Throughout middle school and the past two years of high school, when a teacher would announce that we had to write a research paper or an essay, the first thoughts to come to my mind are usually, “Oh no, I’m going to fail. I’m an awful writer. What am I going to do?” These fretful thoughts, more often than not, lead to my procrastination. Needles to say, I’ve adopted some bad habits when it comes to my writing process as well as a fear of writing.
While I enjoy writing, I wouldn’t consider myself to be a great, or even good, writer, especially not when it comes to assigned writing. Often I find myself avoiding the assignment until a week before the due date and very little sleep the night before I have to turn my paper in. I never cease to be amazed when my teachers return the papers, which I consider to be incredibly mediocre and below my teachers expectations, with rather decent grades on them. However, I wouldn’t say that I am a bad writer either. When it comes to writing, my first challenge is always figuring out what I want to say and how to say it in a way that is understandable and meets the expectations of my reader. Knowing that my personal thoughts and opinions will be graded by someone who may or may not understand the point I’m trying to make, intimidates me. In his essay on self revision, Donald Murray statement that both professional and student writers are “overly critical, think everything is dreadful, tear up page after page, never complete a draft, and see the task as hopeless” (Murray), is the epitome of my writing process.
In elementary school we were all taught a basic writing process: brainstorm, write a rough draft, revise and proofread, write a final draft. Everyone adjusts and changes th...
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...t in general. I learned last year in AP World History, that there is no avoiding writing, in any subject and that the farther I go on in education, the more I will have to put together structured essays; I can’t avoid them forever. My previous English teacher even asked me if I was knew how much writing and critical thinking was involved with this class and at the time I wasn’t exactly sure that I could handle it. To be honest, I’m still not sure if can handle this class but I realized through all the struggling I had writing this essay that I need to improve my writing skills and I’m determined to do exactly that. Throughout the school year, I hope to eventually get over my fear of writing and sharing my writing with others and to be able to put pen to paper and write a composition that is not only cohesive but enjoyable and that I am proud, rather than, weary of.
However, these techniques that I fostered as a child proved lacking when I entered middle school. It turns out that in comparison to my previous writing, I was no longer writing for my own self-improvement or joy; I was now writing to please someone who was grading the work. After many dissatisfying remarks about my writing, the self-conscious feelings I had as a child crept up on me once again. I felt the need to impress and be perfect. For every paper I wrote from then on, there was that little voice in the back of my head telling me that I had to try twice as hard because English was my second language. For a very long time, I was not able to write a paper without scrutinizing it harshly. “The oppressor,” as Anne Lammot states in “Bird by Bird,” kept me from what I truly wanted to write and made me focus on the unattainable goal of being perfect. Perfection is something that “… limit[s] us…[and] keep[s] us from experiencing life” (Lammott 30). The purpose was not to write for me, but for others, and that was my flaw; I was just writing to please. Technicality was my only worry and I did not worry if what I was writing actually had
Several people have trouble writing college level essays and believe that they are unable to improve their writing skills. In “the Inspired Writer vs. The Real Writer,” Sarah Allen argues how no one is born naturally good at writing. Sarah Allen also states how even professional writers have trouble with the task of writing. Others, such as Lennie Irvin, agree. In Irvin’s article “What is ‘Academic’ Writing?” states how there are misconceptions about writing. Furthermore, Mike Bunn’s article “How to Read Like a Writer” shows ways on how one can improve their writing skills. Allen, Bunn, and Irvin are correct to say how no one is born naturally good writers. Now that we know this, we should find ways to help improve our writing skills, and
In “The Maker’s Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscript,” Donald M. Murray makes it clear that any individual who writes their first draft is only just beginning the true process of writing. As Murray states, writing is a never ending process that constantly needs new revisions. His main goal of this passage is to allow writers to understand some of the strategies and approaches that come with revising a draft. Murray does provide many supporting evidence to convince a reader of his strategies to be very useful and I agree with this author on improving writers’ writings.
Writing is a way in which a person can express their thoughts and ideas through the use of words. Everybody has their own writing styles. Some may consider theirs as inspirational while others think of it to be bad. Writing requires a lot of patience and time. In my case, writing has never been my favorite thing to do. I am no Shakespeare and I never will be, writing has always made me feel uncomfortable. In the past, I had always considered writing to be one of the most difficult tasks. I often wrote about topics that were not of my interest. I rarely did any writing out of school or for leisure as most people do. I only wrote because the teacher asked us to. Writing has always been forced onto me. Even though my writing isn't that great, I've felt that I've never been given the freedom to express my voice. Academic writing has always made me anxious. And, anxiety had resulted in my procrastination. Even though I consider writing to be one of the toughest tasks, I've felt that giving myself enough time to think allows me to do better. Silence helps me think beyond horizons. However, the fear of impressing someone, the anxiety and frustration is what makes me a developing writer.
