There I was, poised with the first draft of my masters thesis, ready to jack it under the rear wheels of my car so that I could vent my anger and frustration. Never had I felt this kind of undiluted rage in dealing with a piece of writing. As far as I was concerned, the first draft was complete and therefore the entire piece was finished; however, my thesis advisor didn’t quite agree with me. A less deranged friend of mine talked me out of repeatedly backing over my thesis, and convinced me that it didn’t really matter if I did leave tire marks on it because I had multiple drafts on my disk. But still, I knew that it would just feel so good to leave some tire tread on the paper. I had not written a thesis as an undergrad, and I was looking forward to this process. It took some time for me to find a professor willing to work with me, but after a number of false starts, I finally came to Peter Heinegg’s door. My thesis was based on the disparate work of Nathaniel Hawthorne and radical feminist theologian Mary Daly. Each week that I left Peter’s office, I found myself laden with at least five books that he deemed absolutely crucial to my writing and thinking process. At one point, I needed an English translation of a German text, and when I finally secured it, I opened the cover to find that the work had been translated by Peter. It was somewhat humbling to work with him because he was so intelligent; however, he was an absolutely amazing teacher and I credit him with helping me to fully understand the impact that revision has on the writing process. At times, during the writing of our theses, my roommate and I were reduced to performing stupid hair tricks in the wee hours of the morning to entertain ourselves and to create som... ... middle of paper ... ...them before they are ready to learn this. I am the eternal optimist, however, so we continue to work on the revision process. Being back in grad school has been an amazing experience because it has put me back in touch with my own process of writing; I am conscious of how I write in comparison to the way in which I expect my students to write. I find myself using the information that I share with them, although at times I feel the pressure that I must earn all A’s on my papers because if I haven’t mastered the process of writing, then I must be a bit of a fraud to be teaching it. But then I have to remember what I have learned about my own process, and what I continue to learn about my own writing process. I keep in mind the epiphany I experienced in graduate school, and I seek to share this information, for current or later use, with my students in the classroom.
I am more knowledgeable about invention, arrangement, style, and delivery, all in which create a masterful piece of text. A few examples, I have learned to organize and construct my thoughts and ideas clearer. I have been taught to use stronger transitions and focus more on the delivery and content of the body element of essays. Further, the instructions and advice I have received throughout this term have influenced my understanding of the purpose of writing. My outlook on writing has been modified by shifting my perception of writing from, writing to prove I am a good writer by perceiving it as using “fluffy” or BIG words to impress my audience. I grew to understanding that good writing’s purpose is to engage the writer by mind-striking ideas and arguments, which therefore will prove and title me as a “good writer”.
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
My development as a writer has flourished throughout this semester. The first week of this fall semester started out with writing responses from our readings in the textbook. Looking back through and analyzing my reading responses at the semester to now; I noticed a substantial improvement in not only my grammar skills, but also my summarizing, and in-depth studying of writing adeptness. Another way I have progressed this semester is the vocabulary of my writing has significantly improved and become more scholarly. Another advancement I noticed was that the content of my work has matured, along with my organizational adeptness.
As I shoved my notebook into my backpack, I heard my writing fellow murmur something about an essay. I wasn’t worried. After taking every Advanced Placement English class my high school offered, I felt equipped to handle a simple essay until received Dr. Carver’s email with the prompt and instructions. I blinked at the screen and rubbed my eyes; thinking I had misread the message, I read it again. I was supposed to have the essay finished in approximately 42 hours, but I had never written a decent essay in less than four days. I was in a state of panic; all of my ideas had evacuated my imagination leaving me with a painful case of writer’s block. To me, most of good writing is good editing and proper editing requires having a window to forget your writing before returning to it: a window that 42 hours just couldn’t provide.
When dissecting Adler’s testimony concerning the profits readers gain when thoroughly annotating a piece of literature, I found myself persuaded to look at each detail of a page to a deeper effect. His emphasis on needing patience and a strong work ethic in order to see future rewards perfectly not only applied to literary works, but also other slow processes such as the college application process. By incorporating writer’s thoughts “into] your bloodstream” (1), information gets preserved and further analyzed for years to come. The act of physically interpreting statements as if you were inquiring or joining a thought “preserve[s] those reactions and sharpen[s] those questions” (2).
In his essay, "Teach Writing as a Process not a Product," Donald Murray outlines the major difference between the traditional pedagogy that directed the teaching of writing in the past and his newly hailed model. Traditionally, Murray explains, English teachers were taught to teach and evaluate students' writing as if it was a finished product of literature when, as he has discovered, students learn better if they're taught that writing is a process. For Murray, once teachers regard writing as a process, a student-centered, or writer-centered, curriculum falls into place. Rules for writing fall by the way side as writers work at their own pace to see what works best for them.
Over the course of about six months my sister’s health began to rapidly deteriorate to the point where she began to look like a walking corpse. I was only in sixth grade and never fully understood the severity of her unknown illness. I never thought that her scraggly brown hair, exposed ribs, and extensive bed rest was becoming a massive problem, I just thought she was losing weight and needed to eat more. My family finally had and answer during early March 2013.
In this essay, “The Marker’s eyes”, the author, Donald Murray details how the writer needs to produce a progression of the draft. Murray also stresses the importance of revising your draft is when you really discover the deeper meaning of your writing. Murray explains how to a professional writer, the first draft and its following drafts are what helps them to get started with the writing task. The author also talks about developing a special type of reading skill, which will help the writer progress from draft to draft. He goes and says that writing is never finished in the writer's eye, it can always be modified and rearranged. The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate to the readers how important revising is
First off, my parents have always been there for me. They are so dependable. One day, my mom and dad were working while I had a game and my friend’s mom dropped him and me off. I was really sad since they couldn’t watch me play. The first period past, my mom nor my dad weren’t there, sitting where they usually sat. It was halfway through the second period, and my team was losing 3-5. My coach sent my line out on the ice. Off the faceoff, we sped up the ice. I got the puck, shot, and scored for my team. I went to look and the spot where they usually sat at, and in the three small chairs, were sitting my mom, dad, and sister. I felt so great to realize how much my parents go through in work to watch my game. When my parents are there to watch my play my hockey games, it feels like I have
Smith shared his personal experience with publishing his first book, which was based on his dissertation, and suggested students should “look at his/her dissertation as a process, which could later turn into a book”.
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.
Writing is an important part of everyone’s life, whether we use it in school, in the workplace, as a hobby or in personal communication. It is important to have this skill because it helps us as writers to express feelings and thoughts to other people in a reasonably permanent form. Formal writing forms like essays, research papers, and articles stimulates critically thinking. This helps the writer to learn how to interpret the world around him/her in a meaningful way. In college, professors motivate students to write in a formal, coherent manner, without losing their own voice in the process. Improving your writing skills is important, in every English class that’s the main teaching point; to help students improve their writing skills. Throughout my college experience I have acknowledge that
In Joseph Harris’ “Revising”, published originally in 2006 as a chapter in his book Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts, he offers a compelling case to rethink the way that writers revise their own works in academic writing. He criticizes what he believes to be an incorrect understanding of the revision process, claiming that today’s college students “have been taught how to edit but not how to revise” (444).
Over the course of the semester, I feel that I have grown as a writer in many ways. When I came into the class, there were skills I had that I already excelled at. During my time in class, I have come to improve on those skills even more. Before I took this class, I didn’t even realise what I was good at. This is the first class where I felt I received feedback on my writing that helped me to actually review my work to see what areas I lacked in and where I succeeded.
Up north at Chico State University, a young man confessed to his friends that he sends his rough-draft essays to his mother for "proof-reading." His mother essentially woul...