Becoming A Writer: Self-Analysis

Over this quarter of English, I have learned many things out of the three to four essays that we have written. I have learned how to write college papers in the appropriate page requirements. Our teacher noticed after the first two essays we wrote that we suffered from sentence fragments, sentence run ons, and comma splices. I have learned how to fix those errors in my papers that I write. A thing I have learned about myself as a writer is that I write very well when a paper is about my personal life because it is easier to write about yourself than about a topic that you are just researching for the first time. If the paper is about my life experiences, I would get a good grade on it.

In the short essay, “Becoming a Writer,” penned by Russell Baker, he spoke of a memory from his past that later changed his perception of writing. After reading his piece, I reviewed the response questions listed below the essay to further my understanding of the piece. Almost like looking through a list of prompts as Russell did.

I started writing fiction in elementary school, and never looked back. Tucked away among old report cards and craft projects, my mother still has the multicolored notebook containing my first short story, written when I was in first grade. (It's a treat. I may share it here at some point.) So, when I say that writing in ingrained in me, that it's part of who I am, I mean it.

A semester has passed since I started college and my journey of becoming a better writer. It has been a very important semester for my future college career, and I would not be here without the things I have accomplished. The composition program has really helped me to prepare for what college writing is all about. Now standing here and looking back I could not imagine how it would be without that class. I believe my English, and my writing is better than it has ever been, and all thanks to the composition program.

5th grade is what set my attitudes towards writing back and I still dislike thinking about it. One thing elementary teachers get wrong is that kids who are that young only do what they like to do. You should not force a kid to do something. You have to bait them by using their wants against them. Luckily I passed English in the end. The only thing 5th grade helped me out was put my imagination on to paper. After 5th grade I hated anything having to do with English. I could only write about topics I wanted to write about. I took a break from writing and I read more. I picked up a book called “Deltora Quest” and I got interested in it. I only found this book because my teacher made us pick a book we wanted to read and write a paper about it. I did not look forward to writing it but I prefer doing that instead of writing a paper about a book we have to read because it is easier to work with. In 8th grade instead of picking book we had to write assessments about biography books I had to write a book about Amelia Earhart. Even though I did not like it, I still told myself “It is what it is” and wrote about my character. My teacher was really strict about what she wanted. Even though I followed the rubric I still got a B-. You can probably tell I did not like the teacher and long story short she got fired two years later. Before I was done with middle school I thought I could have a break

From writing thoughtful poems to research papers, I have experienced composing a diverse portfolio of literary analysis and criticisms throughout the school year. I started out the year writing minimally. By the end of the year, I noticed I was able to express my ideas and thoughts in a more clear and concise way on paper. Ultimately, each composition allowed me to widen my horizons as a writer and see how I could improve as a writer.

My English Literature major has helped me to achieve an outstanding level of appreciation, enjoyment, and knowledge of both American and British Literature. As a high school AP English student, I struggled through great works like Hamlet and To the Lighthouse. My teacher’s daily lectures (there was no such thing as class discussion) taught me merely to interpret the works as critics had in the past. I did not enjoy the reading or writing process. As a freshman at Loras, I was enrolled in the Critical Writing: Poetry class. For the first time since grade school, my writing ability was praised and the sharing of my ideas was encouraged by an enthusiastic and nurturing professor. Despite the difficulty of poetry, I enjoyed reading it.

“ There are your radish seeds everyone.” Said Mr. Susick. The whole class looked around at each other with a blank confused face. It was the first day of junior year in my English class. Mr. Susick started talking about how our first assignment would be to grow radishes. We were all thinking, how in the world does gardening relate to English class. I had heard about this project from previous juniors but none of them said what the real reason was. All Mr. Susick said was that you need to let the project teach itself and get into nature. He left us with one bit of information along with the requirements to start. The main goal of the assignment was to extract your own universal truths. For the first time in English class,

Over the course of this semester I learned a lot about myself as a writer. This English 101 class has really allowed me to expand my essay structure and ways of thinking. This was my first college writing course and it has given me much more freedom when writing because in high school I felt limited and like what we were writing was not very important. In high school I would write essays to just to fulfill the required word or page count and to a degree I still feel like this but maybe that is why I am an engineering major but in this course I actually was able to express my ideas and for the first time really test the limits of my writing capabilities. I really enjoyed being able to incorporate my voice more in my essays and I believe

I did not have a firm writing philosophy before this semester, but I to some degree I understood the importance writing can have on a situation. Now I understand that writing has two outcomes: gaining support or losing support. When writing an essay it is best if the writing is as specific as possible. This way the audience is hopefully not left with a confused opinion about the topic. Since the beginning of the semester I have put a conscious effort to change my writing style. Instead of the box format that is learned in high school I try to use a more graceful approach while still being organized. Also, I evaluate the credibility of a source before I use the information to support my thesis and understand the roles of using ethos,

My parents were my first real teachers. My dad, a police officer, and my step-father, was an EMT. Both of them taught me early, the value of hard work, discipline, compassion, and sacrifice. They taught me how to listen with

Many people have trouble with reading and writing till this day. There is no age restriction when it comes to the weakness of putting thoughts on paper or reading an entire book and not understanding it. Everyone has weaknesses but there are many ways to overcome them, such as a reader and writer. I am a prime example of having this weakness.

My mom did not wake me in the morning telling me it is time for school. She would say “Katie, it’s time to go feed.” It truly built my sense of responsibility and follow through, to see that a task is completed. Unlike other youth that

A key moment that impacted my educational experience as a student was my freshman year in my English Pre-AP class. My teacher at that time was Ms. Wiseman; I would list her as one of my top ten teachers of my educational career. Ms. Wiseman made such an impact on my life because she cared. When you walked into her classroom, you could feel the love. She always had a kind word for each student, she was patient, she always incorporated her humor to keep the lesson plan interesting, and the students could see that she really enjoyed her job. My freshman year was also an adjustment time for me since I had just moved to Texas and had no friends going into high school. Ms. Wiseman could see that I was having issues with fitting in and adjusting to AP classes; she decided that she was going to take me under her wing and mentor me. Her classroom became a sanctuary for me before and after school when I was not doing athletics, she became a tutor to me when I was having difficulties in her class and other classes, and she became a counselor to me when I had a problem with other classmates. I looked at Ms. Wiseman as a second mother to me and to this date anytime I go back home, I go by and visit her. I believe that I would have been a mediocre student if not for her, just going through the motions until I graduated. Ms. Wiseman is the type of teacher that I have aspirations to be.

My mother exposed me to the fact that life isn’t so black and white, and that it’s okay to partake in the meaningful and the small things in life. One of my favorite things I have ever done is spontaneously pack my bags and go on a broke road trip