personal-growth

 

 

Personal Growth

For the entirety of my time in English classes, I have had a very difficult time when it comes to writing papers. Whether it was due to my lack of confidence or lack of practice, I never saw any of my works as anything more than below average or simply adequate. However, as this semester has progressed, I have learned that I am not the only student struggling with the concept of writing. Possibly the most important lesson I learned is the fact that all writers struggle, and that a good paper is never created in just a day. In the past few months, I have progressed from someone who is petrified of to someone who understands that writing, like everything else, takes time and patience to master, and one must not to be afraid to explore, make mistakes, learn, and evolve as a writer. While I believe, I have so much more to master, I now have the basic knowledge to continue learning how to become a better writer.
Obviously, it is impossible to go back and fix some of the mistakes and habits that plagued me during ERH101, however, there is still the possibility of preparing for the upcoming ERH102 class. Knowing how rigorous my schedule was going to be once I arrived at VMI, my original advice to myself was to turn every assignment in on time. That way I don’t fall behind and I can continue to work on the assignments at hand. Now that I have accomplished that, the advice that I can give myself as I inch towards to the next level of writing is to visit the Writing Center more often and begin papers way earlier than I previously did this past semester. Although I had never turned in a paper that was late or incomplete, I still feel as though I could have done a lot better on each paper. So, I have concluded that the best advice that I can give to myself is to pace myself when writing papers; completing a tad bit of the paper daily and editing what I’ve done and continue the process up until the night that it’s due. Either that, or simply begin working on every paper as soon as possible, and therefore give myself more time to proofread and edit.
Even though I have had my fair share of bumps and bruises while pursuing my goal of becoming a better writer, I will admit that I have come a long way from where I began this semester. One thing I believe that I have improved on is my ability to flow from one topic of discussion to another. For the longest time, I have wondered whether my ability to transition from one paragraph to another was adequate or not, but it seems that all it took to recognize this was to have another student read my paper. That in and of itself was another challenge that I had to overcome. I have always been very shy when it comes to peer editing. While I have always been the first to volunteer to assist others with their writing, I have been so afraid of being judged that I have adopted the habit of keeping my works to myself simply deal with the grade that I get after editing at my own amateur level. I knew that this was a bad move on my part, but I could never quite get over my own pride. Yet, it seemed that the habit was not meant to live forever, because it just so happened that the first draft required a peer editor. So needless to say, I did not have much of a choice when it came to getting over my insecurity.
With confidence being my main issue, it is easy to say that gaining it is, by far, my greatest accomplishment. Before I could even think about learning the basic skills and techniques of writing, I had to overcome the thing that had crippled my ability to write in my ongoing endeavor. Once I had adopted the concept of “vomiting all over the page and cleaning it up later”, writing became, in lack of a better term, a little bit less impossible and a little more feasible. Once this obstacle had been thwarted, I could easily recognize both my weaknesses as well as my strengths.

 

discourse-communities-final-draft

This piece involves the description of the habits, lingo, and behavior of a particular Discourse community that I’m involved in: VMI wrestling. This project required an interview that was sent out to members of the community, allowing for a mix of opinions, personalities, and perspectives regarding the community itself.

 

 

 

Discourse Communities

 

 

 

 

 

 

WR 101, Section 4

Date Due: 2 Dec. 2016

Date Sub.: 2 Dec. 2016

Paper No. 3

Help Received: Writing About Writing, The Idea of Community in the Study of Writing, Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction, Google Dictionary

Kameron Warlitner

 

 

 

There are dozens of ways in which human beings can be categorized. Race, hair color, height, weight, shoe size, and gender are just a few simple examples. On top of that, sometimes it is ideas or language that categorize us. Known as discourse communities, the use of certain language in a group can be considered a form of social behavior, and involves the maintaining and extending of the specific group’s knowledge as well as the initiation of new members to the group. So, in understandable English, what exactly does that mean? Well, generally, it involves common behavior, speech, actions, and ideas of a group of people. This could involve slang, traditions, and even the way individuals dress and present themselves could cause them to be affiliated with a specific discourse community.

The concept of discourse communities is nothing new. John Swales, Joseph Harris, and James Gee have taken on the challenge of using their education in order to explain discourse communities in very different, complex ways. John Swales identifies what characteristics must be met for a group to be considered a discourse community:

1.)  A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals.

