Theory of Writing
I was always taught that writing is of the utmost importance in regards to communication between human beings. In the presence of others, we can vocalize our opinions and share them with those around us; however, through writing, those same opinions can traverse the globe. From a young age, perhaps once I began the first grade, my mother would give me writing assignments of her own once I completed my homework. While I was a shy and quiet kid in social situations, I discovered I was quite the opposite in my writing. There was no fear I encountered while writing, perhaps because I was able to express my thoughts and opinions while remaining invisible.
It was because of the circumstances of my education that I became an excellent writer. My mother’s assignments, whether they be reflections on books I read or research papers on changing environmental conditions, shaped me into an incredibly versatile writer. I developed a way with my words that no one else in the family and even most of my peers in school could simulate. Even the writing pieces that I felt were not my best were praised tremendously by my teachers and classmates. As a result, I became extremely confident and maybe even one-sided in my writing, and this is why the reality I encountered in the Narrative Medicine course hit me like a truck.
The fact of the matter is that the most successful writing pieces present to the audience exactly what they want to see. If the audience is a group of doctors or scientists, they want to be reading an intellectual, yet easily-navigable research paper that may give them a lead on their own research. If the audience is an activist group of some sort, they want to be reading an accurate account of how their activism has influenced the world. Essentially, there is no place for fluff in the real world, and that is what I discovered in the duration of this narrative medicine course. Of course, there is a time and place for details, but fluff or the addition of random opinions in writing truly has no meaning after a certain point. In middle school and highschool, teachers welcome the idea that more writing is equivalent to higher sophistication, and this couldn’t be further from the truth. In the real world, a successful piece of writing is one that is relatively concise, but developed, such that all of the necessary details are present and all of the unnecessary details are omitted. Truth be told, I discovered this from the second assignment that was given to us at the start of the semester.
The second project assigned in the duration of this course was the metaphor paper, in which we were asked to discuss the development of metaphors in two writing pieces and their significance. I vividly recall relying on my fluff to fill in any places where I believed information was lacking. While writing, I didn’t pick up on how much unnecessary information was actually present in my paper, and it was because of this that I was so grateful for peer review. Specifically for the metaphor paper, there was no in-class peer review, and so I had some of my colleagues read and review what I had written. The idea that immediately caught my attention was that I had “An excessive amount of fluff”, as one of my peers stated. Had I submitted the assignment as it was, I surely would have been penalized for the inclusion of excess and irrelevant information. Upon hearing this opinion, I cut out all information I believed to be unnecessary from my paper. After reading my submission, my professor, Caitlin Geoghan commented, “This is good! Great style for an analytical essay–very clear and direct writing.” At that point I knew that this was the type of writing that would be required of me for the remainder of my life. Especially in the medical field, smart and efficient writing is key, and considering I want to pursue a career in medicine, this will be something to keep in mind.
I am incredibly grateful to have participated in my narrative medicine course because of what it showed me about writing. I have always been a good writer, but never truly an efficient one. This course showed me that one needs to understand the efficiency aspect of writing in order to truly become a successful writer.
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