While being enrolled in my English 112 DL07 composition class, I have faced some challenging situations. For instance, writing a rhetorical analysis is not as straightforward as one would imagine. There are several strategic techniques that need to be implied; there is also planning, note-taking, forethought, and prewriting. On the other hand, I overcame this tough situation by taking the appropriate amount of time to get my thoughts and ideas together to create a rough draft. I believe I do fully understand what is academically expected of me for this term. This may sound like sarcasm, but it is the truth, I enjoy writing, and analyzing essays. Writing is a passion and stress reliever to me there is nothing better than writing an essay. Achieving
Throughout the semester i only learned few new things but i did improve and solidify my skill of writing. Before my first year of college my skills have always undermined by other high school english teachers and with that came disappointing grades. I am writing this paper as a reflection of the semester and the progress i have made as a writer. I now understand many things that my high school teachers have done a poor job demonstrating and i am grateful that i decided to take my own route in my education instead of their syllabus. I entered the semester with anxiety that i would perform as i did before but i clearly outdid my own expectations by receiving top grades on my essays.
Throughout this semester I have learned many ways of writing through two main essays literacy narrative and comparison and contrast. These two essays have taught me how to correctly fix my comma splices, thesis statements, and capitalization. I have engaged in numerous learning material during this summer class. Many times when I thought it would be hard to work on those three developments I never gave up. I gain more positive feedback from my teacher because he pointed out most of my mistakes I made on both literacy narrative and comparison and contrast essays to help me understand what is it that I need to work on. My development as a writer became stronger.
Before taking Mrs. Hawkins’ English 102 class, I used to hate writing; no, I despised it. Along with my hatred for writing, I, as many other college students, am a terrible procrastinator. In my past English classes, my procrastination had affected my grades, especially when it came to papers dealing with multiple steps and drafts, due to the fact writing takes many timely processes to
Writing is a process I’ve grown to despise. Ever since grade school, I’ve had problems trying to express my ideas on paper. My writing process involves thinking about what’s being asked and trying to reflect my thoughts the best way I can on paper, but my thoughts don’t always come out as clear as I want them to be sometimes leaving a question not fully answered. My writing process isn’t a consistent set in stone process, but since being in ENC 1101 I always follow some of the same parameters such as revising my drafts, grammar usage and considering context and audience.
This class has been significantly more difficult than any other English class I have taken all throughout high school. This semester, I have been introduced to different styles of writing that I have never been exposed to before. This class has been stressful, but also fun. With using all of the resources I have been given throughout the semester, I have been able to do my best to further my writing abilities and hopefully only continue to grow them as I finish my later years in college. Throughout this essay, I will discuss my failures, my successes, my overall performance in the class, and my skill development skills.
“You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say,” F. Scott Fitzgerald. My senior English instructor wrote this quote on the board every day before beginning class, he always told us to write with a purpose. During high school I was placed in honors level courses that were writing intensive and much more rigorous than the college prep courses. While in those courses I thought of myself as a pretty good writer that never really had to try, getting nearly all A’s on the papers I wrote. Although I never really sat down and really critiqued my writing to make revisions and peer review was just a time to chat with your friends about your plans for the weekend. Now after completing my first year of college I see myself as an accomplished writer but I still believe that there is room
Once I reached high school my love for writing dimmed. I was taught a formula on how to write the perfect essay. The dreaded five paragraph essay was engraved in my brain: An intro with a hook, a thesis, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Constantly being told my creativity wasn’t formal, so when I wrote papers it was more facts and evidence and less short stories and experiences. My writing became dull to me and reading over my papers and stories was a dread because I could see the drastic amount of lost creativity. Although I still received high praise it felt as if the papers I was writing wasn’t
One thing I learned in writing class this year is what I do that I am good and not good at writing. For instance, I learned what my strengths were. I have found out from the many pieces I have written that backing up my arguments with strong details, examples, and quotes has been something that I have been good at. I have realized this because I did really well on my community leader’s persuasive essay where you were to convince the leaders to use the money to what you think. I did a really good job and I realized that I was good at supporting. Maybe I should do speech and debate. Secondly, I found that I have some weaknesses. “Success is achieved by developing our strengths, not by eliminating our weaknesses.” This quote by Marilyn Savant is really what sums up writing abilities. I have never been able to write creatively, only informational. I have not yet developed the ability to combine those two to make it “fun” yet informational. Sometimes, my greatest strengths come from my weaknesses. Finally I have learning the type of writing I like the best. Persuasive and informational are the two types of writing that I excel in. I am a person who does not think outside of the box; I just focus on the f...
The ability to write well is not a naturally acquired skill; it is usually learned or culturally transmitted as a set of practices in formal instructional settings or other environments. Writing skills must be practiced and learned through experience. Writing also involves composing, which implies the ability either to tell or retell pieces of information in the form of narratives or description, or to transform information into new texts, as in expository or argumentative writing. Perhaps it is best viewed as a continuum of activities that range from the more mechanical or formal aspects of “writing down” on the one end, to the more complex act of composing on the other end (Omaggio Hadley, 1993). It is undoubtedly the act of
As I stated in my previous reflective essay, I hated writing in grade school. I sucked my teeth and groaned every time my teachers assigned an essay for homework. I don’t actually hate writing. I just disliked it because I never excelled in it. I wrote just to get the job done, but never took the time to pay attention to the writing process and the other aspects of writing. As I grew older and got a career, I realized how important writing was in the real world. From friends revising your status updates on Facebook that were plagued in grammatical errors or writing a professional email to your boss, writing skills are crucial to the real world.