Anything and Everything

My professor told us to make a post with advice about what kind of writing freshmen should do. It didn't me very long after analyzing the kind of writing I enjoy and do for class. My answer: everything.

I'm a Writing Studies track, which is, basically, a type of English degree where you learn to do all sorts of writing relative to the workplace and academia.  Though most of my classes have to with rhetoric and business writing or networking through writing in some shape or form, I have taken a creative writing class and several literature classes. Taking creative writing classes is mainly a break from more formal writing, and for my own goals to be a published fiction author someday. The literature classes have been for major requirements and for fun, too.

While I have enjoyed all of my English classes, I have learned a LOT from them too. Creative writing can be a great way to express creativity in ways you can't when writing formally while also teaching you how to express subtle creativity when writing more formally. Creative writing taught me how to put my own voice in a professional, formal text without sounding like I'm talking to my best friend.

 



Literature classes, no matter how much they get labelled as "useless" and "waste of my time", will teach you to think critically and quite a bit about the world. For one, you can't go back in history, and from high school most people associate history classes with boredom. Taking a literature class will teach you tons about history as you read a text and analyze why an author wrote about something and why it is significant; literature reveals more about a people, a time, and culture than most anything else. Literature will also teach you a lot about life, and, let's be honest, college is about learning how to navigate life so we have a better chance in it when we leave the safety of the university campus.

Rhetorical classes or professional writing classes will teach you how to communicate in the work place, which is where all college students hope to get to someday (I assume). Admittedly, they can be a little less fun than creative writing and literature classes--not to say those are easier, because they aren't-- but rhetoric and business writing will prevent you from sending a email that represents a Facebook post to the CEO of the company you work for. They will teach you how to craft text that will be the most successful, whether it be an essay, speech, presentation, etc. You will learn how to move an audience the way you want to; how to use all sorts of awesome rhetorical tools with Greek names I can't pronounce half the time; and how to use all sorts of mediums to present an idea, amongst other things.

So, dear freshmen, take writing classes of all kinds. They will make the well-rounded citizens older generations hope you will be when you graduate. You'll be able to write anything and everything if you take the time and effort to learn to.