2.) A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members.

3.) A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information     and feedback.

4.) A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.

5.) In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis.

6.) A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise.

Joseph Harris believes in the concept of an individual being able to adopt not one but multiple discourses, shaping them into the individual that they are today. As stated in one of his works: “one does not step cleanly and wholly from one community to another, but is caught instead in an always changing mix of dominant, residual, and emerging discourses.”[1] In another section of his writing, Harris brings up the that individuals are often implicated in not one but several discourses, a number of communities, whose beliefs and practices conflict as well as align, and that no discourse is repudiated or chosen wholly. [2]

On the complete opposite hand, Professor James Paul Gee believes that being involved in a discourse community is not only language itself, but a combination of saying (writing), doing, being, valuing, and believing, and that Discourses are ways of being in the world. [3] Gee expresses in his writing that we all adopt what is known as a primary Discourse, which is an individual’s initial discourse. This initial discourse, also known as a primary discourse, initially allows these individuals to make sense of the world around them. Gee explains how an individual can only be fully involved with one primary discourse. In other words, one cannot be involved with more than one primary discourse at a time, and once an individual is involved with a discourse, it remains their discourse. Other discourses that are not home-based, such as church, school, and one’s workplace, are known as secondary discourses, which can be identified by the way that we are “apprentices” within those specific communities. Other concepts described by Gee are dominant and non-dominant discourses, where dominant discourses are secondary discourses that bring with it the acquisition of social “goods” upon the mastery of it. Non-dominant discourses are secondary discourses that bring solidarity with a particular group upon mastery.[4]

Upon researching the concepts of Harris, Gee, and Swales, I decided to conduct my own research regarding the VMI wrestling team as its own discourse community. It seems that, when involving Swales’ way of interpreting discourse communities, that the wrestling team fits the characteristics put in place. When applying Swales’ ideals to VMI wrestling, it seems that, according to some of its members, that the discourse and attitudes involved with VMI wrestling are so unique, in fact, that members adopt wrestling as their primary discourse. However, it seems that VMI wrestling, as a discourse, has the ability to affect other discourses while remaining a discourse that cannot be easily effected.

In conducting this social experiment, a survey was needed in order to recognize certain lexis, goals, and common characteristics amongst the community’s members. An eleven-question email was sent to all the members of the community via email. With the issue involving the little free-time given to student and the desire to get a decent response from the members, it was required that the members only answer a few questions out of the entire survey. Each member was given a deadline of four days to complete the survey and turn the survey back into me via email, enabling the convenience of being able to fill it out at each member’s discretion.

When interviewing members of the VMI wrestling community, three members responded with their own experiences within the community. Kevin Keaveney (a member with less than one year of experience in the group), Robery Dupont (another new member with less than one year of experience in the group), and Jake Tomlinson (a veteran of the three with almost three years of experience within the group) were asked specific questions about the lingo, actions, and characteristics involved with the wrestling community and had their responses recorded. When asked on the topic of what lingo was only used amongst the VMI community, the three answered with various yet similar responses. Kevin Keaveney drew attention to the phrase “2!”, which is often used to express when a fellow wrestler manages to take his or her opponent down. Robery DuPont pointed the phrase “running the pipe” out. This phrase is used to describe a specific move involving the control of one’s opponent. In support of these two statements, Jake Tomlinson stated that just about all moves and techniques involved in wrestling, which are used almost daily within the wrestling community, are unique and cannot be confused with lexis from other communities. Some of these phrases include “cutting”, describing the concept of cutting excess amount of weight and a very short time through sweating.

Going with Swales’ style of thinking, members were asked what image was involved when becoming a member of the VMI wrestling community, and how wrestling could remain unaffected by other communities yet be known to affect them. When asked if it is possible to be as equally embedded with another community, Robert Dupont responded “how good at wrestling do you want to be?” This phrase, in my opinion, perfectly describes how involved one has to become with wrestling. Although all college sports require incredible commitment, it is agreed upon by members of the entire VMI wrestling community that playing other sports does not affect wrestling performance yet wrestling affects the performance of members while they play other sports. This solidifies how VMI wrestling can be solidified as a primary discourse and therefore begin to change the individuals into noticeable members of the community. According to Jake Tomlinson, VMI wrestling are very noticeable around post due to their dedication, the shape that they’re in, and how natural respect comes to VMI wrestling because of it being a “considerably more difficult sport” than others. These factors, along with the confidence that comes with wrestling, allows for wrestlers to stand out in a crowd. That, and the unmistakable cauliflower ear that plagues some members of this community.

