allow me to introduce myself

I want this first post of mine to be a chance for me to introduce myself to those of you who are reading this. I want to do this for a few reasons. First, I think it’s nice for those of you floating around out there in Cyberland to know something about the people whose advice or complaints or arguments you’re reading. Second, I’m not even sure all of the contributors to this blog really know much about one another, and as this blog will likely spur conversation among us as well, I wanted to share at least a little about myself with my fellow contributors. Finally, I think this probably has something to do with the identity I’m constructing for myself as writing.bytes. blogger – fairly transparent and informal. So here goes…

As others have mentioned, those of us who contribute to this blog come from varied backgrounds and currently hold various positions in relation to writing. I currently fall into the categories of teacher, tutor, and student. I have to admit, I find this a rather interesting role to be in. Just a year or two ago, I would have never imagined I would be in this position. Let me explain my situation a little more.

I’ve been studying English at the college level for almost six years now, and am planning to do it for at least four more. But before I applied to graduate school a mere three months before graduating undergrad, I had no clue what I was going to do with a B.A. in English with an emphasis on technical/professional writing. Originally, I thought maybe I’d be an editor or write for a magazine. One of my friends from high school and I always said we’d start a magazine together one day. (She’s now an editor at Seventeen, so at least one of us stuck to our original goal.) But then I was accepted as a graduate student and began studying composition and rhetoric. Additionally, this is my fourth year working at the University Writing Center, where I’ve served as tutor and online coordinator.

So as you can see, I pretty much immerse myself in writing. I work on discovering my own identity as a writer and discovering how to best use the writing process as a thinking and problem-solving tool. I work on finding ways to best transfer what I know about writing to others who are struggling to figure out how this writing stuff actually works. I catch myself unconsciously editing the daily junk mail I receive. I attempt to juggle writing the fifteen page paper for a class I’m taking and grading the twenty-five papers my students just handed in. And because I apparently just can’t get enough, I’ve also agreed to join this blog. I look forward to being a part of this conversation we’re starting (which, of course, is really just a part of a much bigger, ongoing conversation), and I look forward to learning from my fellow contributors and our readers.

And because I feel that I haven’t really addressed our purpose in publishing this blog, I offer a piece of advice in closing: Students, it’s not a great idea to go to the Writing Center during the time you are supposed to be in class. In fact, it’s probably counterproductive.