English in the Life of Sarah Moore

An Interview Conducted by Nora Hixson

I sat down with Sarah Moore on August 25th, 2015, in the computer lab at Front Range Community College. To start our conversation, I asked her what forms of writing she used the most in her everyday life.

“I much prefer the creative aspect of writing, versus the analytical and technical side,” she told me with a smile. “I definitely journal a lot, as well as the occasional poem that I like to write. I would write a short story or poem over an essay any day.”

Now curious as to what had made her prefer creative writing over technical writing, I asked her about her various experiences with English teachers, the good and the bad.

“My absolute favorite teacher was Ms. Kaufman. We called her Ms. K, and I had her in her Creative Writing class in ninth grade. She was really good about giving helpful feedback and having tons of group discussions about whatever topic we were on. We did lots of peer work-shopping in that class, having our individual pieces read and critiqued by the whole class before we read them aloud,” she laughed. “It was the most terrifying moment of my life, reading my work out loud.”

We both discussed our great dislike of speaking in front of groups of people until the computer next to me made a noise, which reminded me of my next question.

“How much experience do you have with computers, the Internet, Microsoft Word, social media, etc.?” I asked her.

“Well,” she began, “all of my sisters are very good with technology, so I’ve learned a lot from them about computers and things like that. I have tons of experience with the Internet and social media and Microsoft Word and use them all quite often. Honestly, if I were to rate my experience with computers and the things that go along with them on a scale from one to ten, I would give myself a ten,” she laughed.

Then, because we were in the computer lab together for the first day of English 121, I asked her, “So on a different topic, what sorts of writing goals have you set for yourself for this class?”

“I definitely hope to improve my ability to get my point across,” she explained, “I believe I have a lot of trouble making my argument super concise and clear. I also hope to be able to get to a point where I can consistently write well without a lot of feedback.”

To continue with the way the conversation was going, I asked her what problems she foresaw that related to English 121.

“I think the only problems that I would have in this class would be the combination of the amount of technical and analytical writing that we do and my dislike of writing in this way,” she told me.

To finish up our conversation as we were running out of time, I asked her, “To finish, how far do you intend to go with English in your life?”

“I really love English,” she said honestly, “so if a future career of mine ever fails, I would definitely take on English, most likely as a teacher. It’s my number one choice for a fallback.”