Writing has always been one of the things that I’m passionate about. Whenever I have something on my mind, I would jot it down or type it in my notes. No matter how small or pathetic it seems, I would always write it down, because you never know when you’re going to go back to it and create something grand, out of inspiration. People would think that a person like me would write down poems or novel ideas. That’s completely true, but I also write down recipes, grocery lists, hate lists and literally anything that comes to my mind. I’m the type of person that does not like to miss anything, forget anything and likes to include everything. People would say I’m a perfectionist or a control freak and as much as I would hate to admit that, it is true. While these traits of mine might hinder my writing process, during this school year I learned how to embrace them. When I write a paper, I usually tend to write and edit at the same time. I could never continue writing without correcting my mistakes and making sure everything seems perfect. However, throughout this course, it made me realize that I should write everything on my mind, when writing a paper, just like I would in my notes. Later on, I should revise and edit my paper, making sure to cut back ideas and sentences that are off topic. Additionally, I’m the type of person that likes to write with no boundaries. Writing my research argument essay, made me realize that I could stick to a structure and yet bend the rules a little bit. When we started with this assignment, I was truly excited to research and write about a topic that I am passionate about. When we were asked to form an outline, I was bummed. I felt like I wasn’t able to form ideas or narrow down my topic, let alone write... ... middle of paper ... ...at previously, sometimes in the midst of a discussion, people forget that there are two sides of a story and not everyone has to agree to yours. What we learn from our books or our studies is not what is necessarily important. What we learn from our peers and our professors is what’s important. Learning is more than absorbing fact, it is acquiring understanding, and it is being passionate about the material you are given. Each piece that we have read in class, and each comment that we make impacts a person no matter how little it seems. The education systems focuses too much about effective methods of teaching and not enough about effective methods of learning. However, this course felt like we were learning something instead trying to finish the curriculum. As Albert Einstein once said, “education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think”.
I have always considered writing to be a work in progress, and it constantly can be improved. I have always been devoted to writing. I loved to write stories as a child because I could use my creativity and create any type of character I desired. But I have struggled with writing as well. English has never been my forte. I have received A’s, B’s, C’s, and D’s on essays. I truly never found my voice in writing. In my high school, English teachers would give me mixed reviews on my writing. For example, in 9th grade my English teacher said I was organized with my thoughts, and my writing process was excellent. While in 10th,11th grade ,12th grade my teachers only said negative things about my essays. Not being a strong writer made me despise writing. Then I started to believe that writing is not important. I came to conclusion that writing is not important ,because I am going to be a Math major. I had the mindset that I am not a writer, and will never be a writer. But, my thoughts about writing changed when I started taking English at CSUN.
As stated by Anaïs Nin, “We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” Writing is a beautiful way to express how we feel, to make experiences memorable and to also be whoever we want to be. Writing is not easy for me. I always feel anxious before I begin to write, and this is because I’m always telling myself that “I don’t like to write.” In order to get rid of the nervousness, I start reading about whatever I have to write about so I can enrich my mind about that particular topic. Most of the times this does not work out, therefore I go to sleep and recharge my brain. As soon as I get back up I’m ready to write. My room is an ideal environment for me to write. Nobody’s there to distract me, so I put my headphones on because
As I planed to take this class, I thought this course would be like all other general education courses. I believed that it would be of little use to me. However, after attending the first class, my view has changed completely. I applied each and every theory to my life.
When trying to think of a positive writing experience I have had in my lifetime, particularly as a small child, I could not think of any. So I began to ask myself why is it that I do not like writing, what happened in my life for me to have such animosity towards the act. I was finally able to think of an event and realized that it had all begun in the 3rd grade. One day, as a punishment for talking during class, I was kept inside during recess and was forced to write Wise Old Owls until my hands began to cramp. For 45 minutes, I was only allowed to write the same old phrase over and over again; “The wise old owl sat on an oak, the more he heard, the less he spoke, the less he spoke the more he heard, why can’t I be like that wise old bird”. To this day I can still remember that little rhyme and to this day I can remember that same feeling I felt as a elementary school student. From that point on I have always had an aversion for writing, it always seemed like a punishment. I still do not understand how people can journal. I don’t see how someone can sit down and write an entry or a novel just for the hell of it. It seems unnatural to me, but I guess that all of these feelings are just because I see writing as a punishment, an
Writing has always been challenging for me because of the complexity of multiple rules. In the beginning of the semester I constantly worried about the structure of my writing and its overall material. In high school it was important for me to complete my essays by answering the questions that I was given, but in college, students go more into depth such as focusing in grammar, and well structured ideas that flow along with rich analytical content. After given my first assignment I was pushed to improve my overall work by focusing on organization and thinking more analytically. For example, the weekly readings and writing assignments helped me improve my overall work. Later on, these two techniques, organizing and analyzing work were useful
... still writing? Don't you understand what you're inviting into your life? True, you may experience a momentary sense of achievement upon completing a piece, and your work might even be well received at first. But these feelings only lead to more writing, until the task fully consumes every waking hour of your life. And before you dive headfirst into the lifestyle, consider this: how many happy writers do you know of? If history has shown us anything, it's that prolonged writing is a gateway to isolation, poverty, depression, alcoholism and a host of other unfortunate circumstances. Prolonged writing has also been linked to cancer. Perhaps if procrastination and perfectionism cannot prevent you from putting pen to paper, simple self-preservation will suffice. The next time you sit down to write, remember that your life is on the line. And that line is best left blank.
