My Writing Experience

A person can read and write a great deal in one day whether they realize it or not. Whether it be texting a friend or reading a textbook for a certain class, you are reading and writing constantly and a daily basis. What surprised me the most about the reading and writing that I did on Sunday was how much I am reading and writing on my phone. Whether I am texting to coordinate plans with a friend for the night or reading a random article I saw while reading a Facebook news feed, I am constantly reading and writing on my phone. I never considered it reading and writing when I used my phone, I just saw it as looking at my phone. Just staring at this four-inch screen for some sort of entertainment. What also surprised me was how much we read without noticing it. You can walk down State Street and you will be constantly reading by looking at stores, posters, or even words on a bus that is passing by. Our eyes and brains are looking at and reading words all the time.

During my past writing experience, I have struggled with formulating and initiating interesting points of discussion, grammar, and transitions. I have often sat down to work on a paper and found myself completely drawing a blank on anything interesting to write about. Whether I am given a specific prompt or general topic to discuss, I constantly struggle with finding a starting point. Once I do, I become too focused on trying to create a poetic sounding paper, rather than focusing on the main discussion points. In some ways, focusing on making my papers poetic have added detail and depth to my writing. However, this frequently distracts me from my papers main theme. One of my biggest drawbacks with writing has always been proper grammar usage.

I can still remember that when I was in the first grade in the grade where I was supposed to actually learn to read and write my teacher didn’t teach. She would scream at me and scare me so much to where I remember , one day when she called me to read in front of the class and when I messed up on a word she would yell at me , and the whole class used to laugh at me. I remember that I cried in front of everyone that day and I remember exactly what she had said to me that day, “ grow up , learn to read”.

Since Jr. High I haven’t read a single book that was assigned to me in English class, hence my poor English grades. In fact, when my marks started to improve in English my GPA soared from a 2.1 to a 3.0. When my marks finally improved is when I started getting along with my English teacher. I never got along with any of my English teachers for some unknown reason. Maybe because I hardly did any work at all.

The inevitable had happened; I, as a small child, was demanded to read. A little antisocial human being launched into a world of, at first, difficult words and lengthy phrases. While words and literacy were forced into my mind, I had reluctantly begun the adventure to enjoy and accept the art of literature. Later however, my hopes and dreams were crushed to pieces by a gruesome teacher with an interesting form of a so called “grading policy.”

Prior to my development of routine introspection and, consequently, maturation, I wrote not to encapsulate my ever-growing discomfort towards life, but rather to gain praise and acknowledgement for my efforts in writing. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I sat on the floor of my kindergarten classroom criss-cross applesauce-style as my teacher, Mrs. Glickman, asked the class to write a short story and to provide an illustration to accompany it. With smudged and disorderly speckles of graphite sprawled across my paper, I managed to write a story in my signature chicken-scratch handwriting. The story was relatively simple, about a girl who had thought she was a hideous monster until she looked into a river reflection and realized she was beautiful. I even drew (or attempted to draw) a beautiful girl for the second part of the assignment. At the next school assembly, Mrs. Glickman granted me a sky-colored paper, reading “Award of Recognition: Kiana Lucin, for her creative writing and exemplary drawing skills.” From this point on, I prided myself in writing, and excelled

Writing is often considered mundane and banal to some students. In fact, people have even written things down since the beginning of time. I dreaded writing until I had Mrs. Dunlap for 4th block English during my 8th grade year at Mount Juliet Middle. This is the story about how she made me the writer I am today with what I like to call ‘Write’speration.

