Personal reasons to write well are as important as professional reasons. You can write to touch someone you care about. You can write to discover who you are and what you believe. You can write to preserve important moments in your life. Writing for yourself also means you are taking control of events, making your life more your own. As Carlos Fuentes once said, “Writing is a struggle against silence.” The writer does not just accept life, but works to understand and respond to it.

Chances are, in trying to stretch you, your professor will require both professional and personal writing. But most college writing will require a deeper honesty than you may have been asked for to this point. Not that people try to be dishonest, but it may not be enough to just write what you already know or already feel about something; instead, you must discover more about your subjects. It is dishonest to think that what you already know and believe about a subject is the entire truth. Sometimes, you will discover new ideas through research, but many times they can come through looking closer at your own experience and feelings.