Pen My Path Week Two: Transactional Writing

Welcome to the second week of Pen My Path! This week’s activity will focus on Transactional Writing. The purpose of Transactional Writing is to communicate a message in a more formal way than Expressive Writing. This week’s activity will consist of writing two letters: the first will express compassion and forgiveness, the second will express gratitude.  It is important to write the letters in this order.  The letters are not intended to be shared with the recipient, but should be written for yourself. We suggest that you write for about 30 minutes this week. Please watch this week’s video on Transactional Writing before beginning your writing activity. 

Part One

One definition of compassion is "understanding another person’s emotions". Imagine someone is going through the experiencing what you wrote about in the Expressive Writing activity from last week. In a compassionate way, write a letter to this person, containing thoughts that you would like to share from your own experience. Try to support and validate his or her feelings rather than offer advice. Using encouraging words, write in a way that is sensitive to his or her feelings of distress and individual needs.

Part Two

Write a letter of gratitude to a person you would like to thank for something they gave you, taught you, or inspired in you. In your letter, describe your relationship with this person and the context for this expression of gratitude. Describe the gift you received, the skill you learned, or the inspiration you received. Finish up your letter by telling your gift giver what this gift meant to you, how you felt about it then, how you feel about it now, and how your life has been enriched.

Please Share Your Reflections

When you are finished writing, in the comment space below or in the Pen My Path Expressive Writing Fall Workshop group space section, share a reflection of how your writing went today.  

Please be sure to take the feedback survey on this week’s writing activity, available this Sunday, October 15th on your home page.