How I Learned With My Writing

Throughout my whole life, I really struggled with writing. Every time the English teacher gave the class an assignment to write an essay, I was always felt terrified because I never saw any improvements in my writing whenever I got my essays back from the teacher. However, I wanted to change that this year. Writing 101 has been a very interesting class this year, especially since the theme of the class was “tai chi on paper”. In this class, I learned many techniques that helped me improve my writing like I learned how to take time and revise my writing a lot before I turned in my final draft to my professor.

Last week we wrote a blog and one of the questions was “How did you learn to read and write?”  I found this question interesting because I never had really thought about the moment when I actually learned how to read and write. My mom was the first person to expose me to reading and writing. A popular tactic she did to make sure I was staying engaged was to read aloud stories and make me follow along with her. My mom would read me many different stories like Tarzan, Bambi, Aladdin, Peter Pan, Lion King, The Jungle Book, and Hercules. whatever I wanted to listen and follow along with, she would read with me. This really helped with my want to read. The books contained a lot of adventure, which made it easy as a kid to follow along with. I became to gain an imagination and then all of a sudden reading was easier.

I discovered many strengths and weaknesses through this semester, especially in this latter half. For me, my most instrumental papers were the collaborative essay, my essay on circumcision, and the research essay. These really highlighted some key ideas for me on things I needed to work on or had down already.

This class has taught me multiple things other than improving my writing. I learned how to work with different people for a common goal, which was to complete our project and pass this course. However, things didn’t go as smoothly as I had expected, all of my partners were taking a few different courses and time was crucial to us. Summer school being a fast session did put us up against great obstacles but in the end we all prevailed and completed our portion of the work.

I had been able to generate ideas by finding input that is inspiring throughout the course in my writing. This helped tremendously to keep me going without running out of what to write, which I have encountered numerous times before. Furthermore, creativity enhancement this semester helped fill my brain with meaningful ideas. Moving a little toward curiosity to make me explore deeper to answer questions for audience has not been easy. However, I have come to realize that sometimes ideas are right in front of me. Thus, I have grown more confident and prolific as I work on attentive generating idea habit.

What I learned this week from reading is to look at my writing situation and focus on the key elements (like purpose of your writing and the audience). I also have a habit of overthinking what to write and it sometimes takes me longer with writing which results in errors. I am learning to just write and go back and proofread my writing. If I have second doubts about my writing I will ask someone else to review it. When writing you has to discover your purpose and what you would like to accomplish in writing. Also know who your audience is; when writing a paper a person must know the audience that they are writing for.

“Writing doesn’t come easy.” When writing you must be able to transmit a clear message to the reader. In addition, you have to keep in mind a purpose and an audience when writing. This will help anyone send a much clearer message. Composition 1301 was a great experience for me. I’m impressed on how much I’ve learned in such a short time frame. I learned that the mechanics and formatting are important when it comes to writing; however, it is also important how you express your thoughts and ideas in a clear way. Another, important thing I learned was how to create an argument in a research paper. I might not be an expert in writing but now I at least I know what it takes to write a good paper.

This semester has been full of ups and downs. At the beginning of the semester I thought Writing 102 was going to be very similar to other writing courses that I have taken. However, as the semester wore on, I came to the realization that this course would be challenging for me. I have always thought that my writing was fine and that I could skate by with mediocre papers. This thought process could not have been further from the truth. To be successful in writing classes such as this one, I needed to follow a writing process. I needed to utilize the information I learned from class into my writing. In previous courses, I would usually do my own thing and come up with a mediocre paper at the last minute. This semester I figured out that to be successful, I need to use all the resources around me. I needed to start papers early so I could efficiently write, review, and revise my writing. Having a writing process has helped me improve my writing in all facets this semester.

A weakness I observe in myself is my perfectionist mindset. Although I pride myself on outstanding performance in my endeavors, I can become a bit extreme at times.

Some of my weaknesses with clarity and conciseness are making the two aspects participate in my writing assignments. Weakness that show, during my initial writing phase, are being too long winded. Not breaking my sentences up. Forgetting to place a pause where a pause should be. Commas, I hate them.

This semester I believe my writing has improved and expanded immensely this semester, which I am very grateful for. In late 2015, I was tasked with writing a press release for Girls Inc. and I struggled organizing and structuring a press release. At first, our first press release assignment was a challenge. I was having trouble getting into the swing of things. However, when I wrote the press release for this final project, it was a breeze writing and the organization of the piece came naturally. I think this is because of all of our practice writing this semester. My understanding of press releases, their purpose, and the planning behind press releases has deepened and I think this will benefit me in my career.

As this semester progressed I became a much stronger writer. I have taken more time to create solid essays. I have become more aware of the mistakes that I continuously made and correctioning myself on them. The essay I did the best during second semester was visual criticism essay. It allowed me to write about a painting in a creative way, that other people might not see it the way I do. Between both semesters my best essay was the creative essay. It was a very meaningful topic to me. It allowed me to write about a subject that was important to me.

My weaknesses were hard for me to identify but with the help of my sister I was suddenly very clear on what my weaknesses are. I was able to identify one weakness on my own and it is impatience. Patience has never been one of my virtues. I want everything done right now and all done my way immediately. Being impatience have destroy some friendship and have family member lose interest and effort to help, dealing with me isn’t the easiest thing in to do.

Throughout this semester I believe I have grown a whole lot more than just being a better writer. I have become a better researcher, interviewer, and observer. In all of my previous English classes, the writing process was a four-hour typing session followed by one other person quickly reading through my paper. It really wasn’t much of a process at all. Over this last semester, I can honestly say I have learned a tiny part of the “process” of writing.

During this semester, I have learned a great deal about my own writing, and writing in general. One of the main takeaways from this course for me was how to break down the intricate process of writing papers. In addition, I developed viable skills regarding going into more in-depth detail during each step of the writing process. I enjoyed having the freedom to write about a topic that I was able to choose. This allowed me to research and write about something that actually interested me immensely. Having to work with one topic for the entire semester taught me how to find reliable resources and how to pick out the essential research from each article.