A Reflection Upon My Writing

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“As a student, I write for multiple purposes. Purpose is the key for how my thoughts are dictated on this blank white sheet.” After writing this in my in-class journal discussing my transition from five-paragraph writing to actual formation of thoughts without a specific format, I realized that this process was a larger undertaking than I originally thought. Through endless amounts of essay writing the personal academic improvements that have taken place this quarter are indescribable in comparison to any other academic feat made in my brief but fulfilling college career.

As a writer, I realized coming into college that my writing was not necessarily bad by any means, but instead extremely uninteresting. After leaving the public secondary education system, I though that I had a strong foundation in writing, which I did, but it did not hit me until my first week of my writing class that I was a “formulaic” writer. I would follow the typical five paragraph essay format that I had been given since eighth grade and wring it out until it was dry. After getting every last drop of the benefits of a typical five paragraph essay, I panicked after stepping into college and thought that my writing process would only have to change by suspending my thoughts over time and sentences, allowing single thoughts to melt onto the page line after line. For some reason, I thought that I could distract my professors from my weakness, but this ploy eventually ruined me, and if anything, this suspension of my thought did nothing but accentuate my faults.

As a serious academic, admitting defeat was hard, but I needed to bite the bullet and ask for assistance. After coming into my writing class and attending my first peer editing workshop, I felt li...

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... about a reflection of a moment of our lives? The redundant nature of the writing began to get to me. You would think that the same prompt of “reflection” would make me care less about the assignments, but instead I would worry more about keeping my writing fresh and exciting. If anything, I felt like my writing was part of the film Inception. Instead of a dream, within a dream, within a dream, I had an essay, about an essay, within an essay.

Through the duration of this writing course and the work put in academically, I feel the growth illuminating the keystrokes as I type this essay. I feel as though I am able to tackle more complex prompts and allow myself to stay much more open minded through the academic writing process. As I learn more styles of writing and continue to gain experience as an author and an academic, the process will only be that much easier.

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