3:30 A.M. finds me in front of a glowing computer screen yet again. I’m waiting for inspiration. My friends, kind enough to let me use their dorm room and their Macintosh, are asleep in their beds just feet away in the half-darkness, reaping the rewards of their wisdom: they haven’t waited until the night before like I have. I take swigs of Mountain Dew from a plastic mug; it’s the sweet nectar of the Gods of Last-Minute Paper Writing. No, make that bittersweet nectar -- the taste of sugary green goodness reminds me, with every swallow, that I’ve sentenced myself to another unnecessary all-nighter. I have few ideas and even less time… The blinking computer cursor on an otherwise empty screen was the college version of the blank white page of my earlier years, before technology had taken us so far. But for me it was, in many ways, the same old problem. With early drafts of a paper rarely required, I came time and time again to a point where a significant portion of my grade rested on what was essentially a single night’s work. I usually left myself no option but to write in one long session on a computer - there weren’t enough hours remaining to compose a version on paper to be typed up afterward. And time and again, my method, such as it was, worked for me. I not only survived but prospered. But I sometimes wondered, and still wonder: this works, but am I progressing? Has my writing grown? Should it be possible to turn out an “A” paper in a night? What standards are being used to judge these papers? Do my desperate all-night writing sessions somehow, in ways I don’t understand, help me improve? How did I learn to write at a level that has helped me succeed up to this point? My early writing education is mostly lost to my conscious memory, but I do think that regular reading, from a young age, of books of all sorts loomed large in that education. I remember a prose piece from sixth-grade “honors” English And Reading class called “Mutants”. It was my response to an assignment to write “a book”; about thirty handwritten pages, it was made up of two separate stories about young people with super-powers. I was at the time a huge fan of a comic book (recently popularized on film) called “The X-Men”, about a group of people born with strange powers who fought for good even though they were feared and hated by the public.
So as the morning Sun rose. The light beamed on Christopher's face. The warmth of the sun welcomed him to a new day and woke up in a small house in Los Angeles. Christopher is a tall, male, that loves technology and video games. He stretched and went to the restroom it was 9 o'clock and he was thankful it was spring break and didn’t have to go to school. Christopher made his way to the kitchen trying not wake up his parents and made himself breakfast. He served himself cereal Honey Bunches of Oats to be exact with almond milk. Then he took a shower and watched some YouTube videos before doing his homework.
Both of the articles “Dancing with Professors” by Patricia Limerick and “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott resolve the issues faced by college students when writing papers. The first article, “Dancing with Professors,” explains why college professors expect more elaborate papers even though they assign dull and un-motivational reading to their students. On the other end of the writing spectrum, “Shitty First Drafts” explains how valuable the first draft is to students, and why students should not feel weary about writing them.
Lamott suggests in “Shitty First Drafts” that many people imagine good writers as being able to miraculously put out a complete and polished piece of work in one sitting. She also plainly reminds the reader that this is an idealized fantasy. Writing is hard work, and it can be very intimidating. To overcome this, she offers the
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
I used to have to take these tests about all the books I would read in school and I would always ace them all. I knew that reading was something I liked because I was always very intrigued by it. Also in middle school I found my true writing voice. I remember taking a creative writing class in six grade and I was always the student who wrote more than what was expected for my writing assignments. I would write stories about things such as my friends and the experiences that I had in school. Sometimes I would even write my own plays and in my plays the characters would be people in family and people from school. I would always try to make the plot super interesting in my plays. One time I wrote a play about my brothers and me traveling to space and finding aliens. Overall, I really fell in love with literacy throughout my middle school years because I was able to read books more at an advance level and I also was able to write more intense stories. Literacy has been a positive influence in my life all throughout my school
My earliest memory of being introduced to literacy is the time before elementary school, when my grandparents were reading me bedtime stories and books like Pinocchio and The Three Little Pigs. After that, I started going to school so reading and writing became part of my everyday life, and they still are. I cannot say that I am a big fan of writing and reading, like some people are. I only write when I have to, and my writing is always connected to school, however, I do not feel the same way about reading. In my free time, I like to read. I choose books which are easy going to read, books which are based on a movie or books that my friends told me to read. Also, because I am an athlete, I have to read some sports motivational
My freshman year of high school, reading emerged into to my life by a magnificent individual, my cousin, Vanessa. She gave me my first set of books written by a well-known writer,
Why would someone want to sit in front of a computer or sit at a desk all day when you could be around babies and always be in action? My passion in life has always been towards infants and children. This has led me to the path of choosing a career involving them.
I read voraciously as a child. I grew up in a college town and spent my summers in Middlebury, Vt, where my father taught summer school. That meant I was surrounded by libraries and by people who love to read and discuss literature. During the Vermont summers, one of my favorite places was Middlebury College's rare books room where I read first-edition Louisa May Alcott novels.
I believe that you never know how strong you really are until that strength is tested. High school is by no means an easy time for anyone, but some do experience a far bumpier road than others. Sometimes those bumps are small anthills, barely noticeable. Other times they are more like deep potholes on a narrow mountain road, a sure fire way to go careening off the path. I have been fortunate enough to have the perseverance needed to struggle through the obstacles life has thrown at me, yet it has not always been easy.
So before I had to go to sleep I wrote as fast as I could and typed as fast as I could. I had two screens, the screen of my chromebook and the screen of a monitor. I had a stack of notes that I was flying through trying to get all the information I could and answer the questions. It did not work out as good as I wanted to. I only got seven questions done. I knew that wasn’t enough. I had to get ready for bed so that's what I did.
It began as a beautiful morning in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. The sun was glistening so beautiful, nothing could ruin that day. The sky was cloudless not a cloud in sight. The wind was blowing ever so slightly, making the temperature astonishingly perfect. My family and I were on our way to Buffalo! Cruising down the highways so fast , we were faster than the speed of light or though, is appeared that way to a 7 year old kid (me). We were in 2 cars, our car and my uncle’s car. In our car it was my parents, my brother and I. In the other car it was my uncle his wife and their two kids (a son and a daughter).The ride was long, the smell of Tim Hortons swirled around our car. The bright yellow sun suffused heat on our car, it felt as if our car was slowly filling up and up with lava! The heat constantly increased and increased, until finally we gave up. We opened up the window , slowly the cool
I also remember as young girl learning how to read and my favorite book that I could quote word for word was “Green Eggs and Ham” by Dr.Suess. I loved that book so much I still have that today. As I got older my love for reading and books started to diminish, I went to a private school for my elementary years and their curriculum was very intense. It was required to read a book from their approved list and complete a book report each summer before the school year began. Not to mention the numerous books reports I would have to complete during the school. At an early age books and reading was something I had to do and not what I wanted to do.
Reading has always been a big part in my life. When my mom was pregnant with me she used to read to my older brother, so in a way she was reading to me too. When I was a toddler, my favorite books were
Reading was never something I fussed about growing up. As a child, I loved genres of realistic fiction. I was hooked on The New Adventures of Mary Kate and Ashley, Goosebumps, The Amazing Days of Abby Hayes, Judy Moody, and especially, Zoobooks and Highlights magazines. My mother was always ready to help build my reading and writing skills. She took me to the library constantly to feed my passion for books and knowledge. I loved exploring the shelfs, organizing the books, and filling up my library cart. I tried keeping a diary in elementary school to keep track of my outings with my parents and grandparents to museums, zoos, movies, and libraries. This flash of writing enthusiasm was spun from books I read in the 4th and 5th grade that were