At DePauw, I want to study english literature in hopes of one day working as an editor at a book publishing company. One might think that this means that reading and writing are naturally easy for me, but in truth I often struggle to get my thoughts gathered and cohesively written on paper. That is why I want to pursue work as an editor rather than a writer. I’m much better at tweaking and critiquing another’s work than producing my own. Much to my displeasure, I also find that I write some of my best work under the pressure of a time crunch. I realize I need to work to get out of that habit this year.
When approaching a new assignment I read through the prompt and write down the requirements, focus questions, and any keywords that may be
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By examining the ideas in the essays Freewriting by Peter Elbow and The Makers Eye: Revising your own manuscripts by Donald Murray. One can gain a better understanding of the process of turning a piece of writing from an inspiration into a craft. By examining the elements lined out in each essay can be beneficial in creating a piece of writing that is beyond a college or student level. Elbows essay lines out the importance of a strong prewriting regimen. That editing too early can ruin writing. He believes that by using the method of free writing, it can inspire ideas that may be limited when worrying about grammar. While Murray emphasizes the necessity to create many drafts to form writing into its full potential. Saying each draft is an opportunity to discover what the author has to say and they the best way to say it. By transforming writing into its maximum potential it goes from being an idea an inspiration a masterpiece.
When students complete a first draft, they consider the job of writing done – and their teachers too often agree. When professional writers complete a first draft, they usually feel that they are at the start of the writing process. When a draft is completed, the job of writing can begin. That difference in attitude is the difference between amateur and professional, inexperience and experience, journeyman and craftsman. Peter F. Drucker, the prolific business writer, calls his first draft “the zero draft”–after that he can start counting. Most writers share the feeling that the first draft, and all of those which follow, are opportunities to discover what they have to say and how best they can say it. To produce a progression of drafts, each of which says more and says it more clearly, the writer has to develop a special kind of reading skill. In school we are taught to decode what appears on the page as finished writing. Writers, however, face a different
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.
At the start of this course, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had a goal for myself to improve and learn skills that would make writing less daunting for me. I have learned so many things about my writing that I didn’t think much about before. Another goal I had was to break the cookie-cutter mold that was set upon me throughout high school. During the process of revision, I discovered many things about myself as a writer and techniques that have been effective for me in the writing process.
We all have a choice when writing to not complete the task. But is it really going to kill us? We build up this wall and have all of these excuses because we are scared of failing. I believe it’s the end of the world when I’m writing. My palms become sweaty; I look for all types of excuses to procrastinate. After reading this article, I have learned that I’m not by alone. Feeling this way is normal and I can learn to be a better writer. I will take some of Anne’s suggestions and try to quiet the voices in my head. I will begin to write down my ideas as they pop into my head because no one will see all of my rough drafts. This will allow me to take the time to review my work with a clear
For this discussion I chose to focus on chapter 2: mental health problems in prison. I made this decision mainly because this is a topic that also influences inmates behavior on the outside, and significantly contributes to the choices they make which can inevitably land them behind bars. I also believe that mental illnesses can easily develop while an offender is serving time, even if they have no history of being affected. Mental illnesses involve trouble coping with highly stressful situations (very common in a jail or prison environment) and life in general. "Such difficulties often manifest themselves in terms of low self-esteem, self-neglect, alienation, and social isolation".
When writing my papers in English I was never sure what topic, I wanted to write about. I rotated between two, one being “The Mistreatment of Animals in Zoos” and the second and my main topic being “Is College Worth the Cost.” When writing these papers, I noticed something about myself. I had grown as a writer compared to when I first walked into English 1100, I had some writing experience but not much my grammar lacked and I was the queen of sentence fragments. Throughout the semester during English 1100, my writing skills improved. From learning, how to format works cited page correctly to learning how to analyze a source. My writing improved wonders with each paper. My paper I, I struggled extremely with formatting issues and how to
My attitude towards writing is very unfavorable. I just don’t enjoy it at all. It’s a very tedious task when you factor in all of the revision steps that it takes to produce a quality essay. Writing requires a long amount of time spent planning and preparing that is not for impatient people like myself. However, I believe that with a little bit of some confidence and patience, I could learn to enjoy myself when I write. I think it’s a great outlet for some but just hasn’t ever really been something that made me feel relaxed or stress-free. Writing just clouds my head with confusion and anxiety. I guess I can blame this on the fact that all my previous experiences writing has been academic and in a time-restricted environment. However, I am excited to see how my impression of writing changes throughout my college career now that I am not confined to a forty-minute window.