While there are various discourse communities around the campus of VMI, wrestling may be one of the ones with the most notoriety. However, with having a population of only 30 or so members, the VMI wrestling is not a considerably large community that affects a wide range of individuals, yet this size enables for its members to be easily recognizable and unique. While VMI wrestling is its own community, it allows for great diversity even amongst its own members. This ability allows for a very wide range of personalities to make VMI wrestling an even more distinctive community than it already is.

 

 

 

Work Cited

Keaveney, Kevin. “Re: Interview.” Received by Kameron Warlitner, 17 Nov. 2016

Dupont, Robert. “Re: Interview.” Received by Kameron Warlitner, 17 Nov. 2016

Tomlinson, Jake. “Re: Interview.” Received by Kameron Warlitner, 17 Nov. 2016

 

 

[1] The Idea of Community in the Study of Writing pg. 588, Chapter 5, p. 20

[2] The Idea of Community in the Study of Writing pg. 589, Chapter 5, p. 23

[3] Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction pg. 484, Chapter 4, p. 5

[4] Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introductions pg. 485, Chapter 4, p. 11

discourse-communities
Discourse Communities
WR 101, Section 4
Date Due: 2 Dec. 2016
Date Sub.: 2 Dec. 2016
Paper No. 3
Help Received: Writing About Writing, The Idea of Community in the Study of Writing, Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction, Google Dictionary
Kameron Warlitner

