LIMUHAG
THE ESSAY
The students were asked to watch The Essay by Any Other Name, a lecture of Prof. Cruz on how to make a nonfiction creative. Under the same link, they were then urged to post one substantial comment and one question about the lesson.
COMMENTS
Hello, Ma’am! Thank you for this insightful lecture. It is nice to know that writing an essay is not all about strict format and knowing where exactly you are going, but it is also about figuring things out as you write. I liked that the essay now doesn't stick to the traditional form and genre. Instead, it tries to capture the deepest thoughts of the author and his or her “truthfulness” by breaking these constraining boundaries. However, if the genre is boundless and reflective, then how can one distinguish a successful or good essay regardless of its form? And on what basis? Or is there even such a thing as a successful and good essay?
Good day, Ma’am Jho! Thank you so much for this lecture which made creative nonfiction easier for me to understand. In the video, I appreciate how you pointed out one of the ways to make a nonfiction creative and that is to have the writer’s reflection. Before I watched this lecture, I thought a writer’s reflection of thoughts must be structured or developed beforehand, allowing the writer to know how to start and end the essay in the smoothest manner. However, based on the explanation given, I finally understood that writers must instead reflect their unfinished thoughts and just allow themselves to explore or “live their lives twice” along the process of writing. This gave me an avenue to reflect on my past works just so I could still improve myself in the future. Though I may have understood this aspect already, I still have one question in mind that I want to clarify after watching the video: While it is true that the essay can continually strain against the boundaries of other genres, to what extent? How would I know if my work is still considered as an essay with the presence of other genres in it?
Such an insightful and engaging lecture! I was able to pick up on the different concepts explained in the lecture, with my personal favorite being the discussion on how nonfiction can be made ‘creative’. The discussion about the apparent and the deeper subjects of the text made me re-evaluate how I placed my subject matter into my past essays, and I agree with the notion that the essay can have either ‘levels’ of depth.
The idea of the essay being a textual presentation of an already ‘finished’ thought was what I was taught during my formative and high school years, so the concept of it being founded on an ‘unfinished thought’ made me curious- How does this difference of the writer’s ‘completeness of reflection' manifest itself in the essay? Does it perhaps lend the text a different voice or feel? Another question that came to mind is with regards to the essay’s non-compliance to rigid boundaries and rules, bearing the question- when exactly does an essay stop being an essay?
Thank you for sharing your knowledge, Ma’am. The lecture really made me ponder on how I should go about my future essays. I’ve always thought that prior to writing an essay, I should already have a sense of finality with the ideas I’ll be presenting so I would have some credibility as a writer. But I’ve always felt like I was being too pretentious when doing so because even after finishing an essay, I remained unsure of what an experience I wrote taught me. As a result, my essays lack the authenticity it needs. I’m still not as wise as my essay makes me seem. Although you’ve mentioned that there’s nothing wrong with having a finished thought when writing, I found the sense of just trying to finish a thought very freeing especially because I am pressured to make sense of my experiences, even more so with structuring them into fortresses. This is probably why I get stuck in my ruminating process for so long and not feeling ready or “fixed” enough to let it out into prose. I just got curious as to what happens if two differently-biased essayists write about the same topic (say for example a DDS and a non-DDS), would the “realness” of one essay affect the factuality of the other?
I learned a lot of new things regarding the essay, and it is refreshing and exciting to feel that I am still learning new things, which I haven't imagined learning and soon trying to write perhaps. I most appreciate the idea of your video lecture regarding particular writing becoming a "fortress" instead of an essay. The metaphorical idea of the fortress is very new to me and hasn't been taught during high school--that essay should have something to do with an unfinished thought for it to become more open; it also coincides with the characteristic of an essay being "unruly." Also, the figurative idea of the word diepgang is interesting, and how comes that there is nothing wrong if the essay only dwells on the apparent subject. My question about this would be regarding the reading. Given that, as mentioned, "essay strains against the genre of poetry," it can be said there are essays (before or perhaps up until now) that include deeper subjects (or what if a particular writer writes in a language that doesn't just include literalness but also metaphoric/figurative ideas) would still this kind of essay can free the reader from seeking the symptomatic (elements)?
