My Hatred for Writing English has always been the biggest struggle in my education. The English language has so many rules, on how you write. So many that I struggle to comprehend. The hardest part has been being able to deal with trying to comprehend all of the rules that come with it. With all of the different grammar, punctuation, and spelling my mind gets so confused. Then words like conjunction, structure, formats, clauses, phrases, prepositions it comes in my mind sounding like rocket science. I have always had this problem, no matter how hard I have tried to comprehend it, it just does not stick. I have been a terrible writer pretty much my entire life. With much thanks, there has been many …show more content…
Throughout my elementary years, I can remember having to stay inside during recess. While everyone was outside playing, I was stuck inside and had to be tutored in language arts. They were to better my proficiency test scores. They also said it was to ensure I didn 't have to attend summer school. But summer school, language arts, was almost always a given for me. Spelling began to be my biggest road blocker. Still continues to be a huge problem I have. Sounding out the words just never sounded quite right in my head. They definitely didn 't connect well from my ears, to my brain, to the pen in my hand. Going into middle school, I knew it was going to be an …show more content…
We focused more on reading literature, advertisements and poems. I started to once again enjoy my English courses and thought The horrors of having someone read my bad writing were over. My junior year of high school, I had the most amazing English teacher. Mrs. Aleshire, she always had hope for me in everything I had done. She never gave me negative grades for things I did not understand. She would just sit me down and show me what I needed to work on. She would actually try and teach me how to fix it. Unlike many teachers I had before who would just give me a low grade, then leave it and move on without me fully understanding what I had done wrong. We wrote a lot of poems in her class. I had always enjoyed writing poems of my own. When it was just for my own enjoyment they didn 't have any rules. I wasn 't forced into coming up with thoughts, that was on a subject I had no interest in, those that caused my mind to freeze up then draw to a blank. One class period she had returned our poems we had written with the artwork. I didn 't receive mine back, but she asked me to see her at the end of the period. After class she had explained to me she loved the poem I had written for her assignment. She then asked me if she could keep it. She wanted to frame it, so she could give it as a wedding gift for a friend of hers. I was completely shocked, but extremely happy. I never had positive feedback
Just like Rose, I did not bother switching classes and I continued with the enrollment. Rose and I both made the best of the situation but I knew I was not meant to be in that class. I achieved exceptional test scores and wrote unbelievable papers in that class. My teacher for 8th grade English was the exact opposite of a literacy sponsor. My English teacher closely resembled that of Roses’ teacher Brother Dill. My teacher was exceedingly unenthusiastic about his job and the capabilities of his students. He did not teach me to succeed but to only pass by the bare minimum. He tore apart the essays I wrote and broke down my literacy confidence. Throughout this I maintained a empowering spirit about my writing and reading
It’s an interesting question, and one that can be difficult to answer. Everybody will have his or her own idea of what makes writing “good” writing. This question depends on the individual experiences of everyone asked, and so it can be almost impossible to pin down a definite reply. In truth, there isn’t really a right answer, just a pile of suggestions and general opinions that are formed differently in every individual’s mind.
For centuries, views of the world and its inhabitants have been expressed through various ways of art or philosophy. These views can often be related to the seeking of truth to the creation of life, politics, or the problems of the world from before, now, and after. Accordingly, it is by paintings, books, or music, that words or images have an abundant effect on people. Society indicates that knowledge is power, so then why are we sometimes burdened with the errors of generations before? The quote, “writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives. The English reading public explains the reason why,” by James Joyce; points out that any novelist, historian, or author writing about our previous failures as humans in history affects any reader in a way that brings up painful memories and leaves the reader with past knowledge. To be honest, I had to grab a chair and think for what seemed like hours before I could actually comprehend what the quote was saying. I thought to myself, “How can writing about the past bring pain to the reader? I understood how writing can bring knowledge to a person, but how can it affect anything in the present?” As Vladimir Nabokov said, “In reading, one should notice and fondle details.” So, I opened up my mind and started to analyze the quote. Then, suddenly it clicked! In The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli, Machiavelli has a similar style to this quote in which he explains that any prince should not select anything else for study but the art of war. He declares through studying the histories of the art of war, “A prince will learn of many illustrious men’s causes for victory or defeat; therefore, avoiding the latter and imitating the former.”(Machiavell...
There are various ways writers can evaluate their techniques applied in writing. The genre of writing about writing can be approached in various ways – from a process paper to sharing personal experience. The elements that go into this specific genre include answers to the five most important questions who, what, where, and why they write. Anne Lamott, Junot Diaz, Kent Haruf, and Susan Sontag discuss these ideas in their individual investigations. These authors create different experiences for the reader, but these same themes emerge: fears of failing, personal feelings toward writing, and most importantly personal insight on the importance of writing and what works and does not work in their writing procedures.
After a while I was now beginning to understand the things that my teacher was teaching and understanding the language that the children in the classroom were speaking. It didn't sound like a whole bunch of "blah blah" anymore. I remember the first story that I wrote in my second grade class. It was about a family of baby cats and it wasn't even that long but to me it took forever to write. I was very...
