It doesn't matter what he meant; only what he wrote. by Ashlyn

It doesn't matter what he meant; only what he wrote. by Ashlyn - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

As I sat there, exhausting my brain from trying to understand what the author meant, never had I thought to ignore the meaning of those words. The idea had never crossed my mind to disregard the author's imagination and ideas that inspired him or her to write or even what he or she wanted to come across in a reading. The only thing I've ever needed to focus on is what is written down.
I used to struggle almost everyday with understanding what an author meant. I couldn't wrap my head around the ideas such as "Big Brother" in 1984, written by George Orwell. The thought that went into writing such a book was baffling to me but as soon as I stopped putting all of my effort into trying to understand the concept of "Big Brother," and put it towards analyzing the words George Orwell used, I no longer struggled.
This tool was most helpful when it came to proving a thesis in an essay. Most essays are based on a statement and then slightly twisted to fit the meaning of the statement in which the statement is usually poor evidence. When used without deep meaning, the statement can be used to prove a new idea in a very effective manner. There can be no conjecture because the essay is not claiming any other meaning from the statement.
I've learned this tool from my honors English teacher who told me that "it doesn't matter what the author meant; only what he wrote." When I asked him what he meant by this, he just smiled and said, "It doesnt matter."