Thank you for this insightful lecture, Ma'am! I like how you prefaced your lecture with a story of your perception of essay before vs now have changed as you learned things along the way. It reminds the writer, or just people in general, to always be more open to change when presented with new knowledge. With that out of the way, I like the meme you presented, Ma'am. The one with the unicorn. It shows that essays doesn't stop with insights and can still go beyond that. From what I've understood, the essayist can also present information through its creative form, not just its content and it really shows that it can be as playful as the other genres. I was from ABM and so unfortunately was not taught about creative writing until now. All I've assumed about the conventions of an essay are the academic ones. With that being said, as the essay's voice presents an "I" persona, I am not sure how to evaluate the truthfulness of a, for example, personal essay. How do we know that such information written down are facts and true? Does this evaluation matter once the piece of work has been marked as personal essay?
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Hi, ma'am! I really want to say that your interest in the topic makes the lecture absorbing for me. Thank you for that!
The how's of creating a nonfiction creative are very helpful. What mainly arouses my attention are the writer's reflection and personal presence. From what I used to know, putting subjectivity in an essay is considered unwise since using an objective voice would be the recommended option. But from this lecture, I truly like the idea that establishing your presence as the writer should be the wise decision. I agree that expressing through your own voice and style results to a more effective essay, for it clearly represents your thoughts and insights. It can intrigue your readers to the point they could even look forward to reading more of your essays. It also gives you your own uniqueness. But my curiosity leads to the question: how do we know that our point of interest is also the interest of others? I am quite anxious that what may seem interesting to me may be boring to others, or does this depend on the writer's ability of making any subject interesting? Moreover, does creativity start from the subject or does the writer has the upmost control on "creativity"?
I don’t recall being taught about creative writing in Senior High School; I don't even remember if the essay, as a genre, was dissected and discussed this much in Senior High School. I only learned its structure—introduction, body, and conclusion—which blocked a lot of my creative ideas (which I didn't have a lot of). When you explained how the essay could be unfinished, I was comforted. I guess an essay that appeared to be "a fortress" does not solely affect the readers but the writers as well. I, again, was comforted and validated when you said that the writer MUST overthink things. I have never written something I did not overthink about. I also really liked how "ruminating" was used in the image of keeping a memory or an experience and processing it before writing about it or sharing it with the world. I also think that the writer's reflection on what happened makes the essay more personal which helps in setting up a relationship with the readers.
Now that I've been comforted and validated on how much I can write and process, I don't know much about how language can be essay-like. When trying to connect with other people, we try to be friendly and casual, and use the words, "really," "literally," "kind of," and more, in our sentences. But in creative non-fiction, are we still allowed to use such language? Or must we phrase them in an "academic way" or save them for dialogue?
Hello Ma'am Jho! Thank you so much for this video lecture. I was able to understand profoundly and picture out the different ideas and concepts of The Essay. The allusions and images you used, such as the "diepgang", the "fortress", and the meme, really helped me comprehend these concepts that I believe are hard to grasp if I were to understand them alone. I specifically like the notion that essays can either have underlying meaning or that the point of the Essay is simply what is on the surface, such as what we learned with reading the essays. It made me realize that sometimes I over-read because of what I was taught and what I was trained to do in studying fiction and poetry. I get so lost in reading between the lines that I forget to actually read what is in the line. In addition, the idea of the Essay as an "unfinished thought" and the image of the "fortress" also caught my interest since, like you and most of us, I presume, thought that we writers must already have figured out our reflections and thoughts on a specific topic or experience if we write about it. That 'having no solid idea' to present comforts me and scares me at the same time since I am still learning how to write without planning everything ahead of time because I was trained to fear loopholes and inconsistency with what I write. I must say that The Essay is indeed astounding since it is not or it is more than what I thought it was. I know now that I need to unlearn, and learn again, in a different light this time, to take in the 'spirit' of the Essay. I hope I will be able to reach the 'unicorn' level of thinking and writing the Essay. With that, how do you know if the Essay or you as an essayist has reached past beyond 'the wisdom'?
Hello, Ma’am! Thank you for this lecture. You were able to deliver insightful information in just a span of half an hour. I am always fascinated with the fact that writing essays is to try, and there’s no such thing as writing it in the wrong way. I think it somehow comforts me that I overthink things a lot and believed that overthinking was not good and then led me to start from scratch. About the personal presence to make the non-fiction creative, is it appropriate or acceptable in an essay when I try to “break the fourth wall” to give a voice for my readers to keep listening/reading?
It was such an insightful presentation and I enjoyed listening to it. The things you shared regarding how to make nonfiction creative was truly informative. But what I particularly found interesting in the presentation was when you mentioned that overthinking was important to us writers. The word “overthinking,” for me, just took the image of reflection to a more profound yet scarier idea of what it means to write. I also found it striking when you used that meme of the unicorn to represent our thought process in writing. That image really captured our previous discussion about the essay as an attempt to write to make sense of something, rather than writing what already made sense. That through the essay we can reach a certain point, or no point at all, and either way works. But also because of this ma’am, I raise these questions as a beginning writer: How do we write an essay without direction and know that what we are writing actually works? And since we try to make sense of things by writing about what had happened, is there such a thing as oversharing in essays?
