Writing Fellow Journal #6

David Colon

Writing Fellows

Professor Miller

10/12/18

The Writing Fellow Program has helped me in multiple areas within my life. When writing my own papers, I now revise them as if I were a tutor reading a student’s paper; I view my paper through an objective lens. I ask myself questions as I’m reading my papers in order to see if my ideas flow, if I could use quotes in different parts of the paper, or if I’m accomplishing the tasks set on the rubric. I’ve also opened myself up to asking my peers to review my papers. Before being a writing fellow, I never really capitalized and asked for another set of eyes to read my papers. Now, I want people to read my papers and I want to ask my help. I want my peers to challenge both my style of writing and my ideas that I set forth in my writing so that my papers can be the best they possibly can be.

As I look to graduate, I plan on going into the film and screenwriting industry; I plan on becoming a writer. I feel as if the Writing Fellows Program has given me both social and critical skills that are helpful when critiquing peer writing. As a screenwriter, I will have to write, read, and work together with a team of writers, with people that all have different styles of writing. We’re all going to have to critique and write as a team to develop one cohesive, collaborative script. That in of itself is not an easy task. Being a Writing Fellow has opened up the doors to view writing from both a subjective and objective view. I feel as if now I have the skills to really work together with a team of writers. I can critique in a way that isn’t offensive to the person who developed the idea and I can offer my opinions on how to better the script overall. My team can also help develop and critique my work as well, offering their opinions on what they think is the best course of action.

Being a Writing Fellow has also helped realize that I don’t have to know the subject at hand in order to revise a paper. Just because I’m not in the class, doesn’t mean I can’t help revise the paper. And as a writer, I think that’s an important skill to have: the ability to revise, yet not know what the subject is about. If I’m to go into screenwriting, I may get scripts from television shows and the scripts may not always be pilots, meaning that if I haven’t seen the show, I probably will have no idea what’s going on. This program has demonstrated ways to view a piece of writing objectively, making sure that the piece at hand makes sense and has structure. I think that will be one of the most important skills that I will take away from this class and use throughout my future career.