Writing
If this assignment has served any purpose, its to demonstrate that similar people have extremely different views on writing. When I spoke to my 3 roommates about their relationship with writing, their responses gave me a better sense on the definition of writing and how it is perceived by others.
I had defined writing as “a tool to manifest our thoughts and ideas in an organized fashion” but I feel my definition came from the context of the classroom; I felt I had to give a literal definition. My roommates were in the comfort of our apartment when presented the question so there responses were more informal. Gaby C. defined it as “a chore,” she detests being assigned writing in her courses thus, her characterization has to do with her aversion to it. Sabrina described writing to be an outlet. I can attribute this to her more free-spirited, hopeless wanderer type personality. My more type A roommate, Gaby L., described writing similarly to how I had, a tool that serves to communicate or arrange ideas.
When presented with the other questions, the answers became more similar. The 3 of us being juniors in the same university felt we write most in a classroom setting, and all agreed that the worst part about writing is the potential judgment. Maybe it is because we’re all very close friends so we have a lot of the same insecurities but all of us felt very strongly about how terrifying it is to turn in a piece of writing or compare your writing to a peers.
Having interviewed 3 people with similar personalities but vastly different fields of study made me realize that people classify writing with accordance to its function in their life. As previously mentioned, Gaby C. who is a business major dislikes writing because she feels it to be lesser than numbers and formula's whereas Sabrina, a communications major, loves to write as a form of expression. Their definitions vary because writing plays different roles in each of their lives. It makes me wonder, is their a set definition to writing or is it all situational?
I love reading all the different definitions. I know you are all around the same age, but it's apparent that your different experiences and disciplinary majors have led to you to define and see writing in very complex ways. I also like that you traced their outlook on writing to their personalities. However, this post also led me to ask a million questions: what experiences defined writing for those individuals, how do they see writing (not) at work in their disciplines, and where is the line drawn between what writing is and is not for them (for instance, do they see writing a list as writing)?
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