Critical Complexity

When I heard Mr. Sabol announce the topic for W131's latest assignment, an exploratory essay, I was furious. Of a world of scintillating and fascinating topics, he picked "writing" as the subject of the class's papers. Writing, of course, was not my favorite theme; I felt the topic had been so overused over the course of the semester that writing any more about it would be futile and destructive to any shred of creativity the class had left. Furthermore, I had expected to be allowed to explore the topics that interested me the most outside of class[d1] .

Regardless of my expectations, I had been stuck with an assignment I didn't want to do. I kept asking myself why on earth I should write about writing[d2] . For that matter, I didn't understand what purpose it would serve. At first I just viewed the topic as a way to give W131 students more homework. Perhaps it was a way of cruel fate driving me over the edge of sanity. Maybe it was just a matter of giving Mr. Sabol what he wanted to hear from our exploratory papers, not a matter of free thinking and the true exploration of our external and internal worlds.

However, a notion began nagging at the back of my mind - there had to be a better answer than the ones I had come up with before. They were answers to the problem that were born of frustration and impatience, not of careful thought and consideration. I decided then that, as simple and perhaps insignificant as my personal problems with the topic were, I needed to address them in some way. Addressing my problems with the assignment would make me take time to think critically about my dilemma and find the answers that could help me become more motivated with the topic[d3] . I felt it was the only way I could even begin my exploratory essay without pulling all my hair out.

Of course I didn't have the answer to my initial question yet - What's the purpose behind writing about writing? As I could not find the answer in a textbook or get a straight answer about it from Mr. Sabol, I had to begin thinking about it for myself. I began with what I already knew about writing. It seemed like a significant place to start; the topic of writing, after all, was something all of the students in W131 had been learning a great deal about throughout the semester. Perhaps, too, writing about writing had the purpose of helping me learn what I didn't know about writing[d4] . In order to find out what I didn't know about writing, I had to identify what I already knew.

I already knew that writing, of course, is a visual means of communication encoded in groups of letters, words, sentences, and so on. It is a record of facts, opinions, thoughts, events, and just about anything one could imagine. I also understood the importance of writing well in college. According to The Transition to College Writing, "About 90% of instruction in college is verbal, and the ways in which you use language...as a writer...will largely determine your levels of performance in all of your courses" (Hjortshoj 23[d5] ). Many aspects of writing, such as composition, content, audience, thesis, coherence, and many other elements are important to college writing. Writing is the only reason a class like W131 even exists.

At this point, it occurred to me that the topic was chosen simply because W131 is a writing course and a paper about writing would tie in perfectly with the curriculum[d6] . However, I felt the purpose had to go deeper than that. The Transition to College Writing says that introductory writing courses are designed to help students write, read, and think more effectively in other courses (Hjortshoj 28[d7] ). Therefore, no assignment is without purpose; in an ideal situation, every assignment ultimately leads to the shaping of the student and the development of the learning process. I realized then that because of this nature of introductory writing courses like W131, there must have been a reason behind Mr. Sabol's choice of topic.

Continuing my previous line of thought, I tried to identify what I didn't know about the elements of a college paper, and what I could possibly learn from writing about writing. On the very surface, it appeared that I could learn answers to some of my simple problems like writer's block and lack of motivation. On a very broad level I could follow one of the main functions of college writing, "to contribute to the process of learning in a course and field of study" (Hjortshoj 81[d8] ). At a practical, narrowed-down level, I could find ways to make my writing more coherent and interesting, or find a way to improve on creating a thesis[d9] .

At a deeper level, I mused that writing about writing might hold the key to improving my individual writing process itself. According to the W131 Grading Guidelines, an A portfolio demonstrates "striking evidence that you think like a writer[d10] ." To elaborate on that, I could delve into exploring my attitude and very approach to writing. I could even go as far as to try to find insights on the purpose of all writing. Ultimately, the essay could help me learn to become an all-around better writer[d11] .

Then it struck me - perhaps writing about writing fulfils a special, more specific niche in helping one write better. At this point, though, I found myself questioning what constitutes "better" in this context[d12] . "Better" usually means improved in quality. At the most basic level, students can improve a paper's quality by revising its content and composition. We have already explored the technical side of composition in W131 during this semester[d13] . Composition has generally agreed-upon rules that can be found in any of hundreds of textbooks, so there is no real need to explore the technical rules of it. However, content - individual writers' thoughts, opinions, facts, lines of reasoning, and conclusions - cannot be taught in a simple textbook.

Therefore, in writing about writing, students are practicing and adding to what they've already learned about composition, but they are primarily learning about content[d14] . However, content can take any of thousands of forms. "The quality of thought, information, and explanation" is important as far as content in writing (Hjortshoj 46[d15] ). However, I felt this information was too broad for the answers I was looking for. I asked myself what specific kind of content I was learning about in the act of writing about writing[d16] . According to the W131 grading guidelines, good content includes "particular evidence