To me writing in English (and in life in general) is a
very creative and personal endeavour. Whether you’re writing a chapter summary,
a personal reflection or creating a story for English class, the writer must be
in the right headspace and atmosphere to create a narrative worth telling.
Unlike other subjects such as science, math or geography, where the goal is to
find the “correct” answer or memorize specific facts, English writing can only
be successful accomplished by the writer who creates something new. When
writing any sort of piece, the writer has a full range of control to choose the
structure, vocabulary, pace, subject (most of the time), and length. The writer
has full creative control to choose what the reader gets to read about and to
me this is the most exciting part of writing. It’s about taking the reader on a
journey they won’t soon forget. There is no “right” or “wrong” answer in
English writing, it’s only about the process and journey of the writing. I find
this holds in life as well, as it’s often not the destination that matters but
what you learned on the journey. English writing is one of the few
opportunities where students have a lot of creative choice in their education.
I chose this picture of this beautiful castle scene because it reminds me of a
language arts exercise I learned in Michael Wilson’s class last semester. We
all saw this same picture of this castle and we each had a chance to create our
own story which starts at this castle but the character must depart on an
adventure. By the end of the class, even though we all saw the same picture we
all had very different stories with creative characters, settings, obstacles
and endings. This activity shows that writing is about tapping into the
creative spots of our minds and telling the story we want to tell. That’s why I
love writing and I chose this elective course.
