Second chances

Since the first semester in the Translation course, a few years back, I had to confront my writing in different ways, throughout the writing classes.

Prewriting in Writing 1
The very first class (8/14/2014)

Throughout the Writing 1 class, the most difficult was to realize how my English was really bad. I did know that, of course, but the first class put a mirror in front of me, and it was hopeless. After that, though, everything was roses. An amazing teacher, who knew how to bring people closer in a way to allow a really great learning experience. My best friends in the university come from this class - it did help that most of us had two classes with the same teacher, one right after the other. But the gist of it was that we had a great teacher in Raquel, who gave us an amazing environment while  happily squeezing our brains out with a big smile.

Writing 2 was tremendously challenging. Again, a great teacher, one who corrected our essays in a very through manner. We had to write many distinct text genres, culminating in a five pages academic essay. I almost flunked this class, but ended up with a good grade actually and some bruises on my writing ego :)

Clustering suffering in Writing 2
(8/12/2015, almost a year after the first one...
But I ended up droping out the whole semester)

So, here we are at  Writing 3 class, this time with Thiago and essay writing as the focus of this journey. We're still at the beginning for me to say something, but one thing is certain: there's no way to escape prewriting classes.

However distinct the writing classes every semester, one thing does not change ever: the day we have to study prewriting technique, a day I've learned to dread with all my heart,soul, mind. Seriously.

The reason for that hate (I actually used this word in class) for prewriting techniques is not clear to me. The classes are fun, actually, because of the many elements presented. Even if I know that I'd probably won't use them, there's a clear reason why the subject is a part of the writing class. Even so, I'm usually cranky and impatient during the explanations about Brainstorming, Freewriting, Asking the Wh questions and Clustering.

I'll tell you the end of this long story: my favorite of those (or the least hated) is Freewriting, since I usually write like that, waiting to see what will come next (edit is not easy, though). As I said before, I think in what I'm writing while tipping, and freewriting fits into that perfectly. Or almost.

This time around (the magic third time), I was really surprised by what I got out of the exercise with the four prewriting techniques. While organizing the items in Brainstorming (my chosen theme was Travel), ideas for a text started to form in front of my eyes. "Ok,", I thought, "maybe there's something worthy in here" (I told you, my faith in this was zero). I wrote on my notebook: "You don't know where these things are going until you categorize them in groups". And that's true.

Freewriting in Writing 3
(8/28/2019)

For freewriting, I chose Iceland. As suggested by Thiago, I highlighted parts of the text that made more sense or could be an initial idea for a text. Based on that, I answered the Wh questions: Who, what, where, what and how. Slowly, what I wrote without a close thinking, started to make more sense when categorized. At that point, I've already realized that this class was being a bit different for me. And I know why (I'll let you know just a few lines below).

At last, there was the horrible, terrifying, messy Clustering. And there was it again, a surprise: it actually made sense, and more ideas came to mind about the subject I was chose (Iceland again). I was silently talking to myself how stubborn I've been all this time. I'm not only headstrong, I'm also a bit slow: three classes to understand the meaning and important of prewriting? Please, get a grip.

Ok, here's what I thought was different this time and that allowed me to concentrate on the techniques: we tried them alone. In the other classes before, they were exemplified on the white board, with all the class giving examples. This time, even if we had to share our conclusions with classmates, we wrote it all alone. There was no way out for me. So I had to really take a look at those methods and tried them in a subject that I chose. And that, my friends, made all the difference.

Now I'm a totally transformed writer? Not yet. I'm pretty resistant to prewriting yet... but I'll surely give it a chance. The beginning of a new life was this post (see?), with a shy draw of what I wanted to talk about when I talk about prewriting.

See you soon!

Stay tuned :)

A timid attempt at planning...

PS: I haven't had thought until now in let you know about the background of this blog writing. Each post has a different kind of mood, a different setting. For most of them, I need some kind of noise - not always music, but something happening around me while I write. Even if the absolute silence is not a possibility, quiet is not my environment for writing. I enjoy quiet times often, but not while working (that equals to writing for me). Since I started this portfolio in the form of a blog, the main background to it has been tennis matches - my favourite sport on TV (I'd never played it, not with an arm a bit damage from a life of typing). On this specific day, it was Rafael Nadal versus Mateo Berretini, in the US Open semifinal. It was late, I was incredibly tired, but the game's narration lulled me through the writing.