The little motivation I possessed was likely a component that contributed to the lower grade I received on the graded timed writing the class wrote. If not for that ideal, and if I had practiced at my peak performance each week, then my grade would have shown up higher in the long run. Overcoming the challenges I face with writing has proven slightly difficult, since my timed-writing grades still average around the same score each time. However, I believe I have grasped a deeper understanding for the topics and feel as if my efforts are, personally, being pondered about. I take time to read our “notes to writers” and I attempt to include more evidence such as elongated quotes like I did in my Analysis Timed Writing #two on Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. Although my writing is not perfect, I have quite enough time before the anticipated AP Exam at the end of the year to practice and ace my skills. In the meantime, I will put forth effort each week and hopefully see results. I plan on connecting more personal entries to the analysis prompts given in timed writings, as I did in my Synthesis Timed Writing #five about Libraries. Also, my quote integration can be presented in a more professional way with background and context. As of now, I am thankful that I am scoring medium
During my English courses throughout high school, I learned many things from writing simple journals, research papers, and a single term paper. During high school, I was laid back and procrastinated for much of my work. During the latter part of high school when I wrote my term paper my senior year, I found out that working a little every night writing a few paragraphs helped me out greatly. I was not just throwing something together just to get the grade and the paper finished. I spent time on the paper and
When presented with the question, “who are you as a writer?”, I was speechless at first. But after thinking about it, I realized who I am as a writer has been influenced by so many different sponsors throughout my life and there was not a short, concrete answer. Brandt mentions that “literacy is sponsored by people, institutions, and circumstances that both make it possible for a person to become literate and shape the way the person actually acquires literacy.” (Brandt 43) My attitude towards writing has been influenced by teachers, both negatively and positively, by my mother, and by academic assignments over the years. My answer to the question can only be answered by a narrative of my writing life. I have convinced myself that I am a terrible writer, and when presented with a writing assignment, I get anxious instantly. I see writing as a burden and a huge obstacle that gets placed in my life. Academic writing is not fun, but something I value due to the fact that we are a grade driven society. When writing, I write to the guidelines in order to receive points for the requested criteria. The reason being, I gave up on expressing my own ideas because I had been shut down by so many teachers throughout my education. I tried to write down what came to my mind and put my own twist on things, but that was not the “right” way to write papers. In order to make both my teachers and my grades happy, I wrote what they wanted to hear, and even then I was not to the level they
Just three weeks ago, I said a final goodbye to my “hamster wheel”, the 9-5 regime, after 20 long (and incredibly rewarding) years working for a world-class company and I started my new chapter in life. Writing will be one major part of it looking forward, my next, but the best 20 years, as I envision it.
The legalization of marijuana in the United States would drastically reduce crime in our cities and form a more productive society through its positive uses. The United States government is spending millions and millions of dollars each year to enforce petty marijuana crimes and it’s time for this change. Embracing marijuana for personal, medical, and industrial use will encourage economic growth and stability. Associating taxes along with eliminating risk of illegal activity will increase consumer confidence whereas the ease of growing requirements will boost substantial profit. Over the next couple pages I hope to convince you as to why marijuana should be legalized for the many reasons that I will touch on throughout this paper.
Writing has always been something I dread. It’s weird because I love talking and telling stories, but the moment I have to write it all down on paper, I become frantic. It’s almost as if a horse race just begun in my mind, with hundreds of horses, or words, running through my mind, unable to place them in chronological order. Because I struggle to form satisfying sentence structure, it takes me hours, sometimes even days, to write one paper. It’s not that I think I’m a “bad writer,” I just get discouraged easily. Needless to say, I don’t think highly of my writing skills. When I was little I loved to both read and write. I read just about any book I could get my hands on, and my journal was my go to for my daily adventures. Although it’s