Language Investigation #3

Throughout my pre-college school years I remember learning to read and write in a most objective and technical manner. Starting from the early days in elementary school and throughout most of high school rules and regulations for writing were jammed into my head quarter after quarter and year after year. It started fairly simple, learning the major parts of sentences like nouns and verbs and adjectives. I don't explicitly remember the major details of reading and writing that I learned through elementary school, but I remember broader concepts like learning how to write summaries in forms of book reports and letters and other basic forms of writing. We learned how to construct proper paragraphs using an introduction sentence, three or four details and a concluding sentence.

As I moved into middle school the proper paragraph routine became a proper essay. Usually with a very specific structure to it, I learned how to write in a rather technical manner. We started out learning how to write a good introduction paragraph with an "attention grabber" and then one to three main paragraphs that served to provide more details than the sentences in earlier writing, finally capping off the paper with a nice and simple conclusion that basically was the same as the introduction, just worded differently.

Through much of high school my teachers focused on the same types of things, but each year became increasingly more detailed and difficult. Introduction paragraphs were soon expected to contain a thesis statement that went in a very specific spot, as the last sentence of the first paragraph. The middle of the paper, now moving into much more than just three supporting paragraphs was expected to be an elementary style paragraph all in its own. Then there was supposed to be a conclusion that as ever, restated the purpose of the paper and reinforced the thesis statement from the introduction.

As I look back on learning to write I notice that each successive step built upon the last. The foundations that we learned in elementary school writing were expounded upon in middle school and then again in high school. From writing a five sentence paragraph, to a five paragraph essay, to a five page paper, each year relied on the skills from the last, and each year moving closer and closer to becoming a solid writer. In high school I began to create my own form of writing within the structures and guidelines that were set by my teachers. I found ways to tweak the format just ever so slightly so that I could make it my own, but not enough that I was stepping out of line with my writing. I also began to write and read about more ambiguous and subjective topics, learning to use arguments and details that I saw as opposed to the facts and figures of technical essays, and I learned about the ways that writing style changes based upon audience and purpose and that there were numerous "right" ways of writing. By learning in such a way and through the steps taken to teach me to write, I feel like I came into college with a firm base for my writing and I have tried to use the rules that I learned throughout school (when the audience asks for it).