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Ariel Lawson
Professor Anderson & Cook
ENGL 5095
Critical Essay
April 22, 2022

Becoming a Complete Writer:

My Continuing Journey Through the RPW Program

A Moment of Panic

When I decided to quit my full-time, remote job1 in the middle of a pandemic and go

back to school, I had one goal in mind: to become a better technical writer. That was it. My plan

was to solely focus on that one skill, mostly because that’s what I thought a professional writer

was. I soon realized technical writing fell under the umbrella of professional writing and those

terms are not in fact interchangeable.

Ironically, when I first registered for classes, I figured out I had already taken a number

of the courses I planned on when I got my first bachelor's degree (that was a fun surprise). I

started to panic and went on a minor doom spiral thinking I had made a terrible life choice.

However, after my mother reminded me that I am a professional student and always find value in

what I learn, I regained that confidence in my choice. Despite never having been wrong about

anything in my life ever, I was pleased to have my misconception about professional writing

corrected.

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I was working for a medical alert company (not Life Alert, we don’t like them) managing field technicians. My job mostly
consisted of telling technicians what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. After we launched an app for the techs to use in the
field, the majority of my time was spent teaching eighty-year-old Dave in Connecticut how to use the iPhone his grandkids
convinced him to get. After an hour of listening to Dave lock and unlock his phone and somehow take a screenshot while trying
to download the app, he finally said, “Ariel, Ariel, look this is too complicated. I’m not a millennium like you. I’ll just go to the
Apple store and they can help me. Does that sound good to you?” And yes, he did call me a “millennium” instead of a
“millennial”, that is not a typo (and he also has a very strong stereotypical New England accent so you can imagine what that
sounded like).
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And So, It Began...

My journey in the RPW program only began in Fall 2021 and it will end in Fall 2022.

I’ve only spent two full semesters in the program, but in that time, I feel like I have grown in so

many ways as a writer. Going into Intro to Rhetoric & Professional Writing, I was worried that I

was not as good of a writer as I thought I was, especially since I was so confused about what it

meant to be a professional writer in the first place. (And I was kind of right.) After two years of

not consistently working on my writing, I had gotten stale and it was difficult getting back into

an academic setting.

Despite having a degree in psychology and communication, where I had to take course

after course after course about rhetoric and how to use it (responsibly), I forgot how to write a

rhetorical analysis. Analyzing documents and figuring out how certain elements are working

together was something I had to remember how to do, although it was kind of like riding a bike: I

was wobbly at first, but eventually found my balance. However, when it came to the infographic

assignment I might as well of been on one of those toddler bikes without the pedals.

The Eye for Design (or lack thereof)

I swear that I did the assigned readings about the CRAP principles, was in class when we

discussed them, and understood what Professor Cook was teaching. But somehow that

knowledge did not seem to translate into my actual design ability. The topic for my infographic

was “Managing ADHD in the Workplace.” My audience was specifically adults with ADHD and

yet the initial draft of my infographic looked like the inside of Tommy Pickle’s house from the

Rugrats. It was so bad that someone with ADHD (me) wouldn’t be able to effectively interact

with the document. I scrapped the design and started over. Before I started on my new design, I

researched accessible design principles. This helped me to create a more user-friendly document
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for my audience. After finishing the infographic assignment, I had a basic understanding of

design principles but knew I needed more practice using them. The next logical step was to take

Desktop Publishing, where I developed a much better understanding of how design and written

communication work together to make a professional-looking document.

In the first few weeks of Desktop Publishing with Professor Cook, I was reacquainted

with the CRAP principles and introduced to things like color theory and the Gestalt Principles.

These were things I actively tried to apply while working on the assignments. By doing that, my

design skills significantly improved over the course of the semester. The programs I was using

may have been different, but my design ideas and choices were getting better. When I look at the

movie poster I made in February, the logos and business card I made in March, and the brochure

I made in April, there is a difference. Each final product got progressively better. I still don’t

have that natural eye for design (and I’m certainly no Maddy Holman), but I am far more

confident in my ability to design a useable document that looks pretty.

