We are pleased to announce the launch of Angles 2022, which features exemplary pieces from MIT’s introductory writing courses from academic year 2021-2022. The ten pieces published in this issue were all written during the second pandemic year, in which students and instructors monitored themselves weekly for signs of COVID-19 infection and masks were required in the classroom during both semesters. One might expect that this climate of anxiety and regulation might demotivate students or inspire lackluster writing. However, that was far from the case. Our students engaged with their writing assignments as much or perhaps more than in a “normal” semester.
As instructors, we seek to mentor students in their ability to address a public audience, to write with purpose, to recognize and employ rhetorical strategies, to make claims and support them with evidence, to organize their prose effectively and to appreciate the power and beauty of language. The foundational writing courses are of different flavors or subject categories, such as Writing and Rhetoric, Writing and Experience, and Science Writing. Yet what distinguishes the best writing from these courses is the individuality of the student voices, and their ability to engage a general readership, to craft an argument or narrative in a clear and compelling way and to use language imaginatively.
Some essays, such as those by Amee Savjani, Audrey Lee, Agustin Valdes Martinez and Divya Nori, engage seriously with public issues such as the industrialization of food production and the need for sustainable energy alternatives such as biofuels and solar power. The voice in these essays is very much that of the public intellectual who can translate policy and scientific issues for a general audience and craft a clear and compelling argument; vivid diagrams and photos enhance these pieces. In their introductions, some of these writers aim to “hook” their readers by invoking popular utopian or nostalgic images. For example, Amee Savjani seeks to capture her audience with an idyllic dreamscape of a delicious home-grown and cooked meal in the Italian countryside, only to interrupt the dream by moving back into the reality of her busy student life, which offers little time for such extended culinary ventures. Audrey Lee uses the metaphor of a beloved family cake recipe to introduce readers to the structure and function of the Perovskite solar cell.
Other pieces in this volume reflect on personal experience through powerful visual imagery and metaphor. Standing with Shelli Orzach and her dog Knox along the rim of the Grand Canyon, we can appreciate her deep sense of wordless awe at this magnificent site. Likewise, with Kei at her bathroom mirror, we can imagine how her literal double vision has symbolized her conflicted sense of sexual orientation. Ivy Liu’s piece meditates on the erosion of a close friendship by musing about discarded everyday items, such as candy wrappers, discovered in her car. Hanu Park, in her graphic essay, invites us to recognize the complexities of life at MIT, translating moments of self-doubt and isolation and moments of growth, community, and discovery into a powerful visual history Matthew Soza’s essay thoughtfully reflects on his family’s early morning newspaper delivery job and takes us behind the scenes to visualize the assembly and delivery of the daily paper, which many readers simply expect at their front door.
As a reader, you may approach these essays from the perspective of a student, teacher or general reader. As you peruse the magazine, you will notice that the pieces are linked to the assignments that generated them. This feature may be particularly interesting to instructors who are seeking to design or modify assignment prompts of their own.
As editors, we are very proud of our student writers, who worked hard over the summer, fine-tuning their pieces for fall publication. We value having had the opportunity to work closely with these very talented authors. We hope that you will enjoy and learn from the essays in this collection; we certainly have.
As we publish this fifteenth volume of Angles, we would also like to thank our editorial assistant, Laura Schmidt-Hong and the Angles 2022 selection committee, including Jared Berezin and Louise Harrison Lepera, as well as Suzanne Lane, Director of Writing, Rhetoric and Professional Communication. Nina Davis-Millis, Director of Community Development and Staff Support at the MIT Libraries, and Andrew Whitacre, Communications Manager, Comparative Media Studies/Writing, have also assisted in the launch of our magazine.
Angles 2022 would not be possible without the generous funding provided by the Basha family and Comparative Media Studies/Writing, which have long supported our magazine, as well as numerous individual donors. Happy reading!
Karen Boiko, Susan Carlisle, Cynthia Taft and Andrea Walsh
Editors, Angles 2022