My three years as a tutor in
the Herndon Writing Center have helped me more than I could imagine being an
architecture major at Virginia Tech. In high school, I decided to take Advanced
Compostion for many reasons: I wanted to help people; I’m (comparatively) good
at writing; it would look good on a resume; I liked my classmates and my
teachers. One reason that I wasn’t thinking of as I checked the box for
Advanced Composition each year was that the skills I learned in this class would
be applicable to my studies and life as an architect. I learned way more from
just that one class than I ever thought that I would.
The writing process is one of
the biggest focal points of the course. We spent the whole year not only
reading about and experiencing the writing process, but teaching it to other
students. In Advanced Composition we used this process only in writing. However,
I have been using that process every day in my studies of architecture.
Each year on one of the first
days of class we read “Madman, Carpenter, Architect, Judge” by Betty S.
Flowers. The article talks about being able to just write before writing
well. She emphasizes the process of the writing and recognized that that
process is integral to the final product. The acceptance of bad ideas,
sentences or paragraphs can help the writing overall. It’s okay to cut entire
pages out if they aren’t beneficial to the purpose of the piece. Moving on and
learning from mistakes are essential in creating quality work. If mistakes in
the writing can be accepted and transformed, then they can even be helpful to
the final product.
Learning about not only acceptance of mistakes but the
process of getting over failures and moving on from them in a positive
direction has helped me in the design process every day. Without process, it
can be hard to start any project. At times, I feel that a bad drawing can mean
so much more than a bad sentence, especially when I worry that my future
learning for my college degree and eventual profession is going to be built on the
learning that stems from that specific project. There is still fear and insecurity
that hides in the blank sheet paper. Many of my first ideas seem to be lacking
direction or don’t answer questions that I wished they would. It’s hard to
accept that the project that I just spent all day creating didn’t achieve the
goals I had set for it. Even in the face of discouragement, I’ve found that
being too hard on myself slows the design process and hinders the development
and advancement of my ideas. I can move on because of the lessons about process
I learned and taught while I was a writing tutor. Being in the Herndon Writing
Center helped me understand that failure is common and acceptable, but one
misstep doesn’t amount to an overall lack of success. My time as a tutor also
showed me how important process really is. The first step to a successful final
product is often failure.
Going back to a project after a break often leads me to be
able to look at it analytically. I can find where it went wrong and what it
accomplished. I use those assessments to cut out the things that didn’t work
(carpenter), build up the ideas that were beneficial to my idea (architect) and
make sure that all the technicalities of the project (does it fit the
size/material requirement, is the construction clean and stable, etc.) are met
(judge).
One thing that I haven’t figured out is when the cycle of
Madman, Carpenter, Architect, Judge can be stopped. Once everything is clean at
the end of a paper or a project, I find that it’s always possible to go back
and add to it or change it completely. It’s hard for me to tell when it’s time
to put down the pencil and submit the final product. Often, I submit the final
product when the deadline comes and I don’t stop developing it a second sooner.
Finishing a project is not something that only I struggle with as an
architecture and writing student, but that people from all fields struggle with
daily.
Another thing that being in the Herndon Writing Center has
helped me with is—not surprisingly—the ability to do all types of writing. My
sophomore year at Herndon High School we had to write a research paper in
Advanced Composition called “writing in the discipline.” Its function was to
show that writing is important in every field.
I understood that after I wrote the paper my sophomore year, but I was
forcibly reminded of it at the end of my first semester at Virginia Tech. My
professor told our class that we would need to describe the depth of our ideas
and the months of process involved in just two to three sentences per project
for our final portfolio. He wanted us to connect our projects to broad concepts
we learned and ideas we pursued while exploring through the project. Without my
times as a tutor in the writing center I would have thought that this was
impossible, but my experiences gave me the confidence to express myself through
writing. I was reminded that sometimes the objects or drawing that I create
don’t express every idea I wanted them too. Writing is an important
communicator in every situation and profession.
Being in the Herndon Writing Center was a wonderful
experience. In high school, it provided me with a good community. It was an
interesting class and it was less demanding than my core classes, so I found I
could enjoy it more. It helped me develop my communication skills, leadership
skills, patience and so many more skills that are necessary in college and in
the workplace in addition to my writing and ability to recognize the importance
of process. Now that I’m in college, I have been using what I learned in Advanced
Composition every day. Being in that class helps me with architecture, and I
can see through my relationships with other students I can see that what I have
learned is applicable in every field.
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