Last Thoughts…

Looking back on all the things that I’ve learned over this semester in this class, I’m just happy to say I’m glad I took this class.

Mainly I took this class for the personal statement, but this course focused more than just that. It helped me understand myself a little bit better, helping me to identify what I want in life, what I don’t want in life and the reasons why I loved writing in the first place.

I used to do a lot of writing back in elementary school, and that’s where I learned to love writing. I haven’t been loving writing very much after that, as they were always essays or papers required for english class, history class, biology, etc.

Then came this class. WRT 303.

I didn’t have to take this class. But I chose to. I knew I wanted to write a good personal statement, but I wasn’t going to be able to do it on my own.

This class opened me up to new forms of writing, enabling me to try out different methods to see which one worked for me. Writing using those methods got me to think critically of how to organize my thoughts. Sometimes, I would just not think at all, and let it all out of my mind. I got to explore different writing forms, and I am now thankful for those many essays that we had to write each week.

I also agree that the essays that we had to write each week was a lot of work. Sometimes, I felt like there was never enough time. I never like to rush, but in this case, I had to since it was due the next week. I always post up my essay, thinking I wish I had more time. However, I understand that it was also important to get feedback, so I knew it was important to post it up on time.

I really enjoyed reading all the feedback on discussion board, as it helped me a lot. At the same time, I also enjoyed reading other people’s essays and seeing how their writing styles differed from mine.

Overall, taking WRT 303 was a good decision and now I know, the right decision that I had made. I’m glad I chose to stay in this class, as I got much out of it. I hope to continue writing and keep getting inspired even after this class ends.

Anne Sexton’s “Resume 1965”

Reading Anne Sexton’s “Resume 1965,” I was fascinated by the beginning part of her essay. It was impressive to learn that her ancestry can be traced back to the royalty such as King Ferdinand of Spain and other kings. She then mentions Edward 111, who married his mistress at age 15 and how shocked she is by the young age of marriage. She feels a sense of relief when she sees notes about this and I feel that she is somewhat thankful for strict upbringing at the moment.

She then begins to talk about how she was locked in her room until the age of five. I’m not sure if it was because her parents were overprotective or it was their tradition of doing this, but this upbringing got Sexton to become fearful of the outside world, once she was exposed to it. She would prefer staying at home, reading her fairytales, instead of facing reality. At this point, I feel sorry for her. Because of not being able to interact with society for five years in her life, she missed out on a lot. She seems to have develop anthropophobia -the fear of people. Thus, she found herself comfortable in her own fairytale books and eventually in writing poems.

Her mother was considered as a genius, and Sexton felt that she could never reach her mother’s expectations. She became rebellious and eloped with who was probably her first love, Alfred, and now her husband. On interesting thing to note is how she says that “Fairytales  we all have in common-but one marriage, seldom.” I tried interpreting the meaning of this sentence. I believed that she was trying to say that although writers love imagining and creating their own fairytale stories, in real life, their marriages do not live up to their fairytale stories. Thus, they are not successful, most of the time. They do not get what they strive for.

Near the end of the essay, Sexton writes that her poems usually come from a part of her that even she doesn’t know herself. They are poems that understand her better than herself. This made me think “how weird”. How can you not know what you wrote/produced? But it turns out that I can relate to this too. Sometimes the writing that flows out of you seemingly naturally and smoothly surprises you back when you re-read it over and wonder, “Wow, I came up with that?” or “I didn’t know that about myself”. It’s because when you are writing, you are the most true person you can ever be. What comes out of your heart doesn’t lie. And writing is just a translation of your inner feelings. It’s okay to not know your real feelings and that’s what writing is here for. To help you understand and realize.

Remembering and Understanding

Sometimes I remember what I shouldn’t—sometimes too much; sometimes too little. At times I can’t remember anything.

Joe Brainer’s, in his essay, “I Remember” makes statements form memories. Some statements are ambiguous, some are random, some are very connected, some are personal, and of course, some are confusing—I didn’t live in the 40’s, 50’s or 60’s.

Many of Brainer’s statements brought back random memories which I haven’t thought of in a very long time. I found myself relating to some of his memories and brainstorming in my head.  I found this statement to be funny, because I thought I was the only one who did this: “I remember at least once only pretending to make a wish before blowing the candles out.” It was a statement which painted a very vivid picture in my head—the familiar crowd and birthday cake-cutting setting.

