Writing has not always been my strong point. Many times I have needed extra help with writing and developing essays for school. I have always struggled with being creative. My mother is a person that has been a mentor for me when I am faced with the task of writing. I know that I can always come to her for help. She is always extremely sharp at pinpointing my mistakes and helping the structure of my papers. Whether it is essays for scholarships, or for a high school English class, she will always push me to do my best when writing. While giving me new ideas, there were a few specific times in my high school career that she helped mentor me that would make an impact on my writing for the future.
When it came around the time to start writing scholarship essays for college, I knew I had to do my best when it came to listing my accomplishments and goals. I had a few essays to write for various scholarships, some were letters others were papers. While struggling to think of accomplishments to give the scholarship committees reasoning to select me, I had to think deeply about what I would say. I spent a lot of time choosing my words carefully, making sure I sounded like an excellent recipient for their scholarship. I had lots of financial need to cover the cost of my tuition at The University of Alabama. I wanted to take the financial strain off of my parents as much as I could. With writing and developing a great essay, I knew it would give me an even greater chance at receiving
While writing might seem like a simple task, it can be a daunting task for a lot of people. Sometimes it can be hard to express the ideas in your mind in the words of a paper. This results in a disconnect with what a writer may actually think. A great writer is one that can transform his thoughts into words perfectly. This is a craft that takes many years to perfect, which is why writing is troublesome for a lot of us. Many students also have had bad experiences with writing. Maybe they had a teacher that didn’t try to support them and their writing. They might not have ever gotten the help they needed and may feel that they are in a hole where their writing can’t get better. At this point, they just accept that their writing will never get better.
From the time I was in about fourth or fifth grade I began to dislike certain subjects in school. I loathed everything about writing assignments. I didn’t write at home before that the thought of writing for myself never really occurred to me. I hated the deadlines the length requirements and I just tried to get them done and had no intention of writing well because I told myself I was a bad writer. I have never really known whether or not I truly am a bad writer. I continued these habits of just writing something down to get a decent grade all throughout school. I usually got an okay grade because I followed the prompt closely and did the minimum amount of work for the paper. I didn’t start the assignments until either the night before it was due. As I got older I would type the paper on my phone in school that day then print it off in the library moments before class. I continued writing in that awful ritual of complacency until the end of 11th grade. We had to write a paper on The Great Gatsby a book that I never read. I read couple of notes on the internet and then wrote the paper and never reread it or edited it all. I did my usual routine and followed the prompt and turned my paper in. When I got my paper back I was shocked to find out I didn’t get even a half decent grade I was given a zero. I went to my teacher after class to speak with him about the grade and he told me I got the grade that I deserved. He said I was lazy and never tried to truly work in
Throughout the course of this semester in AP Lang, my eyes have been opened to many of the weaknesses I never knew I had in writing. Coming into this semester, I had heard about the difficulty of this class, but was not unduly worried about not receiving an A; I have always considered myself as a competent if not strong writer. However, after failing to attain desired grades on several important essays, I was devastated, and realized that although I had mastered the basics of grammar and writing, there was still much for me to work on. Also, I did not understand that much of my grade in AP Lang would be determined by speaking in front of others, which is not my strong suit. What I have come to find is that writing essays containing all of the new information we have learned throughout the semester, such as requirements for different types of essays and good writing strategies, takes a lot of work, time, and thinking. Unfortunately, my procrastination caused me to only get done what had to be done instead of putting in the extra work and truly understanding everything.
My relationship with writing could have culminated into three words; fear, quality, and of course no relationship is complete without excitement. Like any new relationship, emotions can determine the success or demise of the relationship. These emotions all work to the betterment of the writer and the writing relationship, each emotion feeding ever so slightly off one another. Exploring these writing relations reveal the truth where my writing relationship is concerned.
As my senior year comes around, it has become more real to me that I have to take charge of my future. I deserve and need this scholarship just as I need oxygen to breathe. Being the first in my family to attend college or even have the idea in their head means I’m on my own to discover what to do to get into college and how to come up with the means. I
Everything changed for me my last year of high school. Like most seniors I was busy applying to colleges, studying for tests, volunteering in the community and trying to figure out what I aspired to be when I grew up. I thought I wanted to be an Interior Designer and I traveled with my parents all over the country touring colleges that offered the major. I achieved good grades in school and I was accepted at several of the schools I applied to. Once I decided on a university I began my search for scholarships to help fund my education. By chance I ran across an audio scholarship contest sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). The essay topic was about the importance of Veterans to our past and future. Because I was a military dependent this topic was near and dear to me. I worked really hard on my submission and to my surprise and my parent’s delight; I was selected as the winner for my state. The opportunities I experienced as a result of representing
When I looked over my ePortfolio, I couldn’t believe how many pieces of writing I
I may not be the best writer there is out there but I do put all of me into each piece I develop. I believe in giving it your all at all times. If your giving it anything less why try at all. I'm huge on that theory and I believe it means a lot more than I believe it to be. I hope that each piece I submit this semester is nothing less than my best and I hope to take in all the criticism and use it to my advantage.
Most scholarships require individualized essays in order to apply, let alone the extra essays and/or projects demanded by scholarships that provide larger sums. Even more so, these essays call for a certain
The best way to get better at something is to practice and have peers critique your style and fundamentals. As a student, I have my professor and my fellow peers to proofread and critique my writing. With these corrections I have learned I have many new strengths and weaknesses in my writing since before I started school at COTC. I have also been given many different types of resources to help improve my writing.
My strengths as a reader are the ways how I read the book. As I read through a book, I try to understand the meaning of each line, and search for the words that I do not know; additionally, I try to read and get information about the book from multiple different sources, so I could have a better understanding of the theme of the book.
I would have to say that I am closer to a writer than I use to be, but I’m also not where I would like to be. I was always told that I was a natural writer until I got to high school. Everyone either caught up to my level, surpassed it, or I plateaued. Trying to improve myself, I took honors and AP English literature. Unfortunately, I had only felt worse about my writing when I got to AP. My teacher, Mrs. Tomaselli, never gave anyone A’s so I did not feel too bad about myself, but gave no positive feedback. I did however compare a piece of writing I was very proud of that I did in 11th with a recent piece, both about my Polychondritis. The two pieces made me see the evolution of my writing. As far as the class English 101 goes, I have
As a writer, I feel that my weakness is struggling with time management and trying to get my best draft as my first draft. I have always struggled with trying to put forth the best draft on the first one and just making little adjustments and then turning the paper in. Another weakness I have is to over complicate my writing and over think submitting the final draft. Every single essay that I have had to write throughout this semester I have struggled with these problems. Particularly the research paper, since the paper was worth such a big percentage of the grade in the class. I was extremely self-conscious about submitting and writing the paper. I took a long time just to finish a rough draft. I reviewed the final draft for hours before submitting the paper. I also experienced the problem of being extremely self-conscious after I submitted the paper and question everything I choose to write on.
My writing skills which I have worked on over the few months I have been in English 102 have changed quite a bit in my opinion. There are many things which I have improved upon that were amongst my weaker writing skills when the year began. On the opposite side of that point, there are also many things which I still need to improve upon if I want to truly elevate my writing to a level that I will be confident in. Finally, I have gained new skills outside of writing from this class, particularly the activities which we did in class at various points throughout the year. These things all cumulate together to give me an appreciation of English courses which I did not previously have.
Writing is a skill that takes time to develop. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is very important. Being aware of your strengths can help you stand out, and your weaknesses show you areas where improvement is needed. Like everybody I have weaknesses as well as strengths, and being conscious of them helped me improve my writing skills.