Mrs. Plot, one of the hardest English teachers in Murray County High School, was my teacher that year. She was a very determined and driven teacher that did not tolerate her students to fail her class, even if they were lazy. I had heard horror stories from her former students, but she was nothing like they said she was. She was the only teacher that I have connected with all throughout school. I looked forward to her class every morning because she always made learning fun. Mrs. Plot gave out good advice about English, but she also gave me personal advice and was more of a friend to me. She always knew what to say to me when I had problems. She motivated me to do better with my writing; we went to a journalism class together every week that year. Mrs. Plot deepened my love for reading and writing. Without her, I would not be the kind of student I am today. On every assignment in her class, I got the most feedback and it helped me out a lot. It took me a long time to become a decent writer, but with her help she sped up the process. I put all of my effort in every single paper I have written, especially for her
I have never liked writing; I always thought it was a waste of time. It was a great therapy but I never found academic writing to be useful just tedious. Only ever writing when I had too made it harder for my writing skills to grow or improve in any way. I have not taken an English class since the 10th grade, even then I never gave it much effort, just doing what I had to so I could pass the class. Then I jump in to College English 1010, I feel like I do well in all other subjects but this one. English is my worst nightmare.
As I reflect it becomes clear to me that I enjoyed writing my junior year in high school. My English teacher Mr. Duckworth was a one of a kind teacher. His classroom was a normal classroom setting with the desk all line up behind one another. All of his students would face the white erase board that was located in the front of the room. He would typically sit at his desk leaning back in his chair giving us instructions on what was to be done in the class. As we sit in the class, all I can hear are my classmates laughing and joking around as he spoke. he would already have an essay topic on the board that was to the right of us that he could easily see from his desk. This was an everyday routine for all of his classes. As we begin to write, I noticed how different classmates of mine would get up to ask for help with their essay. The students who never asked for help usually would end up with a lot of red markings on their essays.
I am sitting in my bed, thinking about my process of writing as I am trying to go through it. It seems the more I think about it, the less I understand it. When I am writing, I don’t think. Which I know, sounds bad. But, I spend every single moment of every single day over thinking, over analyzing, and over assuming every aspect of my life. When I’m writing, I’m free from that for just a little bit. Until of course, my hands stop typing or the pencil (no pens- never pens) stops moving, then I’m right back on the carousel that is my brain. Heidi Estrem says, “...writers use writing to generate knowledge that they didn’t have before.” (Writing is a Knowledge-Making Activity 18). I believe my ability to write without an exact destination
I have always been an artistic person, and I saw writing as another way to express myself artistically. Many students my age hated to write but I never saw it as a burden. I carried that passion throughout high school and continue to enjoy it in college. My junior and senior English teacher, Mrs. McGhee, had the biggest impact of my writing skills. She was always a tough grader and always made sure to elaborate on our mistakes. She is the reason I became such a strong writer. She and Anne Lamott have similar personalities. Lamott states, “It’s not like you don’t have a choice, because you do- you can either type or kill yourself.” Mrs. McGhee hated excuses. She expected her students to complete the tasks that were given to them, but, of course, high school students always complained and probably rather kill themselves than write a paper. She constantly motivated her students to work hard and complete their work to the best of their abilities. I cannot thank her enough for the impact she has had on my academic
Writing and reading are two essential skills that we need to have in order to succeed in any field of study that we have chosen. Without these two we would not be here, wouldn’t be writing right now and would be considered the lowest class of our society. There are different aspects of writing that each of us may, or may not, excel at. Some of us are creative enough to write short stories or even novels on fiction while others, like me, are better at writing essays. To accomplish this we have all had a person to inspire us, to drive us, to get us over the hump of confidence that we need to succeed. Still to be successful we need to count on ourselves to succeed.
It felt she did not care to teach the subject to me, because a lot of the other classmates were getting it, and I was not, I was getting a personal misdirection, and my reason was because she had such a disliking for me. If I could get in trouble for something she was going to get me in trouble for it. The teacher would e-mail and call my mother, because she could not make parent teacher conferences, and I would hear only negative attributes of myself, “being a bad student,” “very disruptive,” “no interest in class,” at one point I was even called leader of a “dark gang,” in the school; I wish my mother would have kept this to herself, because I did not take the criticism lightly. Hearing all this, and already having negative feelings toward this teacher and english, I was in no mood for reading and writing, i was ready for war. It really was not until the end of middle school and started realizing how much of an impact reading and writing was starting to take. I was going to be entering high school soon, and they did not have accelerated reader, so it was not going to be as easy to pass. It was not until the end of 8th grade that I realized I should probably work on my english abilities.
Writing correctly is something that many people find hard to do! I know this, because I use to feel the same way. I have had many English classes in my time, where teachers would sit next to me, and correct my errors sentence by sentence as I went along. All the while asking me if I understood what why what I did was wrong. I remember saying that I understood, but I really didn't. That was something that I didn't like at the time, but I am now very appreciative of the fact that someone was there. With today's kids, most teachers don't take that needed time and help them to get on track with their writing. Because of this, I find that both Strunk and White, The Elements of Style, and Williams, Style: Toward Clarity and Grace to be very helpful. After reading them, I know that they can both be used as "handy" reference tools for today's writers.
Every time when I have to do a writing assignment I have to go through the similar experience. If I have to make a list with all of my writing problems, the number one will be “Articles” For an ESL student, it is really difficult to understand when and what article should be used. Thus, articles “a” and “the” look tricky for me. Another problem for me is prepositions. Many times I am using “about” instead of “for”, and it does not make sense for me why “wishing for a new bike” is correct and “wishing about a new bike” is wrong. Using the correct verb tense is another issue for me. A lot of times I use simple verb tenses, and I am struggling with perfect verb tenses. Punctuation also causes problems for me in my writing process, especially
Throughout my high school years, many teachers inspired me and others disappointed me. It was because of this that I decided I wanted to be the teacher that gives students the desire to achieve and not the teacher that loves to humiliate. It wasn’t until my senior year in high school that I knew English would be my field of expertise thanks to my senior English teacher. She was a teacher that set high expectations, demanded excellent work, and never gave up on me when I thought I couldn’t do it. Receiving an A in her class was the highlight of my high school career! Than...