Austin Burns Burns 1

Professor Cook & Professor Arduser

ENGL 5095 (001)

24 April 2022 Critical Essay

Where it All Begins.

I started my college career in health sciences because I thought I wouldn’t make any

money through my passion for books and writing. I went along with the idea of the young

starving artist and never once explored my other choices. I chose something that was in demand

and had a guaranteed paycheck. I hated it. I flunked out of every class for the major, so I

withdrew from all courses and started at square one.

I then moved on to explore business marketing. It has some writing in it, right? Plus, the

idea of being able to market a product or company seemed fun. That was until I took accounting.

I flunked out of that class and all other business classes.

After being put on academic probation, yes, my grades were that bad. I transferred to UC

Blue Ash to cut costs until I figured out what I wanted to do with myself. I decided to go for an

Associate's degree in English. If anything, it would at least boost my GPA. After two to three

years of nothing but academic struggle and panic attacks almost every night, I finally felt like I

was in my element.

I Like English, Now What?

Once I realized just how much better my mental health got as soon as I started to take

English classes again, I knew that this was what I had to do to keep what was left of my sanity.

Not only did my mental health improve, but my GPA shot up from 2.0 to 4.0 within the first

semester. That GPA continued throughout my English career, except for the one math class, of
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course. However, there was one problem, the problem I saw at the beginning of my academic

career. How was I going to make money? Sure, “doing what you love will never make it work” is

a great sentiment, but a great sentiment doesn’t pay the bills.

I went to look at all of the English tracks, trying to figure out which one I could use to

make money and one that would align with my passion for English. Creative Writing is great, but

I didn’t want to be an author. Literary and Cultural studying seemed interesting, but I wasn’t sure

I could read all of that difficult text without losing what was left of my sanity. There was also

English Education, but I didn’t want to be a teacher.

So, that left me with RPW. Yes, it was the last option I looked at, but it made the most

sense financially, and the more I looked into it, the more excited I got. I love writing, both

creative and not. However, I knew I would most likely never become an author. I needed to be a

bit more realistic with my goals. I loved writing, and professional writing checked all my boxes.

It had a little bit of everything that I enjoyed: writing, reading, and learning new skills.

Wait, is this What it Feels Like to do What You Love?

As soon as I registered for my first RPW classes, I realized how excited I was to attend

classes. I studied hard, did every reading, and made sure to pay attention in class (which is quite

difficult for me). I was excited to share what I wrote what I thought about readings; it all just

clicked into place. I was finally happy in school, and I felt like I was learning about what I loved.

Once I realized that this was something I wanted to continue with this major, I had to

figure out what I would do with the degree. I had an AHA moment not too far along in my RPW

journey. As is the duty of all English majors, I was tasked to edit any and everyone’s essays.
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However, for me, it wasn’t an annoying burden. I loved it. I loved taking their raw paper

and turning it into something that would get them to pass the class. I loved editing more than I

did writing. I always thought maybe I’d just become a journalist and write news articles, but no.

This made way more sense.

We Get it, You Like to Edit, but What about Writing?

Once I realized this, I then had to figure out how on Earth I was going to pursue this.

Even after enrolling in the Copyediting & Publishing Certificate, I still didn’t know what I

wanted to do in editing or writing. So this made me expand the types of classes I took within the

RPW program. Which ultimately helped me get a more precise idea of what I want to do with

my Certificate. This also helped me broaden my horizons and look at career paths that I would

never have before had I not been in the RPW track.

Writing for Justice

This class opened my eyes to working with nonprofits. Our class worked with Clean

Cape Fear, a nonprofit organization that campaigns for safe and clean drinking water. Our class

helped write documents, create a recommendation letter for their other writings (such as social

media posts, etc.), content audit, and write an op-ed. Those projects excited me, and I had more

fun in that class than I had in a long time. I learned how to do some nonprofit writing work, do a

content audit, analyze the audience, and do professional writing for an organization outside of

academia. Those will be extremely important no matter what career path I take.

Environmental Writing

I chose to work in the Environmental Writing course for a higher-level writing course. I

had the same professor as the Writing for Justice, and I was interested in learning what sorts of
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this we would be writing about in a class about the environment. I assumed that maybe it would

be writing papers on different plants or animals. I had not realized that this was an

Environmental Writing Capstone for Environmental majors.

We worked with Burnett Woods and the action that the city wanted to take to create a dog

park in what was left of the natural land around the University of Cincinnati. We did a field

survey of the land as a team, which was new for me. But as far as writing goes, we created an

Environmental Impact Statement-like paper (as we didn’t have the time nor funds to go fully

in-depth) and a media announcement. So that was more of my element.

My primary assigned role was writer and editor. I would have my teammates write down

what they wanted to say and the data they needed or wanted to include, and I would transcribe it

legibly and understandably to the general public. Not to say they were terrible writers, of course,

but they were used to just writing lab reports which are highly specified and will only be read by

people in their field.

We presented to the local Cincinnati government, Cincinnati Parks associates, CUF

neighborhood board members, etc. I wanted to ensure that our work looked good and sounded

good. I learned a lot about scientific writing and how to better work on a team that wasn’t all

writers. Due to most, if not all, of my classes being with other English majors, we were on a

somewhat level playing field. However, I was not on an equal playing field with my teammates

regarding scientific knowledge. I learned to rely on them and have them explain concepts so I

could write up what exactly they needed to say that wasn’t just raw data numbers.

Writing for Parks & Museums

Widening the field of my interest from fiction to nonfiction was a significant step, as

most if not all of my work previously (minus Writing for Justice) had been in the fiction realm.
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This was new to me. I didn’t know that parks needed particular sorts of writing, so it was a

whole new field for me. It made me learn how to write following a style guide that Cincinnati

Parks gave to us, which was something that I had never experienced before. It was a great

learning curve, especially when I went into professional writing. I need to know and understand

how to use a stylebook or sheet. I also learned how to incorporate just a bit of my style while still

maintaining and keeping the manner consistent throughout.

What Did I Learn?

Writing/English Skills

I went into this significant thinking that I was just naturally gifted at the English

language. However, this was quickly proven wrong through my more difficult classes. I had

struggles and points where I doubted that I had learned proper English. However, the struggle

was a valuable learning opportunity.

I can say confidently that my skills as a writer have improved tenfold since my first year

of college. I have improved grammar, mechanics, style, and overall consistency with my writing.

All of which were at a very base level when I entered the program. I had no idea what to expect,

even though I did not have too much to learn. I figured that I would just breeze through the

classes with no problem and get my degree.

This was not the case. There was much for me to learn, and most likely, I will keep

learning. One thing I can take away from the program is that you will not always know every

answer. The English language, and every language, is ever-evolving. What was right one day

may be wrong the next. The most valuable lesson that I was able to take from the RPW track was

that you have to want to learn more and always be curious. You will not and cannot be good at

everything you do. I did horrible in classes that I thought would be no problem, and fine in
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classes I thought I would fail. Being adaptable is a part of being a writer, editor, or any person

who works with language.

Life Lessons

Your happiness is more important than being a millionaire. Just because you won’t be

making millions doesn’t mean you can’t be happy. If I had stayed in health sciences or business,

I would have been miserable.

Just because something comes naturally doesn’t mean you’ll be automatically great at it. I

struggled with a lot of these classes despite being naturally good at reading and writing. I had to

study and seek help for many classes because it became difficult. However, the difficulties of this

track were far less anxiety-inducing than health or business. I knew that I would only get better

at what I love to do with the struggle.