Influences on Writing -- Mrs. Dechert

I have had many influences on my views about writing, including my family, my teachers, and my students. One of my first memories of writing comes from my childhood when I wrote a short story for class. My story featured a mid-1800s-era family living on the prairie (much like my favorite Laura Ingalls Wilder books). At the end of the story, the family house caught fire, and all the characters died inside. I was really proud of my story because I thought it was original and shocking. My mother, on the other hand, was horrified, so horrified, in fact, that she made me change the story before I could take it to school the next day. From this event, I learned, at a young age, how authority figures can influence a person's writing and creative process. Many years later, Dr. Rich Raymond, who taught my Graduate Research Methods course at MSU, influenced my views on writing. Even though all the students in Dr. Raymond's class were graduate students in English and, therefore, very good writers, he still made us write all of our papers in drafts and share them with our peers during peer response sessions. At first, I hated this exercise and felt it was unnecessary, but I began to see that my writing became better when I was forced to share it with others, especially when I had to read it aloud to my classmates. Through this and other exercises, Dr. Raymond taught me that writing is a process and that no matter how practiced or talented I might be I have to write drafts and revise my writing in order for it to be the best it can be. Lastly, my students have influenced my views on writing. Over the past six years at MSU, I have had over 600 students with varying degrees of writing capabilities, and each has taught me something about writing. From excellent writers, I have learned how diligence can pay off and provide a polished product. From students with limited vocabularies, I have learned that intelligence and complexity of thought is not always limited by language, and from struggling writers, I have learned that becoming a confident, accomplished writer is not an over-night task; it must be practiced over and over, and it continually develops. Though many others have contributed to my views on writing, these three--my mother, Dr. Raymond, and my students--stand out the most.