Writing as Art

What separates art from non-art? Robert Kreuzbauer of the University of Surrey states that “Art objects differ from other objects because they are intentionally created to embody a producer's (i.e., artist's) expression. Hence, art objects are social objects whose appeal and value are determined largely by the strategic interaction between the artist and the audience.” 

I believe that the products of writing are art objects and, therefore, should be approached as such. Writing is always “intentionally created.” A writer may write with intentions such as self-discovery, persuading a specific audience, or documenting an event. While the act of writing may not always be done with the explicit intention of “[embodying] a producer’s expression,” it is something that always occurs in writing. 

Not only is a writer's expression displayed through their voice and use of language, but writing is inherently an expression of the whole self. Writing is the abstract of a person made concrete on a page. “You can experience a moment, but as soon as you reflect on that moment, try to put it in language or look at a picture of it, you’re no longer in that moment or talking about that moment; you’re talking about your interpretation of it.” (Downs, 463). All writing is an expression of a person’s interpretation. How a person interprets things influences how they make meaning. “Meaning-making is at heart…the experience of encountering a vast range of sensory signals and interpreting them by associating them with networks of our existing knowledge” (Downs, 462-463). Two individuals may experience the same event and have slightly different interpretations based on how they uniquely experience the world and relate back to their unique lived experiences. 

I started viewing writing as an art when I began connecting my experience with writing to my experience with other arts. I have been a singer my entire life. In first grade, I began taking formal voice lessons, and now, in college, I am one of the few non-music majors in Bella Voce, Baylor’s premier women’s ensemble. Whenever I talked about the writing process in class, I found myself making comparisons to the process of learning music. There is the initial draft, where you get your thoughts down or sing the notes as best you can, knowing that you can go back and fix things once you have a general idea of the piece as a whole. There is the revision process, where you alter things based on both your own style and what you are trying to achieve in your audience. In music, this is adding dynamics, word stress, and constants. Where this is done is decided by the score of music (like an instructor’s rubric), knowledge of the effect each choice has on the audience, and the singer's own sense of musicality. Like the writing process, learning music is recursive. In every rehearsal, my choir goes back and works on the same pieces, perfecting them until they are performed. Both music and writing follow similar processes, as do other art forms. Painting, sculpting, theater, and architecture all follow a recursive process where things are changed, and details are added until the artist is satisfied with the work as a whole. 

What is Writing?

Writing is art, but what constitutes writing? As technology increases, the mediums that can be considered writing broaden. “A writing center that officially works with only essays, reports, and other such alphabetic texts will increasingly, if not already, find multimodality and digitality a part of such texts” (Grutsch McKinney, 369). Writing is not confined to the essay, just as music is not confined to singing. However, while new media often accompanies writing and employs rhetorical techniques, not all new media is writing. Similar tutoring practices can be applied to new media, but expanding the definition of writing to “anything that conveys meaning” or “physical expression of thought” expands the definition of writing so broadly that all art could be considered writing. For writing to be distinct from other art forms, writing must contain words. The final presentation of these words may be spoken, sung, or presented as text on a page. The words may be accompanied by musical notation or visual pictures, but writing at its core necessitates that, at one point, words were physically recorded. 

Writing as a Social Object

Writing is “internalized talk made public and social again” (Brufee, 90-91). Writing, like all forms of art, is a “social object” where the “appeal and value are determined largely by the strategic interaction between the artist and the audience” (Kreuzbauer). My experience with music has taught me how to navigate this “strategic interaction” (Kreuzbauer). I have noticed that the type of music a person finds valuable is the type of music a person enjoys. A person enjoys music that has an effect on them. Therefore the type of music a person finds valuable is the type of music that has an effect on them. This is true for all art, including writing and reading. The types of genres a person enjoys writing and reading are the ones that affect them.

The techniques an artist uses when creating art are done with the hope of producing a specific effect and, in turn, making something that is more valuable. However, the specific effect an artist hopes to produce depends on their personal goal and the genre they are working in. Understanding patterns in genre helps artists in achieving a specific effect. For example, knowing that a loud minor chord evokes negative emotions helps a composer who wants to make an audience feel scared during a specific part of a piece. While understanding patterns in genre helps writers aiming to achieve a specific effect, writing is more nuanced than other art forms. Visual and auditory art forms can rely on how the human body naturally reacts to specific sounds and colors to elicit specific effects. Language cannot do this as easily, and the complexity of language makes it harder to be sure of how an audience may react. 

Tutors as an Observable Audience 

This is where writing tutors can help. The overall value of working with a writing tutor is that students are able to understand what their writing is accomplishing by seeing the audience’s reactions. Tutors can understand whether a reaction is appropriate by taking a 

genre-based approach towards writing where “genre can be characterized by regularities in textual form and pattern” and is a “social action that involves both situation and motive” (Clark, 9). Doing this allows tutors to compare their knowledge of what the text should accomplish to their own reactions. For example, a student may tell a tutor that they aim to persuade their audience. The tutor keeps this in mind and then gauges their reaction. If the tutor does not feel persuaded, then the student understands that there is something in their writing that needs to be changed. 

