Dear Past Yariel, 

You are about to embark on a rigorous writing journey, and you will be better for it. I know you more than anyone else, so trust me when I say there is much you need to focus on making you the better writer I am now. Before this semester, you strayed away from peer reviews and second drafts due to all the great grades you have received, but I am here to tell grades aren’t everything, and there is always something to improve on. 

For starters, because I know you so well, I know that you have a tremendous amount of difficulty starting a paper. I learned this semester that you just need to throw all your ideas on paper and then make sense of it afterward, and this is why drafting is so crucial when writing an essay. You seek to register a masterpiece on the first try because you want to avoid editing. Aiming to write a masterpiece at the first attempt only creates frustration because you don’t allow yourself to write then perfect things after freely.  I am here to tell you to remember that Rome was not built in a day; meaning, a masterpiece takes time to make, so immerse yourself in writing at first and note all that you are feeling on the subject, then sculpt the clay that is your writing, into a beautiful sculpture. Also, you are not alone in the writing process. The school has great resources, such as the writing center.

Another problem you have with your writing that I (future you) fixed is the organization of your essays. Sometimes you have so many ideas on what to write that you bounce in every direction, thus confusing the reader. I solved this organization problem by giving each paragraph a topic to cover and using a chart to capture what information/evidence is worth using to get through to the reader. To not lose the reader, you need to be organized with how you prepare to write the paper so that the ideas flow smoothly. 

(Example of the Chart used to organize)

Yariel, I remember that you’ve compared writing to running in the past, and I still agree with that sentiment; only some things have changed with that. For starters, by this time, we have finished three papers, and four after this letter to you is done. This writing marathon is close to its end, and you have become a more excellent runner, able to prepare more efficiently for a paper, maintain your pace.  One thing we have to work on is not losing our stamina towards the end of the paper. I know you get easily stressed and want to wrap up the essay quickly but finish your work strong. 

As a heads up for the papers you will write for Writing for the social sciences, I will speak to you about what to look out for. Our first paper will be a feature profile for starters where we will interview someone we know who comes from a different culture. You will have fun with this paper because you will question your close friend and find out their perspectives on the killings of Muslims in China. You did get a good grade, but there were things you need to work on. By this time, you still aren’t sure how to cite in the text, but for the love of God, please learn so I wouldn’t have had to in future papers.  You did not cite in the text at all, but you should get into the habit of doing so early on. Another issue you had with this paper was figuring out the difference between analysis and summary. The reason behind this was that you had a good interesting topic but had too many ideas and tried to cover all of them. The professor gave great advice for this, which was to find a specific issue within my topic that my informant had a strong opinion on and then go in-depth with this. 

Essay two was a fun process as well, mainly because you were able to write about one of your favorite games while also taking on the role of an anthropologist. The description of this paper was to select an online community and analyze them, more specifically, how the members of the group interact with/to each other, their behavior, and the essence of what makes up their culture. Since you were interested in this topic, you could go in-depth right away and provide analysis on the community. The skill of analyzing the Rocket League online community was better perfected after the previous paper. Your main issue with your primary draft was your organization, style, and grammar.  According to the rubric, you had an above-average on all three categories, but they were not exemplary. I would advise you on essay number three, but unfortunately, I have recently turned it in and am currently waiting for my grade back.

All in all this, I cannot put into words how rigorous this writing journey was for both of us, and by us, I mean I.  Now that I am finally at the end of the road with this semester’s writing journey, I have a more refined perspective on writing. I have learned to fall in love with writing because of the many organizational tips I have learned down the road. Some examples of this are creating a graph to categorize which evidence I will be using to prove specific points and giving each paragraph a title before I write to know what to write for the body paragraph without being disorganized. Before this semester, organization was not my strong suit. Not organizing made my writing process so much more difficult because I would run out of things to write quickly, or would cause me to write without any direction thus producing a hard-to-read paper. In the end, I am better because of this journey and would not want to trade the writer I have become with no one. 

Best Regards,

Future you

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