as a writer as a constant work in progress— I am always learning new facets of my voice and capacities. This development has come as I have had access to various discourse communities and gotten more comfortable with the audiences I encounter. In this portfolio I draw from work I have produced at Wake Forest University during my years in the interdisciplinary writing minor and as a student in the Psychology and Religion departments. With this portfolio I hope to exhibit that with access to each of these discourse communities I have grown and learned more about my strengths and weaknesses as a writer and learner. A well-known researcher of linguistics and rhetoric, John Swales, argues in his book Genre Analysis that mastering a discourse community means fully understanding the “broadly agreed-upon conventions,” “mechanisms” and “lexis” of communication within the field, as well as an ability to “utilize one or more genres,” which are crucial to communicatively furthering the aims of the discourse community. In this introduction to my portfolio, I will first demonstrate my growth as a writer by describing my experiences in two vastly different discourse communities—both which stand out to me in particular as pivotal to my growth as they placed me far outside of my comfort zone. I will also provide evidence of my genre-awareness by drawing attention to one piece which I repurposed for a completely different audience.
During my spring semester of junior year at Wake Forest I took part in a Writers Workshop run by author, conservationist, and activist Terry Tempest Williams. The two-week seminar, called “Writing Resistance: Sustainable Spiritualities in the Anthropocene” was an intensely reflective experience where I was challenged to write and speak vulnerably while also providing critical feedback to other members of the workshop. Swales would describe my experience as one within a “folocal” discourse community, as, although it was a set group of Wake Forest students, Williams had been traveling around the country running the workshop at other universities. She told us that, as one of her last stops on the workshop tour, we were getting a refined experience as influenced by student feedback throughout the process.
The objective of this workshop was, in a way, to rethink the way we have written in the past. We were supposed to deeply consider serious issues facing our country and connect these issues to a vulnerable part of ourselves. These were our broadly agreed-upon goals. Throughout my time in this workshop, I had the opportunity to share myself on a deeper level than I ever had in my college career. I got to explore the tunnels under Wait Chapel. I made new and powerful connections to a random group of Wake students. Insofar as intercommunication, I gave honest feedback publicly without fear of judgement or rejection. I wrote a very intimate essay about myself called "Empty Cages" which I read aloud proudly—one which you can read here on my portfolio under the "Personal and Controversial" tab. This discourse community was incredibly valuable for my growth as a writer. After this experience, I started journaling again. I felt like I had broken through a layer of fear and self-doubt. Although this discourse community disbanded after Terry Williams left, I still feel a connection to many of those students. In general, this experiences taught me the value of being unafraid of my own vulnerability in the writing process. Since this experience, I have become the kind of writer who craves critical feedback, and I feel this has improved my writing exponentially.
Another example of a discourse community I have been a part of which was both challenging and rewarding during my college career was my “Psychology of Emotion” seminar. Because it was a formal class, I would define this discourse community in accordance with Swales’s criteria as local on the occupational level. This course was important in shaping my writing because I had to write a full journal article—based on my own research, data, and data-analyzing techniques. I was in a group of three girls who I worked with on the article for the entire semester. We bounced research ideas and designs off of each other, compromised often, taught each other specialized research techniques (SPSS equations and how to read them), etc. In the end, we had to turn in a paper on our own after peer-review drafts. You can read my finalized article "Fear in Young and Older Adults: The Impact of Rational and Irrational Perceptions of Coulrophobia" in my portfolio under the "Research Writing" tab.
This class was extremely challenging and collaborative. I know that I would not have been able to write a complete research article without the help of those girls and my class as a whole—the intercommunication between the members of the discourse community was essential to my writing process. Additionally, the work I produced in this class allowed me to enter a larger conversation within the field of psychology as a whole—by producing a “publishable” journal article, I was engaging with the most important genre within the field. Along the way, I learned new mechanisms and certain important lexis of writing within the field beyond the typical APA conventions. For example, I learned that it is beneficial to use hedge words in APA papers such as “nearly,” or “almost,” as science is an evolving discipline—any of my claims might be disproved in the next study. I am unbelievably proud of the article I produced as a result of that class—the daunting task was one which I never thought I would be capable of when I was a freshman or a sophomore at Wake Forest. If my experience in Williams’s workshop taught me the value of vulnerability and risk-taking in creative writing, then this more academic experience taught me that research writing often requires meticulous attention to the shared conventions of the field. A shared thru-line, though, is that the criticism and general feedback I received from my peers certainly strengthened my work in both experiences.
