“Experimental Critical Writing” by Marianna Torgovnick struck a chord with me because I struggle with my own personal style of writing at times. She speaks to the idea that one should be passionate about what they are writing and write in a voice that portrays that passion, not just states the facts in as much detail as possible. She says that “writerly writing is personal writing, whether or not it is autobiographical” which is an important statement because readers should be able to get a sense of what the writer is feeling, what their intentions are and why they wrote whatever piece is being read. In college I have been fortunate enough to be able to choose my topics of writing, which makes me feel as though I can make them a little more personal than simply an assigned topic that I truly don’t feel any passion towards.

This idea also resonates in bell hooks’s piece “Remembered Rapture: Dancing with Words.”  Her passion for writing made me wish I had an opportunity to have her as an influence earlier in my educational career. While reading the essay I felt like she truly believed in what she was writing and I know that my writing has not been that powerful in the past, but I am encouraged by her piece to work towards improving my writing in order to achieve that sense of passion and power.

Having passion in what you are writing about is absolutely necessary in order to create an entertaining and informative piece that readers are going to want to read. Educational programs often have mandated essays and topics for students to write, but I don’t think that students should be forced to write about any particular topic. Torgovnick expresses that academic writing is often writing that practically screams “I am the kind of writing that does not want to be heard,” but all writing should be written to be heard. Scholarly works don’t have to be mundane but many students are not taught more creative ways to write on serious academic topics. One way to allow students to write academically and with passion is to allow them to choose their own topics, within the large topic that is being taught. bell discusses the idea of performance because often times words are more powerful when spoken aloud and I think this is an excellent idea for certain curricula. Everyone should be able to express their knowledge in their own form of intelligence and if a student feels more comfortable writing a poem or a scene to a play, they should be able to do things in more creative ways as well. This allows writers to give their academic work a personal touch as well as feel more in control and powerful rather than composing a pile of facts with a few of their own comments for a professor or a teacher to read and assess.