I have always been a pretty good writer. Throughout my educational career, especially in high school, I have written a lot of papers. This has provided an immense amount of practice, and has adapted my writing process through the years. The central idea to my writing process has always been to just sit down, get out a pen and paper or computer, and let it flow. Usually this works, but when it doesn’t, especially for papers that are about more complex ideas, I have to adapt my writing process to make sure that I have put everything I have in my brain onto the paper. That goes along with the mindset about writing that I have. That is, I believe that I should write every single paper like it’s going to be my masterpiece. Sometimes, there are strategies
Every essay begins with a blank stare into space, an exasperated sigh, and the inevitable thought: what am I going write about? Or at least that is how they used to begin, and this process may have continued for hours, or even days, with each time I sat down determined to write nothing would make it on the paper. This became a major roadblock in my writing process, because every essay took an unreasonable amount of time thinking about how to approach this topic, typing sentences out and the deleting them. Finally, an idea would come and I would begin to write, the words would finally spill out onto the paper. The terrible experience writing forced me to figure out a new way to brainstorm my essay weeks before the essay was assigned.
At the college level, longer essays and academic writing require more thinking and analysis. After reviewing my information, I have numerous ideas. The key is to choose the best ideas for my writing. Once I have chosen my ideas, I decide how I will present them or in what order I will give my information. At this stage in the writing process, I use an outline. An outline is the skeleton of my paper; the structure of what I will write about. Within my outline I have the introduction, thesis statement, supporting ideas, and conclusion. In the beginning, my outline consists of few words per bullet. This way I do not confuse myself with other facts; strictly my ideas. For example, if I was writing my paper on an author of southern literature, my outline would consist of these bullets: introduction, history about the author, literary works written by the author, analysis of the works, and a conclusion. Once I have organized the structure of my writing, then I am free to add the “flesh” to my outline. Outlines are essential to my writing process. By forming an outline, I can clearly see the path of my writing and the order in which I need to write it so my audience understands what I am trying to convey. Soon after organizing my ideas, I can begin
Second, I have never really enjoyed writing. I just tried to make the best of it when I was forced to endure it. It seems I have a tendency to focus on the tasks I enjoy doing most and turning away from the difficult ones. I feel if I take care of the "easy stuff" I can get more done. This is why I save the hardest for last. Now that I have returned to college, my hardest task has become my first chore. Can you see the irony?
Over the past semester, I have found the most challenging part of this course to simply be the transition from high school composition classes to college. Because writing expectations are so different in college than in high school, even with AP and Dual Enrollment “college level” classes, I first found myself being overwhelmed with the pressure to write the perfect first draft. The pressure came from knowing how much a final draft of a paper contributed to my grade. This left me sitting in front of my computer for hours at a time with thoughts of what I wanted to say racing through my head, but unable to deliver these thoughts into organized, structured sentences. I learned, through writing my persuasive essay, that instead of trying to write the paper start to finish and already in its perfect form, it is easier for me to look at the paper through its different components and focus on them individually, then work to best organize my ideas fluently.
As a writer, I think that I am not as good as I thought I was back in high school. I see myself as a student who tries their best, but makes “B” average work. I have never really taken the time to relate to my papers. I always just wrote what the teacher wanted and handed it in. In my mind, I never really liked trying to explain in full detail what something meant. Back in high school, my teachers always wanted me to explain my writing in such depth that a kindergartener would understand why Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy. Trying to explain my writing was always very tiring. I often would get bored trying to explain and just stop writing and do something else for a while. Most of the time in high school I didn’t like writing. Mainly because I thought my writing wasn’t good enough to see the light of day.
The course also challenged me and allowed me to think critically. Whenever I am faced with an issue I know that I should take steps to formulate an opinion. It’s always good to ask questions to clarify anything. Once all the facts are established, I know that I should assess them. Finally I am able to assert a carefully thought out opinion (3). After taking these steps can be sure my opinion is right and not just for me personally, but regarding others too.
In the past, I used to start writing an essay without writing an outline. I even did not brainstorm before I began to write. As a result, my essays were undoubtedly messy and disorganized. For instance, after I finished writing my Paper 2, I asked my professor for suggestions. He advised me to rearrange the order of paragraphs since my essay was disorganized and disordered. At that moment, I finally realized that if I did not plan out what I was going to write, my essay would be less likely to be logical because outline is like a base and foundation of an article. Hence, I started writing an outline from then on. For example, I nowadays would like to write my thesis statement down first. After that, I will briefly write down what I will talk about in body paragraphs. After using pre-writing skills and techniques, I notice that my essays are much more organized; and thus, my essays are no...
From a very young age, writing has been a passion of mine. Through writing I have developed an understanding of my personality and learning capabilities. One of the main components to my personal learning style is the necessity of writing. I have a strong need and urge to write everything down. While some students learn well in a lecture environment, extensive note taking is often required for me to retain any information. Written notes also correspond with the visualization and tactile elements of my learning abilities. Having something tangible at my disposure is the easiest way for my personality to respond to the material.