There are dozens of ways in which human beings can be categorized. Race, hair color, height, weight, shoe size, and gender are just a few simple examples. On top of that, sometimes it is ideas or language that categorize us. Known as discourse communities, the use of certain language in a group can be considered a form of social behavior, and involves the maintaining and extending of the specific group’s knowledge as well as the initiation of new members to the group. So, in understandable English, what exactly does that mean? Well, generally, it involves common behavior, speech, actions, and ideas of a group of people. This could involve slang, traditions, and even the way individuals dress and present themselves could cause them to be affiliated with a specific discourse community.
The concept of discourse communities is nothing new. John Swales, Joseph Harris, and James Gee have taken on the challenge of using their education in order to explain discourse communities in very different, complex ways. John Swales identifies what characteristics must be met for a group to be considered a discourse community:
1.) A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals.
2.) A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members.
3.) A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback.
4.) A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.
5.) In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis.
6.) A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise.
Joseph Harris believes in the concept of an individual being able to adopt not one but multiple discourses, shaping them into the individual that they are today. As stated in one of his works: “one does not step cleanly and wholly from one community to another, but is caught instead in an always changing mix of dominant, residual, and emerging discourses.” In another section of his writing, Harris brings up the that individuals are often implicated in not one but several discourses, a number of communities, whose beliefs and practices conflict as well as align, and that no discourse is repudiated or chosen wholly.
On the complete opposite hand, Professor James Paul Gee believes that being involved in a discourse community is not only language itself, but a combination of saying (writing), doing, being, valuing, and believing, and that Discourses are ways of being in the world. Gee expresses in his writing that we all adopt what is known as a primary Discourse, which is an individual’s initial discourse. This initial discourse, also known as a primary discourse, initially allows these individuals to make sense of the world around them. Gee explains how an individual can only be fully involved with one primary discourse. In other words, one cannot be involved with more than one primary discourse at a time, and once an individual is involved with a discourse, it remains their discourse. Other discourses that are not home-based, such as church, school, and one’s workplace, are known as secondary discourses, which can be identified by the way that we are “apprentices” within those specific communities. Other concepts described by Gee are dominant and non-dominant discourses, where dominant discourses are secondary discourses that bring with it the acquisition of social “goods” upon the mastery of it. Non-dominant discourses are secondary discourses that bring solidarity with a particular group upon mastery.
Upon researching the concepts of Harris, Gee, and Swales, I decided to conduct my own research regarding the VMI wrestling team as its own discourse community. It seems that, when involving Swales’ way of interpreting discourse communities, that the wrestling team fits the characteristics put in place. When applying Swales’ ideals to VMI wrestling, it seems that, according to some of its members, that the discourse and attitudes involved with VMI wrestling are so unique, in fact, that members adopt wrestling as their primary discourse. However, it seems that VMI wrestling, as a discourse, has the ability to affect other discourses while remaining a discourse that cannot be easily effected.
In conducting this social experiment, a survey was needed in order to recognize certain lexis, goals, and common characteristics amongst the community’s members. An eleven-question email was sent to all the members of the community via email. With the issue involving the little free-time given to student and the desire to get a decent response from the members, it was required that the members only answer a few questions out of the entire survey. Each member was given a deadline of four days to complete the survey and turn the survey back into me via email, enabling the convenience of being able to fill it out at each member’s discretion.
When interviewing members of the VMI wrestling community, three members responded with their own experiences within the community. Kevin Keaveney (a member with less than one year of experience in the group), Robery Dupont (another new member with less than one year of experience in the group), and Jake Tomlinson (a veteran of the three with almost three years of experience within the group) were asked specific questions about the lingo, actions, and characteristics involved with the wrestling community and had their responses recorded. When asked on the topic of what lingo was only used amongst the VMI community, the three answered with various yet similar responses. Kevin Keaveney drew attention to the phrase “2!”, which is often used to express when a fellow wrestler manages to take his or her opponent down. Robery DuPont pointed the phrase “running the pipe” out. This phrase is used to describe a specific move involving the control of one’s opponent. In support of these two statements, Jake Tomlinson stated that just about all moves and techniques involved in wrestling, which are used almost daily within the wrestling community, are unique and cannot be confused with lexis from other communities. Some of these phrases include “cutting”, describing the concept of cutting excess amount of weight and a very short time through sweating.
Going with Swales’ style of thinking, members were asked what image was involved when becoming a member of the VMI wrestling community, and how wrestling could remain unaffected by other communities yet be known to affect them. When asked if it is possible to be as equally embedded with another community, Robert Dupont responded “how good at wrestling do you want to be?” This phrase, in my opinion, perfectly describes how involved one has to become with wrestling. Although all college sports require incredible commitment, it is agreed upon by members of the entire VMI wrestling community that playing other sports does not affect wrestling performance yet wrestling affects the performance of members while they play other sports. This solidifies how VMI wrestling can be solidified as a primary discourse and therefore begin to change the individuals into noticeable members of the community. According to Jake Tomlinson, VMI wrestling are very noticeable around post due to their dedication, the shape that they’re in, and how natural respect comes to VMI wrestling because of it being a “considerably more difficult sport” than others. These factors, along with the confidence that comes with wrestling, allows for wrestlers to stand out in a crowd. That, and the unmistakable cauliflower ear that plagues some members of this community.
While there are various discourse communities around the campus of VMI, wrestling may be one of the ones with the most notoriety. However, with having a population of only 30 or so members, the VMI wrestling is not a considerably large community that affects a wide range of individuals, yet this size enables for its members to be easily recognizable and unique. While VMI wrestling is its own community, it allows for great diversity even amongst its own members. This ability allows for a very wide range of personalities to make VMI wrestling an even more distinctive community than it already is.

Work Cited
Keaveney, Kevin. “Re: Interview.” Received by Kameron Warlitner, 17 Nov. 2016
Dupont, Robert. “Re: Interview.” Received by Kameron Warlitner, 17 Nov. 2016
Tomlinson, Jake. “Re: Interview.” Received by Kameron Warlitner, 17 Nov. 2016

malcolm-x

A brief recognition and analysis on the ethos (ethics), pathos (emotions), and kairos (moment in time). This essay focuses on a specific work done by civil rights activists Malcolm X and expresses how my own pathos was affected by being a member of the group that Malcolm X demonizes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hypocritical Analysis

 

 

 

 

 

WR 101, Section 4

Date Due: 14 Oct. 2016

Date Sub.: 14 Oc. 2016

Paper No. 2

Help Received: One-on-one conference with professor, Writing for Writers

Kameron Warlitner

 

 

 

Malcolm X’s works on the struggles of African Americans are well known for the amount of pathos, or emotion, involved in them. It is understandable for him to have his own strong, personal opinions of how difficult life has been for African Americans with the amount of hardship that they have had to experience not only during the civil rights movement, but throughout the course of slavery as well. Even he himself has experienced prejudice, becoming imprisoned on more than one occasion due to his activities as both a hustler and a civil rights activist on the streets. It can be understood while reading some of X’s pieces that he is very set in his beliefs, and with that trait comes a very stern dislike for those who are either against his beliefs or do not fully understand them. In his piece Learning to Read, there was some expressions of pathos that I, as a white reader, found rather offensive to the context it was in. The negative pathos not only drew my attention away from his argument, but convinced me that a certain audience of his was being called out: whites. On the other hand, it appeared that while he singled out whites, he also seemed to twist logical situations into mechanisms to create pride in the black readers that may be reading his piece.

