Project 4 - "Portfolio" and Reflection

PROJECT 4

“Portfolio” and Reflection

Jason M. Wittler

A LOOKING IN VIEW

To: Professor Bottai and my fellow students:

Smith, Ryan Tyler. "old-MIT-classroom_Ryan-Tyler-Smith.jpg" 3/31/2014. via Flickr
Attribution 2.0 Generic

Before this class I never would have used the word writer to describe any part of myself. After this class, I still wouldn’t...not yet. I hadn’t been in an English class since my first freshman year of college in 1989 prior to this one. The span between then and now was covered with a career in the military. My return to college has been a truly eye-opening experience and this class was no different. My service has entrenched me in a style of writing that doesn’t exist outside of the Armed Forces. I approached this class with a lot of hesitation, unsure about what to expect and how I’d respond. I am very happy to say that I got through it and learned more than I ever thought I would. After being pigeon-holed in a strict standard of writing for so long, it has been invaluable for me to learn the new styles, techniques, planning approaches, and ways of analyzing writing. During this course I have been given tools I will undoubtedly require for the remainder of my college career, and possibly beyond. Breaking out of old habits has been a tough road and I still don’t have them all behind me yet. There is always room to improve and grow.

Jason Wittler in MRAP. Saiyid Karam, Paktya, Afghanistan, 2010.
Picture taken by Richard Murphy.

Most of my experiences with writing have come from my 24 years of service with the U.S. Army. Due to many of the positions I held, I was required to create everything from operational orders and supply requests to school curriculum and training schedules. The Army has field manuals dedicated to explaining their style of writing and the process is extremely rigid, regimented, and inflexible. There is no room for emotion and sparkly adjectives. There is no creativity from the author, only a clear and concise passing of information aimed at the lowest common denominator, i.e., dumbest reader. For every question there is a who, what, where, when, why and how answer, written in a formatted layout, dictated by a manual process everyone knows inside and out. Breaking out of this mold has been extremely difficult for me. Attempting to undo 24 years of repetition and indoctrination has been a slow process. Fortunately, classes like this one are showing me alternatives and techniques that I can use.

The military is also where I established my process for doing anything. The Military Decision Making Process (MDMP) is a 7-step process used to work through any situation. It was so ingrained in me that I have found myself using it for vacations, house projects, and now, even school. Having this tool at my disposal has been both a curse and blessing. I am so comfortable with this process that I often times use it in lieu of other solutions that may be easier. It is difficult to try new approaches and planning methods. I found during this course that trying to use the approaches our textbooks lined out was cumbersome as I felt I should be doing it my way, the Army way. Learning new approaches to planning and new styles of writing has been an invaluable lesson. Incorporating them into the coursework that lies ahead can only help my cause and I actually look forward to tackling new challenges with my new found skills.

In our first blog we were asked to describe what type of writer we thought we were. Because of my past experiences, I wrote, “I don't think that my style of writing fits into just one category. My approach to writing seems to borrow elements from both the "Heavy Planner" and "Sequential Composer" types”. This is also how I approached our first project. By project 3, I was borrowing elements of all 4 types of writers, even Procrastinator. I don’t believe you can say you are one or the other all the time. Different projects will require different approaches as will your familiarity with with topic. I have definitely learned that trying only one approach doesn’t work. You have to constantly tailor something. Whether it’s your genre, audience, thesis, there is always something else that seems to need adjusting. You can be the consummate heavy planner but there will come a time when you are required to diverge from that path and use elements of the other types. The big take away, in my opinion, is that there are many methods and approaches available. Just because you have deemed your audience a certain way, doesn’t require you to write like that. Mixing elements in that may be atypical to one style could be the difference between gaining their attention and boring them to death.

I the next 2 years I am planning for extensive writing to be required. A lot of the law and management classes ahead of me have writing intensive curriculum and I have little doubt I will be revisiting our textbooks quite often. From our time in class, I’ve realized the necessity of being extremely familiar with the citation style of my major. I am still not 100% certain that CSE is the style of preference but I will find out. I am currently planning on completing both areas of emphasis in my major and imagine they will have different styles since one is a business focus, the other agriculture. I know I have muddled through the citation process in the past. The focus in this class opened my eyes to the proper way of using photos, quotes, and cited material. All of which I am sure I will require again in the near future.

Jason Wittler calling for air extraction.
Operation Bright Star'05
Near El Alamain, Egypt, 2005.
Photo taken by Daniel McKay.

I honestly don’t know what the future will require of me writing-wise past college. As I stated in Blog Post #52, my chosen industry, training horses, is more of a hands-on type of thing. I do see a need if I ever decide to go into business for myself. Fortunately, my wife is an English Lit major and a self-employed professional writer within the commercial and residential construction industry. I have been a part of her process of moving from freelance writer to marketing/media consultant and the amount of professional writing required is extensive. Though I don’t foresee anything in my future requiring near the amount she deals with, starting any type of business requires writing. Letters to clients, promotional advertising, business prospecting, all will require some level of expertise with a particular style of writing to various audiences. The lessons I’ve learned and the experiences I have gained from this class will not doubt be essential in one way or another throughout the rest of my professional career.

With a bag full of new techniques and experiences I feel much better equipped to deal with what’s ahead. Learning of new ways to approach my future writing requirements will make the process much easier and less painful I am sure. I still feel there is a lot of learning yet required before I can call myself a writer, but I have undoubtedly take the first steps along that path. I am capable of writing at a level far above what I thought was possible. I am reminded of a lesson from my early military career that said, “Anybody can talk, but to truly communicate you need three things. A sender, a receiver, and most importantly, understanding of the message”. Quite often I find people who think they are great communicators due to their ability to orate in public or draft beautifully crafted letters. That’s all well and good, but is the message getting received as intended? We as a class received a lot of the tools required to ensure that when we speak, write, blog, or email, the purpose of our message will be clearly understand by the audience. It may have just been an English class, but it gave us the ability to truly communicate.

Of course, last but not least, I have to include my own personal victory lap! I am not sure how I’m going to celebrate, but the answer is in this picture somewhere.

Wittler, Jason. "Victory Lap". 6/22/2015.