How a Campus Ministry Associate Writes

Quick Facts

Pen or pencil?

Pen

Favorite word?

Integration

Favorite punctuation mark?

Em dash

 

Katie Seibly
Campus Ministry Associate

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SJU Writes: What kind of writing are you doing now?

KS: Primarily generating content for reflection spaces with students. That can look like drafting meeting agendas and then developing supplementary materials for those meetings, writing prayer and reflection guides, pulling poetry or prayers to use for those, and developing that content to guide that space. I also use journaling as a tool for reflection–journaling in kind of an unstructured way, with some guided questions or just open time to think about what’s on your mind, what’s on your heart. It’s a space for release.  

SJU Writes: What is your writing process like?

KS: I would say, primarily, I start with a brainstorm, a rough brainstorm or notes. I’ll put things down as they come to me, brainstorm whatever I might need to include in that. Then when I sit down to draft it, I’ll try to block out time when I can do it all at once; but, if not, I’ll create the draft and then just develop the logical flow of streamlining all those different pieces. Then I’ll compile it in a way that makes the most sense or that I think would be the most digestible. I would say there’s this large information collection process that I do, and then I carve out the time in my schedule to streamline it.

SJU Writes: Is there something you would say is the hardest thing you ever had to write?

KS: My freshman year–I had a final project for a year-long course. For one of our final exams, the prompt was “What is the best way to live?” I think it was really challenging, because it asked me not only to look at the content from a distance, but  at my own life. I think that there was an invitation to engage with the material in a way that was still academic but nonetheless personal. I think it was a challenging writing process, because I felt like I could have spent years on it, and I had to do it in a limited time frame. I wanted it to be something of meaning that I could look at later and say I would still think that’s true.

—Emily Graham ’20