Why Comp Theory or Why Write About Writing?

What can I learn about writing from learning how writing is created? That was a question I asked myself for years. When I was in my early to mid-twenties, I was a young mother with four children under the age of 6. We had one car, which my husband used to get to work - so I was left alone with the kids 5 days out of 7, with no escape.

Before my fourth child was born, I began asking (later demanding) one day away from home every week - I called it "My Day Out," and it was sacred. We lived in California at the time, so on a Saturday or a Sunday I would go out and wander the streets of Pasadena. I went to flea markets, and used book stores. I found an old theater (with long, carpeted staircases leading up to second floor balconies; someone, of course, had turned it into a discount multiplex, but still I could imagine people arriving for the premiers of Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz. At the time of my endless wanderings, I could go there and watch a double feature for $3; it was bliss. But, as wonderful as my Day Out journies were, it was journaling that saved my life.

One day, while rummaging through a used bookstore, I found a book on journaling full of exercises and writing prompts, and meditations on the importance of getting to know and like oneself. I bought the book, then bought the first of many spiralbound notebooks and a package of pens, and I began to write.

But, even after divorcing and moving away from California with my four children, learning to struggle and survive on my own, and even after making the earth-shattering decision to return to college and finish my bachelor's degree after more than 20 years, I still didn't understand why I should take classes on learning to write - I wrote, all of the time. Why "learn how" after so many years?

Because composition writing, if done correctly, can take you deeper into yourself than you've ever been. It is one thing to write down the joys and sorrows of everyday life - it is another to carefully construct (or reconstruct) the important moments of your life, choosing just the right words, paying attention to sentence-lengths, and deciding on just the right punctuation to make the moments of your life live, not only in your memory but actually come to life in the mind of someone else, who may very well recognize themselves in your words. Writing is a dialogue with the world - as the internet and its thousands upon thousands of blog-spots prove, writing is still one of the most powerful communication tools available to us as human beings. And, if we teach those who come after us to wield this sword, we empower them and challenge them to find their authentic selves and learn to dialogue with each other across the global community.