More people are writing today than ever before, and many are switching comfortably from one genre or medium to another—from tweeting to blogging to creating multimedia Web pages. Learning to be effective as a writer is a continuous process as you find yourself in new writing situations using new technologies and trying to anticipate the concerns of different audiences. “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write,” futurist Alvin Toffler predicted, “but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
Learning anything—especially learning to communicate in new ways—benefits from what we call reflection, thinking critically about how as well as what you are learning. Extensive research confirms what writers have known for a long time: that reflection makes learning easier and faster. In fact, recent studies show that writing even a few sentences about your thoughts and feelings before a high-stress paper or exam helps students reduce stress and boost performance. That is why in this chapter and throughout this book, we ask you to think about your experience as a writer, and we recommend using writing to explore and develop your ideas. The activities that conclude this chapter invite you to compose a literacy narrative, a multifaceted exploration of yourself as a writer.
To get started thinking about writing, we will look at some of the important contributions writing makes. Then, we’ll preview how The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing can help you become a better, more confident, and more versatile writer.