Journal #1

     Writing creates, actualizes, and is a communication tool between what we know and what we realize. As Estrem says, it is not simply thinking that motivates the pen, it is the goal of understanding.

Writing innovates. As mentioned before, it is what we know and what we have yet to realize. Once knowledge is obtained, it is the goal of the writer to look at what everyone else has, and see it as something different. Once we know, we can use what we know anyway we want by writing. This is creativity. Not all writing is creative, but creativity is the ability to write what we all know and we don’t all see.

     Writing gives purpose. Every sentence is not just a sentence meant to stare at. Even its punctuation has a message to send. Writing is a tool; when it is used, there is motive.

     Writing is a collaboration. It is between speaker to audience, or as Estrem says, the fictionalized audience, peer-to-peer, or even self-to-self. A writer and their voice can be two distinct things. If I write a children’s book and by fictionalizing my audience to be five-year-old whose parents are divorcing, as a 21-year-old whose parents are married, I can create a voice that will better identify with my audience. Maybe a better way to say self-to-self is self-to-voice.

     Writing builds. It is like building a structure, with purpose as it’s foundation. Some writing (like essays) are like tall office buildings, where each level is a different department, but all contributing to the same goal. Some writing involves complex blueprints, made to accommodate many. As Bitzer states, when politicians address an audience, the speech is written to accommodate many rhetorical situations.

     Writing actualizes. Estrem makes the point of why many educators implement writing in their lesson plans. Once the material is learned, it can be developed into deeper understanding. It’s assured that simply memorizing the material is not enough to compose.

     One more, for the road, and for the word count. Writing gives direction. For the readers, writing gives direction that the reader has no choice, but to follow. If if’s mystery, the audience won’t even know how far out their traveling. For lovesick poetry, the audience recognizes the streets, but this time there’s something new they notice on the sidewalk. Beating-the-deadline or barely-meeting-the-word-count type of writing sends the audience in circles.