My Favorite Paper

Deb asks, "What makes good writing?"

A couple quarters ago, I had the pleasure of taking Lisa Wallace's Intro to Women's Studies course. For our portfolio, we were assigned a three-to-five page paper that reflected upon a topic that we had discussed. The topic was to be one that was personally interesting to us. During the course, we had distributed surveys to gague peoples' reactions to Hillary Clinton running as potentially the first female president of our country. Because we had focused on Clinton and her influence on women today, I chose to write my opinion on the issue.

My paper was an argumentative one. I wrote it before the primary election, when emotions were flying between Clinton and Obama. I made my case for Obama as my candidate of choice, citing that I think Clinton is not necessarily the heroine women today need. I called her out for trying to be too much like a rich white man, and for backpedaling on issues that could actually improve women's lives.

I won't get into specifics here, because politics isn't the point. The point is that I had a fabulous time writing the essay because I was so immersed in the subject. I think that is the one boundary that writers must overcome above all else: You have to find a topic that interests you, that lights a fire under your butt, to produce a great piece. I got an A on the paper and would've been happy with almost any grade, just because I had so much fun writing it.