Module 7: Introduction

Introduction

It is essential to fight against a tendency common to student writers: the tendency to please the teacher, or, as Sandra Giles puts it, the "good-student-gives-the-teacher-what-she-wants" approach to writing (192). Keep in mind that writing is a lot like life. As most of you already know, it's a struggle to be anyone other than yourself, even when you're not 100 percent sure of who you are.

The pursuit of fake and untrustworthy writing is almost as uncomfortable as the pursuit of a fake and untrustworthy life.

Sometimes the process of figuring out who you are as writers requires reflection, a "looking back" to determine what you were thinking and how your thinking changed over time, relative to key experiences.

This module is about how reflective writing will assist you in the process of self-discovery as well as in the practice of revising your Reader-Response Essay. Ideally, you will make a connection between the act of reflection and your sense of self as a writer—your style, your running themes, and topics of interest.