At times our misinterpretations bring us back to memories, whether good or bad. Tobias Wolff’s essay, “The Last Shot” depicted one of these times. I fury upon Orwell and his quote portrayed how strong, personal, and important his memory was to him.   It angered me too. However, his research of when the essay was written, reminded me about the generation gap between us and the authors and writers whose work we read. It also made me realize, that as a reader, I have a duty. I cannot judge or critique and author if I have misunderstood his/her work. The duty is to do research and find background information if it is not already given to us. This research will not only make us readers better educated but it will also change our way of thinking, our psychology behind writing the way we do.

~Farzana Karim

Lopate’s Introduction to Writing Personal Essays

This introduction to a book on personal essay writing by Lopate includes a lot of little tips about how to write personal essays with quotes from other personal essay writers to explain how the tip is used. The essay is originally divided into formal and informal with personal being the informal essay.
The introduction is organized almost like a textbook with its subheadings acting more like a Spark notes guide to personal writing rather than an introduction to a book. The point of the introduction is to have the reader understand what to expect what the book with a definition on the personal essay and some key points. I feel like from reading the introduction I probably wouldn’t need to read the rest of the book and just look up the essays mentioned in the introduction instead if I needed more detail. This introduction goes beyond what is usually found in most books’ introductions.
Back onto the actual topic on hand of writing a personal essay. I find the advice very useful and detailed to help someone write a personal essay. It’s about how personal the essay can or cannot be and how honest and open people are. It also gives tips on how to get the readers to be entertained while still keeping it in like with being a semi-autobiographical without delving all the way into fictional territory. Even the personalities of the writers are explained as accepting the appearance of egotism that comes along with personal writing but also the criticism and self-deprecating that the writer experiences when exposing their flaws to everyone else. There is a focus on the past generally rather than a concern for the path their life may take based on these decisions. They are referred to as “idlers”, meaning they are not doing much with their time other than writing and observing the life around them.
The upside to personal essay writing to the ability to think and reflect on what one has done. The freedom of the format allows for the author to do whatever they what with their writing, including the creation of a character that is almost identical to them, but still fictional. They can say whatever they want for the sake of writing about themselves and just expressing their thoughts. In the end, they may not even need to follow anything I typed in the paragraph above because it’s a personal essay and they can do whatever suits them best.

Taking off my mask

Throughout my high school and college years, I was very involved in the community around me. Applications for this job, or that volunteer trip—they all had one thing in common: they all wanted a personal statement, an attempt to get to know me, at least as best they could after reading my carefully chosen two pages of writing. It was always—and still is—the hardest part of an application for me. Resume, three references, two recommendations—no problem. Write about myself? Eek. It’s not that I don’t like writing. I love to write.

The problem, as Phillip Lopate addresses in “The Art of the Personal Essay” is that we have been groomed to feel awkward using “I” and speaking in the first person.  He writes, “Most people are brought up to think it is impolite to talk much about themselves.”  When writing for our English Regents exam, we were told not to use “I”. The same goes for my Journalism professors—the facts were important, the context, the details. But  although it was my voice in the article, it was muffled and hidden—like Lopate says, I was wearing the mask. This class will hopefully help me learn to be comfortable without that mask.

Why does writing about ourselves feel so wrong sometimes? Lopate references E. B. White’s idea that it sometimes feels arrogant to assume that whatever personal memory or thought you’re writing about would ever interest another person.

I often am guilty of this. It’s hard for me to pick out things in my past to write about, because I wonder how people will react, and if they will understand my intent. I suppose part of personal writing though, is that while you have to keep your reader in mind…it’s also about you and how you feel about your story.Another idea in Lopate’s writing is comforting; he points out that the areas of your life that you choose to write about that may seem mundane or strange may actually appeal to a reader, making them feel “less lonely and freakish.”

What I love the most about the idea of writing in a personal style, and by the same token, reading a personal piece, is described by Lopate in a way that immediately clicked in my head. He wrote that the personal essay is almost like “eavesdropping on a solitude.”

I am the type of person who likes to be alone, and I often feel like I am too pensive for my own good, lost in all my thoughts. The idea of putting it all down on paper seems freeing. Overall, I enjoyed this read. It made the idea of personal writing seem exciting and warm–like reaching out to people using your experiences and your words, and less like the awkward chore it has felt like for me in the past. I want to learn to love writing about myself, and I want to be comfortable letting others read it. It’s one thing to write about the depths of your person in an honest and blunt way, and another beast entirely to let others read it.