Sometimes Circular is Better by Sioux Roslawski


For a while I’ve wanted to foray into something different, writing-wise. I belong to a couple of writing critique groups and I bring the same kind of pieces to my writing friends every time. Short memoir stories. Creative nonfiction (as it’s sometimes called).
Oh, I have a couple of manuscripts I’m working on, but that’s a story for another time.
Essays. That’s a different genre. For a while I’ve wanted to try my hand at writing an essay. It’s a way to connect to the reader on several different plains—a way to have various threads become woven together into a greater whole.
Fast-forward to six or so months later. A roomful of Gateway Writing Project teachers were choosing a book to study over the next year. I couldn’t make up my mind. Time was running out. I finally just grabbed a book (it wasn’t the first one), thumbed through it, and figured I’d trudge through the meetings and find something in the book that could help me with my middle-schoolers.
This is the book I grudgingly ended up with:


         As I drove home, I mentally kicked myself for settling for this book. Why didn’t I go to the organizers later and say, “I changed my mind. I don’t really want this book. Could I look through the boxes and make another choice?” I mean, my students don’t even write essays.
But maybe they should. Maybe the same yearning I have to connect with readers, to come to one point from various directions… maybe that same yearning is a burning ember in my students’ hearts?
As soon as I started reading it (I had to; our first meeting was coming up), I fell in love with Bomer’s book. She embraces the floundering we do as writers. In fact, she thinks it’s an integral part of writing an essay.
Katherine Bomer breaks down essay writing in a way that someone new to the genre (like me) can understand. She even has a bunch of essay examples at the end of the book. (And what teacher doesn’t adore having examples ready to use in the classroom? Can I have an amen?)
Of course, the teachers I’m meeting with add so much to my learning. One of them, Rob Durham, has even been working on an essay. (He’s shared two different drafts.) Because of him, I see the power of an essay because Rob’s piece focuses on football. I hate football. Football is bor. Ing. But because of the connections that are embedded in his essay, my heartstrings are being tugged from the first paragraph to the last line… even if football is a major thread.  
Later this school year my students are going to work on essay writing. We’re going to break them down, take some notes on what essay writers do, and then work on our own.
And me? A year ago, I didn’t think of myself as an essay writer. I write memoir. I dabble in fiction. If I simply sat down and told myself, ‘I’m going to write an essay,’ I’d flop. I’m sure of it. However, as I study how to teach essay writing, I’m adding nuggets of knowledge into my own toolbox so that soon, I’ll be able to write an essay myself…
...And that will complete the circle.

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