24 November 2015 "Writer Case Study: Juliet"

Written for a Writing course at Loyola University Maryland--a case study of a writer named Juliet O'Brien. 

Introduction/Writer Profile

           

            My cousin Juliet has been writing since she learned how to read. She and I have had extremely similar experiences with writing, engaging with it heavily in both creative and academic settings. Juliet is seventeen years old and currently completing her senior year in a prestigious Silicon Valley high school. For this project, she initially felt eager to send me a swarm of college application essays, but after we had finished her interview she decided to send several unique creative and academic pieces to me as well as college essays. Juliet enjoys writing, she always has, but over time it has lessened as a priority in her life. As she applies to and chooses a college where she will begin the next chapter of her life, Juliet has gravitated toward the realm of biology (pre-med) and political science. However, she hopes to always use writing in her career, even if the career itself isn’t based in writing.

Writing History

Juliet describes her first writing experience as “ancient history.” Writing has been a hobby ever since she learned to do it. Today, unfortunately she has significantly less time to spend on creative writing; she spends most of her time on schoolwork. As part of her creative process when she was younger, Juliet explained in our interview, she read works of fiction and copied their plots, creating new details to add to the stories and make them her own. Aside from creative writing, Juliet has experience writing analytical essays, personal and college essays, news articles, short stories, poetry, and profile projects. She also has extensive experience revising writing done by her peers, as she is an editor for both the newspaper and the literary magazine at her high school. Juliet finds this revision experience invaluable, as it has allowed her to learn from others and “become a more aware writer.”

The Writing Process According to Juliet

Juliet’s approach to writing depends on the type of task required by the assignment. If it is an analytical essay, she will spend a good bit of time going through the material to be analyzed and, after creating a thesis, will put together a detailed outline before writing a draft. However, for something like a college or creative essay, Juliet finds it extremely helpful to take some time to think about the prompt on her own and brainstorm ideas with others. In circumstances like these, she finds it less useful to put together outlines.

Juliet’s editing process is extremely detail-oriented. She does not spend a lot of time reading over and revising pieces once she has written them; instead she prefers to revise sentence-by-sentence as she is writing her draft. “I pore over every sentence, especially the first sentence of a writing piece.” Juliet told me in our interview. “It’s important, especially when writing college essays, to keep the shock factor strong.” Because writing a college essay is often the first and only chance to personally present oneself to a university, crafting a good college essay is essentially important. It is crucial to be unique and individual in order to make a strong impression. There are many ways to achieve this, but Juliet has found that utilizing the “shock value method” works well for her.

Identification of her audience is one of the first things Juliet considers when writing. She believes firmly that one’s audience can really “inform the tone” of a writing piece. Lately though, she has been having a bit of trouble with writing to the audience of her college essays. This audience has been a bit of a “road block” for her writing, as she often finds herself “overthinking topics.” This overthinking has sometimes rendered her unable to write, as she never feels that what she writes is good enough. Because she attends an extremely prestigious Silicon Valley private high school, Juliet has sent college applications to some fantastically competitive universities, including Johns Hopkins University, Stanford, and The University of Virginia. When applying to large, well-known universities like these, it seems understandable to me that Juliet would find writing college essays a daunting task.

A unique difference between mine and Juliet’s writing processes is that Juliet seems to write better when put under pressure. Her most productive time to write is late afternoon/evening, when she knows deadlines loom on the horizon. Unlike me, a person who folds under the pressure of procrastination, Juliet finds herself to be significantly more productive when she has put off work until the last minute. This rings especially true when Juliet writes creatively; she finds it easy to produce good creative work when put under pressure to succeed.

Analysis of Juliet’s Writing Process

Juliet and I, being three years apart, are extremely close and have frequently read each other’s creative writing. We have also often collaborated on creative writing pieces. Interestingly enough though, I was not familiar with her writing process until I conducted an interview with her for the purpose of this case study. I had always assumed that because we are so alike in other ways, our writing processes would reflect almost identical tendencies. I was surprised during the interview to learn that this is not the case.

My writing process does not typically vary depending on genre. For analytical papers, creative essays, and everything in between, I approach the process of writing in the same way. I certainly do not use outlines, no matter what the writing piece requires.

My editing process is less detail-oriented than Juliet’s. Instead of poring over each sentence individually as I write it, I prefer to leave re-reading and revisions until the draft is complete. Though I agree about the importance of line-by-line writing and the shock value of first sentences, I tend to look more for the cohesion of a writing piece as a whole when I revise.

Perhaps it is not the most productive of strategies, but I find the identification of my audience to be one of the last things I consider when writing. Unlike Juliet, I am more likely to write based on the assignment itself rather than my audience. I have very rarely found audience to be a roadblock for my own writing.

When put under pressure, I find it almost impossible to write. If I leave myself writing work (creative or otherwise) until the last minute, it can be almost guaranteed that the work will not be done well. I find myself feeling very stressed when put under the pressure of looming deadlines. Where Juliet might find motivation in this stress, I find only a severe lack of motivation.

Though our writing processes may be somewhat different, I don’t believe it necessary or effective to rank one process above the other. As typical of all types of writing processes, I believe Juliet’s process and mine each have their own strengths and weaknesses. Juliet’s strengths I believe lie in her immediate consideration of audience, her ability to work well under pressure, and her detail-oriented sentence revision process.