Now About This Writing Thing2

When I was going over the required courses I needed to take with my advisor last May, I

was not expecting her to tell me I had to take a course called “Modern English Grammar.” I

could understand why it was a requirement, but I didn’t think I needed a refresher of ninth-grade

English. Well, I will tell you something: despite never having been wrong about anything in my

entire life—except for that other thing—I was wrong about this.

Modern English Grammar helped me lay a new foundation for my writing abilities—not

only with grammar and how to use it but with the intricacies of language and sentence structure.

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I feel it is important to note that because I am pursuing a second bachelor’s degree, I am a weird type of transfer
student. I had already fulfilled all of the gen ed courses and the vast majority of required courses for English majors.
So, over the course of two semesters, I have been taking all of these courses concurrently instead of progressively.
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Being in that class broaden my knowledge of sentence structure and how the elements of

grammar—syntax, semantics, morphology, and phonology—work together to create language.

Sometimes I still think about how I would diagram certain sentences. I understand now why

Modern English Grammar is a required course, but also why it’s so important even for an already

seasoned writer.3 The skills, ideas, and concepts I learned in that class came in handy for other

RPW courses and those I am taking for the Copyediting & Publishing certificate.

There is surprisingly (but also not surprisingly) a lot of cross-over between the courses I

am taking for RPW and those I am taking for the Copyediting certificate. Because I’m taking

these courses at the same time, I have been able to see how professional writing and copyediting

work together. I think the best course that demonstrates this is Editing Professional Documents.

Editing Professional Documents has been the course to show me how copyediting and the

different levels of it functions outside of traditional publishing. General writing style, style

guides, effective use of grammar, and copyediting are important to all forms of writing across

various industries. Companies and organizations outside of the traditional publishing arena have

their own style they want consistently portrayed to the public and need editors and style guides

too. I learned how to imitate other writing styles, put together a style guide, and edit different

types of documents. Taking this course was a great way for me to see how I can use my

Copyediting & Publishing certificate in the professional writing world.

This is Where it Starts Coming Together (Well, Almost)

By the time you get to the capstone course, hopefully, you have some idea about what

kind of job you want after graduation and will use your project to show off the skills and

knowledge you’ve gained over the course of your program. I, however, decided to take a

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I brought my cousin—hopefully a future Bearcat—with me to class one day and she said everything her AP
English teacher had been trying to teach all year finally made sense.
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different approach. I’m still in the “I want to learn how to do as many different things as

possible” phase and I applied that same attitude to my capstone project.

I was part of one of two teams working with the Village Life Outreach Project this

semester. The organization had multiple projects they needed assistance with, and while many

were things I had previous experience doing, I wanted to challenge myself to try something

different. I worked on the web team and was responsible for doing a content audit4 of the

organization’s website. Despite never having done a content audit before (or really knowing

what it was), I volunteered to do it anyway. And after some research and my team leader

answering about a dozen questions, I learned what a content audit is and how to put one together.

I know what information to look for, how to organize the data, and why a content audit is useful.

Had I chosen to do something I was already comfortable with, I wouldn’t have been able to add

this new skill to my toolbox.

So, In Conclusion (Sort of)...

Though I will have spent less time in the RPW program than it took to produce season

eight of Game of Thrones, I have been able to reconfigure the kind of writer I want to be. I

realized that having a writing career and being a writer did not have to be mutually exclusive.

When I think about the courses I’ve taken (and still taking), I understand that I’m not learning

how to be a better technical writer or even a better professional writer. I am learning how to be a

more complete and diverse writer. I’m developing skill sets that will allow me to continue

learning and growing as a writer, which in turn allows me to explore whatever industry and

career that I might stumble upon. My time in the RPW program will have prepared me for

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A content audit is an organized document of all the content on a website. Creating the audit allows the organization
to analyze, repurpose, and optimize existing content for maximum growth. Having all the content organized in a
single document, the organization can easily see what areas of their site need changes or improvements.
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whatever I choose to do (even if that ends up being something quirky like a stand-up comedian

or a mob boss) and I’m looking forward to completing my journey in the fall.