I have a right to be here

I have rarely been a writer that writes for the pleasure of it. I do take pleasure in writing, but I always have an agenda for doing it. Additionally, I think the only good writing I do is for academic purposes. When I write for myself, it is usually to save my friends and family from experiencing my temper. It is a way to cool down and sort my thoughts before I try to express them out loud. When I write for school, I am “granted a special right to speak” (Bartholomae) about something that I would probably not encounter in my everyday life. I cannot imagine someone at my work (a wholesale scrapbook company) coming to me and asking me how Gloria Anzaldua would relate to the current immigration arguments, but in school I’m required to do so. I also feel I am capable to do so. This is why I think that the “privilege of being [an] ‘insider’” (Bartholomae) is a very poignant point found in "Inventing the University."

Bartholomae’s point that good writers know how their writing will speak to their audience is also very important to me. I think that is why critical peer review is such a great tool for developing writers. It gives us experience understanding our own writing through other’s eyes, so that we can anticipate it. I remember writing a commentary about gun control for an early English class and I tried very hard to cover all of the arguments with a considerate tone. It was really helpful to hear my classmates’ reactions and I could tell by their comments and tone that I was staying on topic and presenting my argument well (but I still wasn’t changing any minds). I hadn’t realized until reading “Inventing the University” that using a reasonable voice within my paper kept my reviewers’ reactions reasonable. I think I will be a better writer when I can do that consciously.