When writing classes end are you really done learning about writing?
So you’ve done it. You’ve slogged through your mandatory writing classes and now you’re free and clear, right?
If you feel like you’ve been beaten down by your formal writing education, this answer will come as a good news/bad news package. You might be done learning crappy standardized writing, but you definitely aren’t done learning to write.
The reasons and situations you face in writing are always changing. Now that you’re done with mandatory English classes, the writing you do will start to include new conventions for how you write within your field. It’s also worth mentioning that those conventions are also changing all the time as practices and technology change.
No amount of writing practice, expertise, or mastery can change the fact that there’s always more to learn about writing.
This doesn’t have to be a scary idea. It can be really comforting to think that you’re past the bogus situations teachers and administrators set up to make you write. At this point, your learning about writing opens up and the writing you do becomes much more relevant to the situations that pop up in your field.
As writing is becoming an increasingly social activity with texting, sending emails, posting on social media, our social lives begin to revolve around learning about writing. As we get better at wording our tweets and getting our point across over text, we’re continuing to learn about writing.
Now we can say we’ve busted the myth that being done with formal writing education means being done learning about writing.
With that myth busted wide open, we encourage you to learn about and think about writing that means something to you.