Erin Ashley Mink Garvey Dr.

Bokser WRD 515: Final Essay REVISED (final) 16 March 2011

Essaing In my final paragraph of my WRD 515 reflection paper, I wrote that, over the past ten weeks: I have found writing, generally, and essaying, specifically, to be largely a process of selfdiscovery and a way to realize (the) T/truth(s), and it is in this discovery process that research--whether that be something topical or something more self-reflective--becomes especially important. [...] in fact, if theres something that has become particularly clear to me about essays, and essaying, over the past ten weeks, its that [] essaying, research, truth, and knowledge are complicatedly intertwined. One cannot exist without the others, and its because of this that the essay holds the power--and potential--that it does. Many of our class theoretical readings and discussions talked about how writers can accomplish a rich variety of goals through essaying, thanks to the genres historically fluid and vibrant versatility. Likewise, many more of our readings and discussions included the perspective that many composition and English teachers bemoan the current state of the essay in students writings--a state that has devolved from its potential, thanks to many peoples insistence on an essay being a strict, five-paragraph, form-focused genre. However, the essays in our Joyce Carol Oates textbook speak to the endless possible forms that an essay can take--ranging from E.B. Whites Once More to the Lake, one of the most anthologized essays of all time, to Adrienne Richs Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying, what some people might argue against being a prototypical essay, to Richard Rodriguezs Aria: Memoirs of a Bilingual Childhood, an essay that interweaves the authors personal experiences with a larger societal conversation about the merits and demerits of bilingual language policies in the USA. If folks doubt the enormity, or potential use, of the essay form, they need only open to a selection in our textbook to see the swath of possibilities that the essay can hold to convey

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opinions, facilitate a discussion, or argue a point. As I mentioned earlier, from my reflection, I think essays greatest strength lies in its authors abilities to use essaying as a vehicle or avenue for truth-seeking. Heilker explains that Montaigne, the oft-cited father of the essay form, as we know it, used essaying as a method to [grope] and [stagger] toward some understanding, and this pursuit toward an understanding, itself, was arguably more important than the truthfulness of that which was found--because any truth was provisional, sure to be undone or revised by subsequent inquiries (28). Spellmeyer corroborates Heilkers views of Montaigne, stating that as a demonstration of the process by which language, rather than determining the shape of experience, is shaped through the interaction of self and world, Montaignes new genre, the essay, breaks irreparably the connection between words and true Existence. The essay serves to dramatize the situation of the writer who moves beyond the familiar to bring language into closer accord with life. (263, my emphasis) Thus, the notion that essays, and essaying, are tools for people to pursue an understanding or, more grandly, to explore and discover and grope and stagger for (the) T/truth(s), is as old as the idea of essays, themselves. As some of our Oates textbook essayists revealed, research often plays an important role in the essay form, though like the essay, itself, theres not one prescriptive recipe dictating how research should, or ought to, appear in every essay. Comparing Rodriguezs essay, which oscillates between his anecdotes of growing up in an initially monolingual home and having to learn English with a larger conversation about the effects of bilingual education on society, in general, with Goulds expose on the many creation myths stemming from Cooperstown, New York, quickly shows readers that integrating research in an essay depends largely on the essays content and what the author hopes to achieve by writing it in the first place. Research, and elements of research, can help lead the essayist and her readers, alike, toward the understanding

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that Montaigne described, so it is logical that it has a place in the truth-seeking essay form. Additionally, just as I mentioned in my reflection, I would wager that most essayists seek to educate their readers in some way, either about an experience they have had that they are trying to internalize (by essaying) or about a topic that they are investigating purely for the purpose of the essay, itself, like John McPhee did in The Search for Marvin Gardens. Thus, essaying can be a great tool to not only persuade readers of ones argument or point but also to simply be a harborer or conveyer of information. Personally, I remember peoples arguments much more if I hear them in a story--or read them in an essay format--than I do if I am simply given a list of facts and figures, and I think this is also the case for many others, as well. Moreover, besides including elements of research and or trying to educate readers about a given topic, interspersing ones own experiences into an essay form can potentially complement the writers intended aim and show readers that the essayist is not afraid to make herself vulnerable by inserting his or her own authorial presence in the text. Both Spellmeyer and Bloom excitedly describe how and why student essayists should insert themselves into their writings, even if it seems counter-intuitive or inappropriate for the assignment; Spellmeyers example of a student who wrote about the death of a recent pet, within the broader writing prompt of existentialism, showed one such way that student writers can more readily avail their voices, their presences, and their experiences into their essays. Bloom likewise describes the far-reaching effects of having an authorial presence in ones essays by describing that such essays with strong, vibrant presences convey a powerful sense of a human being within and behind the writing, which makes the essays, themselves, feel as though they have transcended time, if not culture (95). In other words, a good, powerful essay, one in which we can feel the author, can outlive all of us. However, again, depending on the content of the essay, I surmise that at times, inserting