X plants a kairotic moment into his writing, explaining how a teacher had made a racist joke against black people. [1] It is obvious of how this could offend X, as he goes on to explain how the history of blacks has always been suppressed, and how that realization had struck him in such a way. This is one example he uses in order to reinforce his case of African Americans being oppressed, however, he quickly allows his own pathos to influence his logos. He goes on to explain that in no way can you create a black man from a white man due to genetics. He directly states: “if you started with a black man, a white man could be produced; but starting with a white man, you never could produce a black man…” Although this may be true, he uses his personal hatred towards whites in order to make this conclusion. He uses his own pathos and pride towards being an African American that he came to the conclusion that if the black man came first then the black man must better because of that fact. Truly, since the white gene is indeed recessive, you could not create a black man through a white man, however, this is not the way he is explaining it. As a white person reading this piece, although I did not feel personally offended by this comment, I did have a feeling of being a copycat in a way, and that just because a prominent gene of mine is recessive, it made me feel like I was not as pure as blacks.

X also goes onto explain that “there is but one original man.” At first, I was confused to what his logos actually was behind said statement and how he came to that conclusion. I later realized that X was referring to his own race, and coming to the conclusion that since Africans were first, then everything that came afterward is a copycat and will never be able to obtain the title of being the first.  I also perceived it as X placing blacks on a pedestal, meaning that every other race, due to the fact that we have all directly evolved from Africans, were inferior because of this fact. Although the statement of blacks being first in indeed true, I do not receive it as a simple fact that is being thrown out into the passage. It caused my own pathos to shift to a more upset, offended tone due to the fact that X was taking a well-known fact and using his negative ethos towards whites to twist this fact into a statement that fit his argument.

X, throughout this entire piece, allows his own pathos to strongly influence his text. While it does add value to the text due to the intense emotion, it also causes it to lose its credit as some points. Throughout the piece, he does not seem to be going off on a rant. To me, he appears to target whites for previous crimes that they have committed not only against blacks but other people such as the Chinese. The main topic being slavery, X describes as “the world’s most monstrous crime.”[2] I will agree that African slavery was a tremendously terrible period in American history, however, I feel as though X is calling out whites for what they have done to his people in the past. As a white person reading the specific passage, although I did not participate in any form of slavery, I felt as though I was being called out just because the whites before me had committed this crime. It is obvious how this has effected X and his views on whites, but it causes me to feel unwelcome while reading the piece. I also found that since I was the accused, it did not matter what I thought about it, and since other whites before me had committed the “most monstrous crime” in history, I was directly responsible in some way. It caused the following of the piece to be very difficult. The thing that stirred around in my mind the most was the concept of why such a thing was being brought up when it had ended almost one-hundred years prior, and how could the emotion from that event trickle down into the generations that came after and manifest itself again in the 1960’s? Questioning whether or not his logos was rational or not while attempting to refrain from feeling as though my race was set in a spotlight caused me to dislike the reading in a way. I don’t believe that anyone truly appreciates being called out for something that they have done, let alone for something that they had done a long time ago. This is different. This is X pointing out the misbehavior of fellow whites who I have no connection with, yet he is still able to trigger ethos in me. The way he describes it, it appears that whites are, and have always been, the worst threat to the rest of humanity as well as it’s freedoms.

While pointing out the many crimes of whites, X does not mince words when it comes to how he feels. As he continued his rant, one phrase stuck out to me specifically. He states that throughout history “white people have acted as devils.”[3] The reason why is stuck out to me so clearly was due to the fact that the statement, to me, was propaganda in a way. It seemed to pin whites as the “bad guy”, causing anyone who reads this piece and isn’t white to think the exact same thing. To be compared to the devil, obviously, would not appealing to anyone, but it seems that when he compares white people to the devil, he isn’t actually talking about Caucasian whites, he talks about everyone that isn’t African.

