By Emily Voneman ’25
When I bake, I follow a recipe. I triple check the amounts before I put them in the bowl. Being in the kitchen with me means watching me look at my phone for the eighth time in case the amount of baking soda I need changed within the last fifteen seconds. You’ll see me scrape excess flour off of the cup measure with a knife to ensure the perfect amount. Just about the only thing I don’t do is count chocolate chips.
And here’s the advice part.
I write like this, too. I write like the prompt is a recipe I must follow. To some extent, this isn’t a bad thing; in fact, I would highly recommend repeatedly checking the assignment requirements or rubric throughout your writing process so you don’t leave an important feature out. It’s easy to get caught up in your writing and forget a requirement, after all.
However, I find my writing sometimes suffers for it. I treat the prompt too much like a right-or-wrong question, like a recipe with rigid amounts and strict instructions. I focus too much on making sure it’s obvious enough that I am fulfilling the prompt’s question that I lose track of what I want to say and how I want myself to sound. My voice as a writer is muted in favor of repeating obvious keywords so my professor surely knows I was doing this or that and grades me accordingly. If I throw in enough buzzwords and repeat myself enough, surely I’ll sound like I know what I’m doing and nobody could possibly misunderstand me. I end up sounding robotic and disjointed, my ideas disconnected from each other as I throw every idea into my writing one after the other to prove that I know the answer to the prompt. It’s way scarier to experiment when you feel like you’re baking when you write — like the essay might fall apart if you add your own personal touch, just like a cake would fall apart if you changed the amount of flour or added a new ingredient.
A disclaimer.
This isn’t to say, of course, that you should disregard a prompt. However, I have to remind myself to keep in mind that I am supposed to be answering the prompt. I am not a machine spitting out the best possible answers. I’m me, and my professor wants to hear my point of view and see how I express myself. Yes, you should answer the prompt, but answer it in a way that sounds like you. Every writer has a voice. Express yourself! Your future career isn’t just based on checking off boxes; your ability to express yourself in a way that makes an impression is equally as important as making sure you fulfill what’s required of you.
To put the cherry on top…
Don’t be afraid to be you, to be open in your writing. I’ll lead by example: To be honest, I’m not even sure how well this metaphor works. I don’t bake very much. When I do, it’s something simple, because like I said, I check the ingredients 500 times and if there’s more than like 6 ingredients, that gets to be a little much…