Hi, ma'am, this is Carl Undag, and thanks for the video. I recalled much of how essays are today which was detailed by Christy Wampole but this video was able to give me new insights into the essay's characteristics. Though it was news to me when I learned what Wampole discovered, I recalled that some of the essays that I read in my previous classes do have this characteristic of not focusing on a particular subject, but rather it just details an author's experience in a rather nonchalant yet elegant way. Moreover, I do notice some of what Wampole describes as 'fortress' in essays written in earlier times, in which if I recall, tells us about their particular philosophy which we analyze and think through in our classes.
One concern that I have in this video is that you mentioned that one winning aspect of an essay is at the end, the persona realized or reflects on something, such as using the phrase "I realize...". I was thinking that maybe this phrase suggests that an essay had a form and had gone beyond just trying. But instead of a fortress, I was thinking more of a museum: in which the essay invites the reader to check what it is inside and it is up to them what they think when they saw the displays. The attempt is still there but the rather conclusive phrase such as "I realize..." makes the objects inside tangible to readers, at least for me. Did I miss something from Wampole's idea or this video?
Good day, Prof. Jho! Thank you for this lecture! I was able to learn a lot about the essay through this, and I find the tips really helpful. I also appreciate how you pointed out that perhaps, there is no deeper subject, that the apparent subject might already be the essay because most of the time, I tend to overread the lines of the works that I read in search for a deeper or hidden subject; so, this is a really great reminder. Also, I have a question regarding the process of establishing personal presence in the essay. You have mentioned that the "voice is personal, not omniscient" and that most of the time this is done by using "I." Other than this, what are other ways that we may use to make the voice personal po?
Hello Maam! First of all, watching the 28-minute lecture video was not draggy since it teaches informative points that made me crave more about the topic.
This lecture cleared out my perception of the essay that our high school teachers were forcing me to write a “structured” essay - introduction, body, and conclusion - which were eventually old-fashioned and restricting. I like how the nonfiction affirms this deeper essence of the diepgang, and you countered it that it doesn’t have to be that one. I feel validated after hearing this point, especially when that point arrives that I haven’t yet reached that level of maturity to achieve such deeper essence. However, I would like to ask if I leave my essay as an open ending without coming to a specific path of “realization” does it make my essay a bad one considering that I’m only putting in half-filled bags in my essay? Do I still have to trust my readers to find out what I am attempting to say?
Hello ma'am! This is Angela Sucaldito. I'm using this account because of youtube premium, and I can't change its name at the moment. Anyway, thank you for the clear and insightful lecture, ma'am. It made me understand the nuances of writing creative non-fiction. I really like the part when you talked about what makes non-fiction creative because I had a little knowledge beforehand about creative non-fiction and what makes it different from non-fiction other than it is written in a creative "story-ish" manner which was never explained well to me by my highschool teachers. I liked the number three in the list about "the writer's reflection" mainly about the "finished vs unfinished thought" because most of the time in writing, we are taught that it is important know what we want to tell to have a concrete idea or point about what we're writing and it is very interesting to know that in creative nonfiction, unfinished thoughts are much preferred because the author can reflect, explore and find much better things while writing. The question I have is that, if essays continually strain from the boundaries, how would we know it is still an essay? And can we still write a good essay even though we don't follow the "unfinished thought"? Thank you, Ma’am.
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Good day ma'am. Thank you for this brief but insightful lecture regarding the essay.
I am someone who really likes to outline all of my write ups before writing them due to people always telling me how I can't really focus on one single topic for a long time and how my thoughts are always wandering. Outlining everything that I write has somehow become comforting for me because I always felt like that is the only way for people to understand and appreciate anything that I was going to say. I also like to overthink a lot of things and find meaning in the most trivial things which a lot of people find annoying whenever I talk to them about it. After reading more about the essay, I find it a little comforting because it celebrates this sort of process of thinking and reflection. Although it is a little daunting for me to think about taking on writing with out an outline. I hope that in the CW class for non fiction, I may be able to do this form justice. For my question, how can I be sure that as a writer, the vision that I would put down on paper would be unique? If there are no boundaries, and anyone can just write whatever, how can I be sure that the process of my essay will be something people would want to read?
Photo Reference by Anthony Shkraba