From Passion to Paper

Preface:

Writing is a universal skill that takes an extensive amount of time and effort to develop

into an effective medium for communication. What makes writing such a unique skill is its

incredibly diverse range of applications, where there is virtually no limit to what the concept of

writing can be incorporated into. Consequentially, proficiency in writing becomes essential

enable to be successful in not just an academic setting, but in the professional world that all

students including myself wish to one day be a part of. In this auto-ethnographical analysis, I will

be studying my own works of writing. One work will be from my senior year of high school, and

the other will be from the most recent piece of writing I have written. The purpose of this

analysis is to critically evaluate how my writing process has fundamentally changed, and how

those processes impacted the quality of the final products, to better understand what processes

are effective and which ones hinder the writing of an effective paper.

The Nature of the Assignments:

For a better analysis, the two papers I chose were academic assignments that held

considerable weight in terms of my grade. The first paper was known as the Extended Essay for

the International Baccalaureate Program. This assignment was defined as a four-thousand-word

open-ended research paper, meaning I had absolute free reign as to what I could write about.

Given my fascination with music I chose to write the Extended Essay on Shostakovichs 5th

symphony, and posed the question Why was Dimitri Shostakovichs 5th symphony highly
regarded in the eyes of both public and political critics? as my research space. The second piece

of writing I will be analyzing will be the most recent piece I have written, entitled Leviathan.

This assignment was presented with the requirements that I choose a discourse community and

elaborate on their customs through the lens of the activity system. With the freedom of choice to

pick any discourse community, I chose a community of people who gather together to complete a

specific task in a video game entitled Destiny 2, the task being to complete convoluted

challenges with a group of 6 players for the sake of gaining individual rewards at the completion

of each challenge.

Preparation and Research:

The Extended Essay:

The approach that I took to research and prepare each paper have conceptually similar

methodologies however differences arise from the specific step-to-step process, which in

hindsight have drastic implications to the structure and flow of the paper. To prepare for my

Extended Essay, one distinct difference from my most recent paper was the amount of time I had

to prepare. In stark contrast, I was given a notice of between six and seven months before the

final essay was due and was at that time prompted with the nature and expectations of the

Extended Essay in that time frame. While I did not take total advantage of that time, this frame

still granted me the ability to carefully choose my research space and conduct a thorough

investigation on what I was interested in. After deciding on Shostakovichs 5th symphony, I

quickly went to work to become fluent with that piece of music. With a runtime of about forty-
five minutes, I listened to the symphony multiple times to gain insight into the essence of the

piece, trying to determine with parts of the symphony I would focus on and for what purpose.

The second step I took in researching this symphony was to explore the context which the

symphony was composed, which involved an examination of why Shostakovich composed the

symphony and the political climate emanate in this time. After finding that Shostakovich

composed the symphony for the sake of survival from the Stalinist Soviet Union, I purchased a

physical score for the symphony and listened to the symphony a second series of times. With this

new insight I had a better idea on what to look for within the music, and with the score I could

write notes within the music marking important transitions and allusions Shostakovich was

making, (i.e. inserting excerpts from patriotic Soviet marches and Soviet folk-tunes).

The third step I took in preparation was to consider a research question or thesis that I

would address as the focal point of my paper. To consolidate a thesis or a niche as I would learn

later, I further examined the context which the symphony was written. What I found to be the

most peculiar finding was that the symphony itself successful not just in its goal to pander to the

Soviet government, so Shostakovich could save his career and possibly his life, but the

symphony was also well received by the general public, who at the time were infatuated with

Shostakovichs sense of ideological rebellion against Stalin as he made evident with his earlier

works. It was this appeasement of both sides that prompted me to ask the question, Why was

Dimitri Shostakovichs 5th symphony highly regarded in the eyes of both public and political

critics? and with that question I was prepared to begin drafting the Extended Essay.
 Dear Reader:

With this initial draft I am most concerned with the flow and direction the paper is taking.

While the paper is not complete in occupying and addressing the niche, I am most interested in

feedback regarding if this method of approaching and analyzing my own writing is effective and

if not, how to change my approach to better achieve my goal of analyzing the differences

between my writing patterns for both pieces.