I found it hard to grasp this kind of logos; pooling everyone else because they are not the same color as you are and ridiculing them on their past transgressions. X also explains white’s role in the Opium Wars, and how we essentially ruined foreign policy with China. Once again, I felt responsible to something that I had had no participation in, and once again, I felt as though I was being singled out as a white reader. It was obvious at how much Malcom hates whites, and his pathos is not only directly transmitted through his writing, but it is also well received by its readers.

I will agree, Malcolm X does have adequate points as well as substantial research to back up his claims. However, the feeling of simple, bitter hatred can be clearly understood. At some points, I questioned whether I should continue reading due to the facts that were piling up against me, and how he seemed to chop whites down, little by little, until it appeared as though we were in fact the most cancerous race. Also, I felt as though no matter what type of opinion I had, no matter what has changed, or no matter what is done by whites in the future, the wounds of what has already happened will never heal. I also feel now that because I am white, I have an incredible burden that I should be carrying due to what my ancestors have done to others. I also feel, after reading his piece, that I am, in a way, naturally evil because I am white, and that it seems to be a pattern and an instinct for whites to take advantage of others.

[1] Pg. 122 Malcolm X, Learning to Read

[2] Pg. 123 p. 26 Malcom X, Learning to Read

[3] Pg. 124 p. 28 Malcolm X, Learning to Read

Essay 1-Information about Myself as a Writer

A short essay involving my habits as a writer, my past experience, and the tactics I use in order to write a paper. The paper also describes how I see myself as a writer, and what I intend to get out of my first college writing class.

 Struggling Writer

            I have never considered myself a good writer, but more or less someone that enjoys writing whether it is seen as terrible or not. I am the kind of kid that just likes to simply sit down with a notebook and begin writing anything on paper. Thoughts, stories I’ve decided to make up suddenly in my head, or to practice my penmanship, I enjoy writing. I tend not to think about the first draft and let my thoughts flow directly to the pen and clean up later.

            Quite a few of my habits depend fully on what I am writing. For example, while I often listen to music while I write, when a violent scene in a story of mine comes around I instantly switch to a heavy metal or rap song. Those genres of music get my blood pumping or make me “ready for battle” almost as soon as a song begins. So, I use that to my advantage. Most of the time, I have no problem changing both the pace and mood of what I’m writing depending on what music I listen to.

            I will admit, music is a very important tool I use while I write. However, given my current position at VMI as a rat, I am prohibited from listening to music unless I’m in a dyke’s room. Realizing that, I have no choice now but to resort to another tactic I commonly use: people watching. While writer’s block is just as big of an enemy to me as it is to every other writer, I have found that watching people, thesaurus in hand, has pulled me out of incredible moments of cluelessness. My process is simple: sit, look around, listen to the conversations of others, narrate everything I am currently witnessing in my head, use the thesaurus to refrain from using the same boring words over and over, and use what I see and hear to nudge me onward in whatever I am deciding to write about at the moment.

            While people watching is beneficial to me, I also find it therapeutic. So, what happens when my “inner critic” will not allow me to relax and experience this therapy? I become a pacifist. I do not mean letting the inner critic win and never return to the material. I walk away from the material and just leave it alone for a while. In a way, I sort of let the fire burn itself out while I focus on something else. I block the project out completely, and come back to it whenever I deem it necessary. It is like walking away from a confrontational person until they decide to calm down and reason with you. The only difference is, this person can follow you everywhere if you let them, so that is focusing on something else comes into play. I can honestly say that I take pride in having a one-track mind, and from time to time I can use it to my advantage.

Usually if those three tactics fail, then I’m out of playing cards. Usually, I leave the piece for another time that I am feeling inspired or drop it altogether. It never bothers me for long, though. I mainly use writing as a stress reliever or something to occupy my time whenever I do not have anything too pressing to do such as homework or my job. While I may seem like I have a sound plan that can get me through all of my writing problems, I still feel very uncomfortable about writing for a grade. I know that I do not have a very unique way of portraying my own experiences into something everyone else can understand. Yet, I still write. Although I do not see myself really going anywhere with it career-wise, I would like to think that one day I will learn enough to consider myself a decent writer.