A blank white piece of paper stares right at you, its intimidating nature and harsh glare brings out a fear within. People produce endless amounts of English papers, research papers, and essays in school, but once a blank sheet of paper with no specified prompt appears, the fear of writing accompanies it.

The education system has caused us to be systematic writers, applying the same formula to every piece of writing. The formula of hitting every point outlined on the rubric in order to get the desired grade.

After being spoon-fed this formula for years, having no set boundaries or expectations for a piece of writing promotes a fear of being completely free from any formulaic structure. Outside of the modern English class, no longer are there points check off of a rubric; there is no formula and writing becomes boundaryless.

Mr. Gagliano, an English teacher at Lane, said, “I always like to ask students to get their thoughts out first and then you can always work on structure later. It’s always hard when a student just writes a very bare-boned structured piece when there’s no real meat to it.”

Being engaged in the modern education system for so many years had strictly prohibited everyone to write about the specific subject only. No one has the superpower of reading minds, yet writing enables people to understand what people are thinking. What you write is your choice, and no matter what anyone has ever said: there is no formula to producing a good piece of writing. Sure, there are formulas to being a better writer, but not a good one.

“No, there is never a formula to good writing. Good writers read a lot, they think. They take in things around them, they take in philosophy, they take in art, they take in history,” Mr. Gagliano explains.

The same mentality applies to reading. There could be endless tests regarding “main idea” and “message” of a piece of writing; but in the end every piece of writing means something else to everybody.

No one should fear or feel isolated from writing, because fearing writing encourages a fear of yourself. Writing is everywhere, and exists in the “real world”; it exists in every type of world we will ever find ourselves in. Independent writing is real. It’s real in the regard that there isn’t a formula to writing and reading; it’s whatever you want it to be.