Dear Writing Support Studio,

Recently my professor informed my class as to the presence of the Writing Support Studio here at Schoolcraft College’s Livonia campus.  While the location of the Writing Support Studio was shared with us and we have been told that it is a great resource for aspiring student writers, I still have my doubts about whether or not I should visit the Studio.  I am skeptical to believe that it will provide any lasting value that is pertinent to my academic studies or my life as a whole.  While I believe that the service is positive in theory, I do not believe that it is necessary for me as an individual as I already achieve very strong grades.
Sincerely,
A Doubtful Student

Dear Doubtful Student,

Here at the Writing Support Studio we often refer to writing as being a game of ideas.  With writing, it is the student who is doing the coding for that game and its rules.  It is the student who is deciding how ideas interact and what they ultimately mean and will do in the world.  There is no equation to work within, and there are no rules for idea construction other than those guidelines set forth by the prompt.  One will find that those rules are typically looser than they may have initially suspected.  Though this burden of crafting ideas and deciding what they mean is a great responsibility, it is also a great opportunity.
The less stringent nature of writing, which is indicative of its subjective nature as a discipline, means that there is always room for growth.  There is always punctuation that could have been more effectively placed in correlation with a work’s tone.  There is always more appropriate diction that could have been utilized for the purpose of conveying meaning within the work.  Ultimately, there is always a connection, whether it be technical or intellectual, that has been left unmade.
Despite the fact that as a writer it can be difficult to determine where one’s responsibilities end, and at times even where they begin, the essence of writing is the interaction of ideas coming together to form a unified machine.  There is power in being able to convey thought preparedly.  While ideas can be connected, the manner in which they have been and whether or not a writer has achieved perfection can always be debated.  Ernest Hemingway once suggested that “We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”  At the Writing Support Studio, we do not believe that there was ever a sentence that has been crafted concerning writing that is more truthful.  This is because there is no fine-woven metric for perfection.  There is no way to prove that a work could not have been more effective in a particular regard or perhaps bolder regarding topics that have been included yet not capitalized on.  However, a writer can rest assured that they belong to a community that treasures all ideas and is devoted to understanding.
Writing is a tool for self-development and coming to a further understanding of one’s own self.  It is academic, and it is more than academic.  Works of writing are places where a snapshot of reality can be captured, but it is important to remember that there is always more to learn.  This is not a negative thing; rather, it implies endless opportunity in a world where it may feel as though much of what is important has already been discovered.  Society has only scraped the surface, and in life individuals rarely do more than scrape the surface.  If one is using study strategies that have been effective for English classes, perhaps they are not using a strategy that may be even more effective for them.  Perhaps they have not been introduced to a strategy that will work well in tandem with the strategies that they already employ.  If one is achieving high grades and yet continuing the use of a pattern that is hindering them from excellence, perhaps a dedicated peer review will be useful in achieving such excellence.  One’s limits as a writer are precisely what they decide them to be.
Best Wishes,
The Writing Support Studio