Englar 1 Cayce Englar Kilpatrick English 1010 11/10/13 The Importance of Writing

My name is Cayce Englar and Im planning to have a career related to music. In search for information on what kinds of writing and reading I will be doing in my future career I interviewed Craig Ferrin. Professor Ferrin is the Director of instrumental music at Salt Lake Community College. He has a PhD in music and plays the trumpet professionally. It is his role at the college to teach instrumental music, and direct the live performing ensembles. Professor Ferrin has also written a book about music appreciation as well as the music curriculum at the college. For these reasons I selected him for an interview because I believe him to be knowledgeable on the subject of writing in a music career. I met Craig Ferrin in his office at Salt Lake Community College for an interview at 11 am. When we first met we talked briefly about ourselves and our involvement at the college. He introduced himself as the director of instrumental music at the college and he asked what I was attending school for. I told him I was going to SLCC for a degree in music and that for my English final I was doing research on how writing relates to my future career in music. Then we began talking about our musical backgrounds. I asked Ferrin what he had done to prepare for his career in music. He said he had started playing trumpet at the age of seven and was in band all the way through high school. Ferrin specifically mentioned the importance of the writing skills that are needed for college. He talked about having to write a masters thesis, a doctoral dissertation and many papers along the way. Ferrin couldnt stress enough the importance of writing and communication in general. I had gained the understanding that no matter what career field you are going into, writing and communication is very important and always used.

Englar 2 After discussing with Professor Ferrin what lead him to his career in music and education I began to ask some critical questions about writing in this career. My first question was how long have you been working in your career? Ferrin said he had been working his career for 24 years, as either a musician or in education. I then asked why writing would be important to my future in music. This really got Ferrin talking. He immediately began talking about being able to market oneself as a producer and being able to do it in a professional and businesslike manner. He told me that its extremely important in the music field because as a musician and a producer you are going to have to communicate effectively with those you work with. Ferrin Said You have to be able to take your thoughts and put them down on paper, whether its on Facebook or in a business letter. He began talking to me about how writing was directly relevant to my career as an audio producer. He said that when Im working with people in the industry I must be able to write and speak their language. He also stressed the importance of being able to talk about specific aspects of music or equipment and software used by producers. I had come to learn that Im going to have to communicate like professional in this career field. After hearing Ferrins advice I asked him what the most important writing skill is. Ferrin told me that it was vocabulary and said one thing that is hard for college students is that your vocabulary has not been stretched and boy the vocabulary has to expand immensely. We talked about how large the vocabulary was in music and that in order to communicate effectively you have to study it. He also said he wanted students to learn the vocab so they can communicate and write effectively in that field, and it also prepares them in the future with the academic skills to learn a new subject, this skill will last them a life time. I learned that being able to learn and comprehend the vocabulary of any subject is an important writing skill. This is when our conversation branched out and we began discussing how writing, music and education are connected. Since Professor Ferrin works as an educator of music I asked him what types of writing he uses in his career. He said that as an educator he uses all kinds of writing. I asked Professor Ferrin two

Englar 3 questions, when is writing most important and what on a daily basis is your writing process. Ferrin said the most important writing that he does in his career is the communication directly with students in order to help them learn. He mentioned that the next most important writing he does is the music curriculum. Ferrin said that he writes every single day and most commonly he uses email and general communication between students and coworkers but there are many other kinds of writing. Ferrin describes the writing he has to do for the schools music curriculum and the music appreciation book he has written. I didnt think that rhetorical appeal was useful at all but Ferrin makes it clear that it is. He mentions that when creating the curriculum he must be able to interpret the students skill level and what they need to achieve the desired skill level. He said that in music this can be difficult because of the vocabulary and multiple ways to describe something abstract like music. Ferrin said you have to be able to write about that which gives the reader the information and experience they need to know but doing it in a way that readers can understand it. I learned that rhetorical appeal is obviously important here and I understand based on the experience I have with learning music. This also ties in with the music appreciation book that Ferrin wrote. He said you have to write it in a way that the reader can understand it but in order to do so you must research the composer and also write the information in a way that makes the reader want to read it. He said that the way learning material is written is very important to students success. At this point our conversation moved to the subject of reading in the career field of music. I told Ferrin that I knew I was going to have to a vast amount of reading to do in this career but did not think I was going to do any writing. Ferrin started our discussion by pointing out that it is true that I will be reading vast amounts of papers but just as much writing as well. Ferrin explained that writing and reading skills are tied together and that the better I understand what I read, including the vocabulary, that I will be much better at writing and communicating. Ferrin also explained that with the advancement in technology that audio production is being heavily researched. He told me that writing is

Englar 4 becoming more and more important in this music field because of this. I learned that many of the techniques for production are discussed and debated as well as many technical and standard documents that are peer reviewed. He explained that reading and writing are extremely important for my continued education in music and that I will be using those skills constantly whether it be responding to a paper or writing one. I was curious about the material I would have to be reading so this is where I shifted our conversation. I asked Ferrin what kinds of documents he has to read regularly. Ferrin told me that he has to read various types of documents. He said he has to read historical documents so that he may write the curriculum for the college students. He went on to explain about the technical documents that he reads in order to keep up with the music industry. Ferrin told me these documents are mainly about the new electronic equipment but there are also important documents about acoustics that instrumentalists must read. Ferrin referred to the importance of vocabulary when reading those papers because without it you would not be able to understand anything. After this long conversation I had begun to realize just how connected writing and education and my career are really connected. I found my interview with Craig Ferrin to be rather enlightening. I learned about the many kinds of writing and reading I will be doing in my career and just how important they are. Writing and reading skills are directly connected, they are connected through education and research. I learned that it is not only important to be able to write but to be able to read as well. Ferrin taught me that in order to advance in my career field or any field for that matter that I must learn to communicate effectively. This includes reading and writing, if I improve my vocabulary and reading skills while educating myself in music I will be able to write much better. I also learned that I will be able to take my writing and reading skills and apply them to any career or subject in my future. I must say that this interview opened my mind as to the importance of writing not only to my career but in general. Writing and reading are skills that everyone uses all the time whether you think you do or not and its extremely important to hone these skills because they are vital to success in any career field.