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ones self is easier said than done--especially if the essayist doesnt feel a strong or personal connection to the subject matter at hand. What is probably the most salient point to remember here is that nothing can be written about objectively, since the mere observation of experience or interpretation of facts is subjective, so essayists shouldn't necessarily worry about their identities or feelings leeching into their writing content matter. Arguably, by writing about a particular topic in the first place, essayists have revealed that they have a vested interest in the topic. Nonetheless, convincing people to really put themselves out there and more wholly insert themselves into their essays will likely remain an arduous task, as long as essays are more popularly viewed as inaccessible, objective entities. As technology evolves, and peoples interests change, so, too, I imagine, will the essay form, but the essays primal capacity of being an avenue for truth-seeking will remain constant. Selfes expository foray into the implications of multimodal composing explores how essaying isnt necessarily restricted to the written text, though many have confined it as such, and pleads with current and future composition instructors to consider multimodality as they assign their students writing prompts and exercises. To be sure, multimodal composing isnt necessarily a new way of essaying; Ira Glasss This American Life podcasts on National Public Radio, or cultures rich in vocal, passed-down traditions, are but two examples of many that take essaying to oral dimensions. In fact, oral essays, arguably, predate their written counterparts. Essayists can as readily essai for truth through oral methods as they can through those written, and I imagine that as technology becomes increasingly more adaptable and accessible, up-and-coming essayists will grow more comfortable using various technological means available to them to truth-seek. However, given the current focus on the written essay in the academy, though, I doubt that oral essays will ever fully substitute for the written form.

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Thanks to this class, and this experience of essaying about essaying, I anticipate that I will use essays, and read essays, very differently, for the foreseeable future. I initially thought that essays were just true stories, true short stories that simply told a narrative but didnt necessarily make a claim or argue a perspective. In my reflection, I wrote that academic writing didnt fit into my [strict] essay category, prior to this class, because more often than not, my experiences with academic writing aligned that genre with something more argumentative, something more expository, something that aimed to teach or tell or convince readers of something, and essays, as I understood them, never really sought to accomplish any of these aims. Wow, was I wrong. This class has demolished my immature conception of essay and, in the process, has taught me that theres much more that falls under the purview of essay than what I initially thought. [...] Knowing what I do now, then, I predict that essaying will become a much more entrenched, regular part of my writing, of my academic routine, and of my long-term personal and professional pursuits. In other words, I anticipate that I will be able to essay much more than I previously thought I would. For subsequent WRD classes, I will likely re-examine my approach to writing assignments and will likely, although probably sub-consciously, begin to make my writings read more like essays and less like static regurgitations of course readings and lectures. Similarly, I imagine that my essaying experiences from this class will implicitly influence my blog and personal writings and the ways that I read other peoples blogs and articles. I will probably look for those a-ha!, educational moments that seem to exist in at least some form in all essays, and if they are lacking, I will probably re-read the selections until I can unearth them--or at least be satisfied with my interpretation of what T/truth(s) the author was seeking.

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Works Cited Bloom, Lynn Z. The Essayist inand Behindthe Essay. The Private, The Public, and the Published. Ed. Barbara Couture and Thomas Kent. Logan: Utah State UP, 2004. 94-111. Heilker, Paul. Montaigne and the Early English Essay. The Essay: Theory and Pedagogy for an Active Form. NCTE, 1996. 13-35. Selfe, Cynthia L. The Movement of Air, the Breath of Meaning: Aurality and Multimodal Composing. College Composition and Communication 60.4 (June 2009): 616-663. Spellmeyer, Kurt. "A Common Ground: The Essay in the Academy. College English 51 (1989): 262-276.

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Revision Statement I struggled with writing this final essay because I found that I had a lot of overlap with my reflection statement, which explains why I referenced it throughout this essay. During the workshop process, I told my peers that I felt like this essay read somewhat piecemeal-y because I covered a lot of the suggested topics from the assignment sheetlike multimodality and essays, essays and truth, or the many different forms of the essayso I was concerned that the essay read more like a compilation of my ruminations on these topics than as something more coherent and whole. Much to my surprise, my peers all resoundingly said that they thought my final essay was really well-done and extremely meta-discursiveanother worry of mine, that it wasn'tand all three individuals said they had no real recommendations of things for me to change. In fact, one peer was trying to convince me to submit my draft as my final version because he felt that it was already at that level. They really liked that I included my own ruminations alongside my metadiscursive discussions and thought that this essay was an excellent balance of a reflection and a larger essay about the essay. Consequently, I changed very little from my draft to my final product; quite honestly, aside from adding Works Cited and Revision Statement pages, and tightening things up, it is nearly identical to what we workshopped last Wednesday night. I have really valued (and trusted) my peers' judgment throughout this quarter, so because they were so satisfied with my draft, I elected to change very little in the final edition.