The Role of Reactions in Tutoring Writing 

I have realized that my tutoring instincts are guided by my understanding that, as a tutor, I am an observable audience. When I am tutoring a student, I am not often consciously thinking about higher-order concerns or lower-order concerns. I am not specifically looking for grammar mistakes or organization. Instead, I am reacting. When I point out something that I think needs to be changed, it is because I had a reaction that I knew, sometimes subconsciously, was not in line with the student’s goal. When tutoring, I realized that I often follow the following pattern: reacting internally, identifying what caused me to react, verbalizing my reaction to the student, explaining what caused my reaction (if taking a directive approach), allowing my reaction to guide the student (if scaffolding).

In one of my recent sessions, I had a student bring in an assignment to write a paper that identified a social problem, a solution to that problem and then explain either why that solution was wrong or provide an alternative solution. The student had decided to write about the mental health crisis in America. When reading through the student’s paper, I was not under the impression that it was about the mental health crisis as a whole. This is how I allowed my reactions to guide my tutoring practice. 

Reacting Internally

Me: These are specific facts about how men are not likely to access treatment for mental health issues. It looks like the student is going to address this specific problem. Wait, this next paragraph is making me confused. 

Identifying What Caused My Reaction

Me: I am confused why this paragraph is about statistics related to treating mental health issues in women and children. I thought this paper was about the social stigma around men seeking treatment.

Verbalizing My Reaction to the Student

Me: Hmmm this paragraph confused me.

Student: Yeah, I felt like my thoughts were all over the place.

Taking a Directive Approach: Explaining What Cause My Reaction

Me: I think I was confused about why you started presenting specific facts about men but then presented general facts about women and children. Your analysis did not seem to relate back to the facts about men. I kept thinking about the first facts and wondering why they were significant. 

Student: I was trying to say that men are more likely not to seek help.

Me: That is what I was thinking you might be saying, which is why I was confused about why your analysis was over the population and accessibility as a whole. When you were reading, I was under the impression that the problem you are wanting to address is the stigma around men seeking treatment for their mental health.

Student: Should I cut the facts about the women and children?

Me: That depends. Are you wanting to focus on the mental health of men specifically or the population as a whole?

Student: I want to focus on the population as a whole.

Me: Well, men are part of the population, and I do think the facts you have are valuable. I think we can work on how the facts are presented and how the analysis relates back to them.

There are several benefits to using reaction as a way to navigate writing. Talking about reactions allows for tutoring sessions to truly be conversational and peer-to-peer, rather than a tutor coming across as an authority figure who is just providing corrections. Reactions also guide tutors in understanding when to give feedback.  Negative reactions, like confusion, are the first indication for a tutor that feedback should be given. I have also noticed that the degree of confusion I experience often relates to whether the paper has a higher-order concern or a lower-order concern. Lower degrees of confusion are often associated with lower-order concerns. When the degree of confusion is larger, it is often due to higher-order concerns. 

The amount of confusion I am experiencing compared to the confusion of the student can also indicate whether I should act in a more directive or nondirective manner. If a student is not confused in a place I am confused, I often ask questions and am more direct in pointing out what confused me as it was something they did not notice. If we are both confused, being less direct and asking the student what they think the problem helps me understand if we are both reacting to the same problem. If we are not reacting to the same thing, I have a better understanding of what kinds of concepts the student may need more direct help with. 

A student’s ability to identify what elicits a specific reaction also helps me decide whether to act in a directive or nondirective manner. In my experience, students often identify lower-order concerns in their writing because the cause of confusion is easily traced back to something specific. For example, I have had times when the student stumbles while reading, has a confused reaction, stops, marks the sentence, and states that they need to reword it. Sometimes, the student has a negative reaction to higher-order concerns, and sometimes, they do not react. In the majority of cases, however, I do notice that there is at least a reaction of hesitation. The student either does not know what specifically is not working, or they have a vague idea and are not sure how to approach it. In these cases, presenting my reaction and taking a directive approach often leads to a more successful session. 

The reaction of confusion helps identify places where writing is not clear and understandable. It is the first place to start. Once a piece of writing is clear, other reactions can be used to make decisions about rhetoric. The same ideas about confusion are applied here. What is my reaction as a tutor? What is the student’s reaction? Is the student able to identify what is causing this reaction? 

By using reaction as a guiding principle, tutors not only help the student improve the work they bring to the writing center, but they help create better writers overall. Strong writers are often those who are highly aware of the reactions their writing elicits. Tutors help students understand what things create what reactions, which increases their awareness and strengthens their abilities as a writer. 

Works Cited

Bruffee, Kenneth A. “Collaborative Learning and the ‘Conversation of Mankind.’” College English, vol. 46, no. 7, 1984, pp. 635–52. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/376924. Accessed 28 Apr. 2023.

Clark, Irene L. “Addressing Genre in the Writing Center.” The Writing Center Journal, vol. 20, no. 1, 1999, pp. 7–32, https://doi.org/10.7771/2832-9414.1437.

Downs, Doug. “Rhetoric: Making Sense of Human Interaction and Meaning-Making.” Writing about Writing, Bedford/St. Martin’s, Macmillan Learning, Boston, 2022.

Grutsch McKinney, Jackie “New Media Matters: Tutoring in the Late Age of Print.” The Writing Center Journal, vol. 29, no. 2, 2009, pp. 28–51, https://doi.org/10.7771/2832-9414.1629.

Kreuzbauer, Robert. “What Is Art and How Does It Differ from Aesthetics?” The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, vol. 40, 2017, pp. e368–e368, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X17001765.