Although these experiences were clearly very different in content, I found that the open atmospheres of these experiences was essential for me to produce my best work—they were certainly pivotal to my growth as a writer. Receiving feedback helped refine my work in both instances. On my end, I had to be vulnerable and trusting in order to grow and improve. I had to overcome my insecurities about my writing and allow myself to be exposed—a feat which was often messy and unpolished. However, without me letting my guard down, I would not have been able to produce my best work. Many people think of writing as a solitary act—something that is lonely and possibly even painful in nature. I certainly thought this when I first walked on Wake Forest’s campus four years ago. However, through these experiences working in two vastly different genres, I have learned that my best work comes through collaboration and feedback.
Understanding the expectations of a particular genre also means a heightened awareness of who the audience is. Although I feel like my audience-awareness has dramatically improved throughout my time at Wake Forest, sometimes this improvement is subtle and thus difficult to display. In light of this, I opted to show—not tell—my ability to adopt my writing to different audiences by repurposing one of my pieces from an academic research-based paper to a more mainstream article which could be found in respectable journal such as The Atlantic.
The original article was 10-page research paper titled "The Sikh Response to Racial Targeting" which focused on the Sikh community in North America and their responses to racial targeting in a post-9/11 society. I used primary and secondary sources to support my argument as well as TV advertising campaigns, websites, and PSAs. This was one of the first papers I had written which used such a range of mediums as sources. My multifaceted argument essentially proposed that the American public’s ignorance of Sikhism coupled by heightened prejudice and hate crimes against Sikhs in post-9/11 America forced this religious community to take protective actions in the form of civic engagement and educational campaigns.
This paper (which is under the "Research Writing" tab) reflected my ability to weave an argument very logically into each example I provided. My language is clear, my references are properly cited, and my message comes across with urgency and passion. In this class we spoke at great length about injustices facing Americans based on their phenotypical characteristics-- I had to check my privilege as a white affluent woman at the door each day. I think this paper reflects my growth as an advocate for human rights and exhibits my refined ability to articulate my passion for the subject in an informed and logical way. It is a reflection of the writing I hope to continue to write—communicating an informed and critical message about an issue I am passionate about.
Although my passion about the injustices Sikh-Americans face was reflected in my research paper, the audience I was addressing was certainly those within academia—perhaps even just religious scholars in particular. When it came to repurposing this piece, I knew I wanted to mold it into an engaging read for a non-expert. I wanted the piece to continue to reflect my passion about the subject—perhaps by teaching readers of The Atlantic something new about a religion they may know little about. My repurposed piece is titled "Targeting the Turban," and can be found under the "Personal and Controversial" tab. As you will read, I begin with commentary on terrorism followed by staggering statistics about Sikhism and violence in America. I feel that by doing this, I actively engage the reader on a personal level while also strengthening my ethos as an author. Although these two pieces are dramatically different in style, voice, conventions, citations, etc., they hold the same content—thus displaying my developed audience-awareness.
In his recent paper on discourse community, Swales expresses that “As we move from one discourse community to another, our verbal and social behavior adapts to the new environment, but I do not believe that this necessarily implies that we adopt new identities, or that we are somehow merely an aggregation of different personae.” Although I have learned the conventions and intercommunication skills important to certain discourses, I also believe I have aspects of my identity woven into each piece I have published on this virtual portfolio. Here you will find a writer who is professional yet vulnerable, as well as specialized and proficient yet creative and risk-taking. You’ll see passion in many forms, including on some controversial topics. Though it will always be a continuous work in progress, this portfolio serves to exhibit my best work to date. I hope you enjoy it.