Consideration of audience can often lead to a more effective and more organized piece of writing. Personally, I have found that in circumstances where I have not considered my audience, my writing has not been successful. In addition, the ability to work well when put under pressure can be an extremely valuable tool when writing. Deadlines have been known to sneak up to the present without notice, and when forced into a position of pressure it does one well to be confidently able to perform. Finally, when one is extremely detail-oriented about one’s writing, it becomes more difficult to miss mistakes and inconsistencies within a piece of writing. I believe Juliet’s constant re-reading of sentences serves her well in circumstances where a less detail-oriented approach to revision might be less effective.

Though I do firmly believe in these three strengths of Juliet’s writing process, I find it important to highlight the fact that I also consider these three strengths to be Juliet’s three biggest weaknesses. As Juliet herself explained to me in our interview, sometimes the immediate consideration of one’s audience leads to roadblocks. Instead of successfully “informing the tone”, to use Juliet’s words, immediate consideration of one’s audience may lead one to overthink one’s writing. Though the ability to work well under pressure can be a valuable tool, it can also be an extreme detriment. In our interview, Juliet confessed that she has sometimes left assignments until the last minute on purpose just because she knows she tends to work better under pressure. Finally, though a detail-oriented approach to revision can catch small-scale mistakes, it often can neglect larger-scale issues such as paragraph structure and overall clarity of a writing piece. Sometimes it is not enough to simply pore over sentences as one writes them.

As a whole, I believe Juliet has a good writing process. It has worked well for her so far, and I do not see any large issues that will eventually render it ineffective. There are certainly areas where I believe Juliet’s writing process could use improvement, but I don’t believe it fair to judge her process as good or bad based simply on these small issues. After all, my own writing process has issues as well.

Analysis of Juliet’s Writing

For this section of the case study, I have chosen to analyze three separate pieces of Juliet’s writing, from two different genres: college essay writing and academic writing (a personal profile piece.)

The first pieces of writing I have chosen to analyze are two college essays that—I believe—are part of the Common Application’s series of essay questions. The first is a 314-word answer to the question “What work of art, music, science, mathematics, or literature has surprised, unsettled, or challenged you, and in what way?” The second is a 285-word answer to the question “What is your favorite word and why?”

Juliet’s response to the first essay question, because I’m her cousin and know her very well, I did not find surprising. Juliet is pretty politically conservative (somewhat surprising considering the fact that she’s spent most of her adolescence living in San Francisco), and the idea of stem cell research understandably presents a significant ethical dilemma for her. I think in this essay Juliet’s voice and struggle with stem cell research come across very well. Her diction is impressive, and her syntax works well. However, and I believe this can be partially attributed to the lack of space allotted to answer the essay question, the piece reads a bit choppy. Though the transitions are implemented well between paragraphs, I think the third paragraph is too broad and, in my personal opinion, a bit unnecessary. I can appreciate her reference to “x college” and the relation of embryonic stem cell research to real-life situations a college student might experience, but as a whole I think the essay would be strengthened with a different third paragraph. I would like to hear more about her ambivalence toward the issue. Overall though, based on what I know about her, it appears that in this essay Juliet’s writing is very heavily influenced by her audience.

I like Juliet’s response to the second essay question more than I like her response to the first essay question. I was surprised by her choice of a favorite word, although after reading I definitely see how accurate a choice the word is. I think what I like so much about this essay is how much of Juliet’s voice is present in it. Where the first essay seems more reserved, appears to be more based off of a cookie-cutter idea of what colleges would like to hear in answer to essay questions, this second essay appears more creative, a little freer from boundaries. As a whole, it appears to be organized a bit more effectively; the transitions between paragraphs are much smoother and it does not feel so choppy when reading. I would criticize that Juliet’s introduction of the Thomas Jefferson quote in the beginning of the essay is a bit unclear, but as a whole I think the essay is solid. In this piece, it appears that Juliet was not so caught up by her audience, and perhaps had an easier time answering the question asked by the essay prompt.

The third piece of Juliet’s writing that I have chosen to analyze is by far my favorite. Interestingly enough, it is a profile of a woman who lives in Juliet’s neighborhood written for her AP English class last year. “It’s from last year,” Juliet explained to me in our interview. “But it’s one of the most fun projects I’ve done for AP English, and I’m proud of it.” It’s a nine-page piece depicting an interview with Isa (Juliet’s neighbor), feedback about Isa from others, and Juliet’s own testimonial. It’s very beautifully written, and I was especially blown away by her descriptions of Isa’s home and Isa herself. I see how creative Juliet’s writing can be throughout this piece, and reading it was an extremely enjoyable experience. There are some small grammatical issues, typical of her style not to re-read over the entire piece for revision, but as a whole I don’t have many suggestions for beneficial change. If I had to choose a piece of writing that I believe showcases Juliet as a writer, this is the piece I would choose.

Conclusion

Before I had actually interviewed her, I knew my cousin Juliet would have a pretty well developed writing process. She is and always has been exceedingly bright and hardworking, and we have grown up writing together. Though certain things surprised me, I think that this case study as a whole went as I expected it would. Though her process does have flaws, I firmly believe that Juliet is well prepared to enter the realm of college writing. And for her age, I think she is pretty far ahead in the writing game.