Why I Write...

It is hard to believe our semester together is at an end, and here we are wrapping it all up.  Our final exercise is an opportunity to focus on the topic of  why a person writes.  You must think back over all that you have accomplished, all you have written, and all you have learned.  Your challenge is to think about why YOU write.  What do you learn about yourself, your relationship to the world, and the way you see the world?

Read excerpts over the following essay by the author Terry Tempest Williams.   The topic itself was inspired by the original essay written by George Orwell, and though you may find it rather dense, you may at least want to skim down to the final paragraph.  The National Writing Project adopted a national writing day based on the topic of "Why I Write."  This last link provides you with a number of essays which you may read through to gather ideas for how you might respond to the same topic. This last link is an interesting essay by a college adjunct professor who writes about the topic and asks her students to write as well.  After you have read over these essays, you may begin to sketch out your own ideas as to what writing reveals to you or why you write.

Think about the pieces we have written this year, what you may have written on your own, and how writing fits into your life and into your future.  You may simply begin your piece with a series of statements, "I write because_________________."   See where it leads you.

In this final self-reflection please take care to proofread how you write.  Use spell check.  Read what you say aloud to yourself to see if it makes sense and is what you intended to say.  Don't  be afraid to let the topic lead you to a new discovery.  This is about you as a writer, a thinker, and about what your own writing reveals to you.

I look forward to reading what your write.  For those of you leaving us, I will miss peeking into your thoughts and insights.  Keep thinking.  Keep writing!