Reflection on "The Novice as Expert: Writing the Freshman Year"

As I read this article, I remembered thinking to myself: "My gosh this is a deathly long article. Why is this the first entry in our reader?" Fortunately, it was a relatively fast read. My favorite section was the relation made between writing and the race between the tortoise and the hare. It seems as though we are all tortoises and hares in various areas of our lives. I, for one, still don't know exactly which one to call myself in the area of writing.

With a strong background in mathematics and a penchant towards the life sciences, I easily identify myself as a hare in writing--I just wanted to get the essay done as fast and as painless as possible. As Nancy Sommers mentions, however, the opportunity to write has allowed many students to place their own ideas in the essays and even acquire a better sense of learning. And as it is with me, the past couple of years in high school, I scribbled my own thoughts and became a much stronger writer. I was no longer fearful of the new Microsoft Word Document waiting for my sentences.

Although the fear of writing declined, I don't know if I can consider myself a tortoise. I spend time on writing my essays, but I certainly do not see myself becoming a prolific writer in the future. On the other hand, I have learned to enjoy writing more than I see most hares experience. It is the dilemma between writing more or writing less that questions my identity as a writer. As I continue the English class of poetry, I hope to understand the beauty of poems and call myself a tortoise: a person who dives into the subject and spends time on the writing. Moreover, I hope as students we are able to help each other identify each others as potential writers.