Michael Berry David Kossy Reflection Essay Power in the Pen Writing is the descendant of language and the

child of memoryyet it is merely a human construction. There is no biological urge to write, there is no sense of language. Despite this, words exert a peculiar power over humansthey have the ability to inspire, to harm, and to heal. How can something so artificial be such an instinctive and foundational part of human nature? This question is the basis of my interest in writingit is something that it can be explored infinitely and is an indispensable tool to have. The emotional authority of writing is what attracts me to it, and the ability to wield the pen well is a major aim of mine. I take any and every chance I get to improve my writing, and I have made major strides in the past few months. When I arrived at DePaul just three months ago, I had not written much since I applied to colleges, and I was quite nervous to be writing again. I was cautious in my writing, careful not to attempt anything too eccentric in case I could not pull it off. My first writing assignment, an analytic summary of a speech by Frederick Douglass, was decent, but it was dead. I did not try to impress my style on the paper because I was told that it needed to be as unbiased as possible and I was nervous that I did not have a firm enough grasp on my writing style. I had fallen into a trap of sortswhile my writing was respectable and enough to earn a B+, in my haste to ensure that I wrote to college standards I ended up writing to a formula, a substandard approach. The words were there, but as my teacher commented on the final draft, Overall, well-writtenbut you really need to sharpen up the connections and exert more authority in conveying and stressing core ideas. I was incensed by thisbut at myself, not at my teacher. I had written what I thought was an A paper. All the elements were there, I had written strictly to the prompt, using a formula that had worked well since sixth grade. This experience

drove me to really impress my teacher with the next paper; the B+ was good, but not good enough for my pride. Instead of taking a prompt and writing the literacy paper how the teacher wanted, I took the prompt and wrote the paper from my heart. I have written like this before, but not in an academic context. I believed that somehow academic writing required a certain level of distance from the subject; that objectivity somehow trumped rhetoric. I can wield rhetoric within writing very powerfully, but I had only done so in personal writing. I learned how to write academically by separating my emotion from the text, and relying instead on my lexiconbut become proficient at that, I had not yet brought together the two parts of writing again. I had potential, but was not really using it. The work on my literacy paper really helped these two aspects connect. I had an academic assignment, but my chosen subject could not be closer to my heart. The topic was so emotionally powerful that my creative writing talentsusage of figurative language and the ability to conjure powerful imagerywere poured in with the academic structure, lexicon, and polish. I dredged the paper from the depths of my being, and I found the result to be something extraordinary. Something had clicked in my mind while writing it; my academic writing became better when I was able to connect with it on a personal level. By bringing all parts of my personality into the idea, it brought all parts of my brain into the task. My literacy paper was a major step in my progress as a writer. These ideas were cemented upon receiving the feedback on my literacy paper. Until that point, I had underestimated my ability to write emotionally powerful pieces and I viewed my style as something a little too eccentric for most writing tasks. Two words, simply exquisite, sent a powerful messagemy style was not only unique, but also an asset rather than the liability I thought it was. From this point on, I let my style loose upon my writing assignments, and I

found that it was actually well-suited to all sorts of writing tasks. By unleashing my creative impulses I could create an appropriate piece that nonetheless was distinctive and worthy of my pride. The one downside to my creative impulses is that I tend to jumble my thoughts on the page. I can think so fast that I hop, skip, and jump past certain important things, or I might have paragraphs in the wrong order. Without changing the spirit of the piece, my refinement of each piece involves taking the language and ideas I already have and making them follow a more logical order. This expectation of more extensive refinement has allowed my writing to come into its own. In addition to writing my academic papers, I started writing creative poetry and other such short pieces in September, on the recommendation of my aunt. As a journalist, she recommended I record my experiences for the future. I took this idea, and found it hard to do but in trying to do this, I rediscovered my enjoyment of creative writing. Inspiration struck when I was on the L, headed downtown for my writing class, when I saw a homeless woman sitting across from me. She was given a large berth because she smelled and one person insisted on belittling and lambasting her. I was so upset by the incident that I went and wrote about it to keep myself from exploding, and therein is the basis of my identity as a writer. Writing is an extension of my mind, a release for my emotions, and a tool at my disposal. I write to process my emotions, but also to sway the emotions of others. There is an alluring quality to writingwith nothing but ink and paper I can elicit a wide range of thoughts and feelings in another human being. I welcome improvements in my writing ability, because not only can I better express myself, but also to strengthen my influence over others. The act of writing is an essential part of my identity as a human, and I could not live without it.