Many of my teachers were unwilling to spend one-on-one time with me to allow me to understand at the correct pace, that was until last year when Sarah Wansley stepped in and really helped me to understand grammar, reading, and writing. The most recent book I read was Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom, although the book was required for a school project I now consider it to be my favorite book. During the research of Alboms memoir I learned not only how to research and look at the background and continuations of some novels, but also that there are books for everyone to enjoy and get lost in no matter how many book you have read and found completely boring. I often found reading to be just that, reading, I never digested and understood the text. I would read a sentence and two seconds later I could not tell you a single word of it, because I was never digesting the words on the page to make sense. That is the main reason I did not enjoy many books assigned for school, I would only read it to answer the questions on the study guide and then a majority of the time I would fail the tests because I never took the extra time to enjoy the

Have you ever played a video game that you strive to beat the highest score, but try after try you fail each time? Well, that’s much like my literacy experience. Paper after paper, I had been unsuccessful yet for some reason I continued turning them in. Growing up, I realized I took advantage of the importance of reading and writing. Eventually, I learned the real challenge of perfecting a paper during my ninth grade year in honors English. When I started the class, I was in the habit of turning in terrible first drafts as my finals. I was in a comfortable state with putting little effort and time into my work, yet still wanting to achieve a high grade. Teachers practically participated in this by passing me without helping me in my struggle

I’ve gotten used to spell check so all I have to do is spell the word somewhat right and then it’s spelled correctly. On the ACT during the writing portion, I struggled to spell words that I used to be able to spell perfectly. This led to me having to think of other simpler words to spell that I could put in place of the word I couldn't spell, which took up a lot of time. This also couples with the fact that I’m not that great at writing. I’m dreading taking more english classes in college as english has always been my worst subject, and I know that whatever I major in will not require me to take more english courses as I hate english as a subject. I don’t know why I’ve never taken a liking to english. If I had to guess it would be all the grammar rules, but I don’t think that that’s all I dislike about learning english. Part of it is having to write papers that I have no interest in writing, but I still write it just so I can get a decent grade in the class. I have no clue when my essay on Of mice and men will ever come in handy other than to get me a grade in english 9. On top of that, I dislike being forced to read, and I just dislike reading books in general. I’ve never come across a book that I’ve actually wanted to read. I think this is because I’m a slow reader, and I often find myself zoning out in the middle of the page, and just staring at the words in

In sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, I was blessed with a wonderful English teacher, Mr. Trucano. Many of my classmates felt he was strict and maybe a little OCD, but I felt different. Mr. Trucano developed his own system for teaching English. His system came every easy to me and brought enjoyment. I was learning college level English at sixth grade. For three years, I learned how to structure and edit sentences, create outlines, write papers and so much more. However, three years were not enough time for him to teach me everything there was to English. I discovered high school would not compare with Mr. Trucano since I had not learned anything new.

When you’re young school is all about popularity and friends, but with a lack of word knowledge reading in class, especially out loud can destroy your credibility. I came from a blue collar background and none of my family ever attempted college, so I figured college wasn’t that important. During school, if it wasn’t interesting I didn’t want to participate or take the time to improve myself. Reading and writing was just another uninteresting, check the block, fake it till you make it, subject for me. I was a slow reader and often times I had to ask the teacher what a particular word meant. What was even worse was having to read out loud in class. Again, the fact that I was a slow reader and I often times mispronounced words caused me to be the subject of reticule and embarrassment. I started to hate reading because I couldn’t do it as well as the other kids; this continued from elementary

Prior to attending Mrs. William’s English Comp 1 class, I felt marginally confident about my writing, however, I knew I needed improvement. You visually perceive, I’ve been out of school for proximately thirty-three years and honestly, not knowing what to expect these questions arose, “Can I genuinely write”? “What type of writing will be required”? “How well will I do”? When I stepped into the classroom and gazed about the room, I felt out of my element. The students were much younger and more keenly intellective than recollections but, I was here for a reason and that was to improve my writing. During my childhood, reading was a passion of mine, reading often and reading more books than I can recollect. As I reflect, reading a great deal

Lacking experience in writing and reading, English is my most feared subject. It is the one and only vulnerable spot in my in my mind. I hate writing and I hated reading, other than sports pages in the newspaper or sports books. My earliest time that I started reading and writing was extremely abhorrent for me. Sometimes, you could even say that some of these experiences bothered me. It was quite hard because I wasn’t able to focus on what I need to do. I was even struggling to write my own name. The young mind that I had, it was so easy to get distracted on what I need to learn and also accomplish, especially for the future ahead of me.

Reflecting on my peers work, I noticed a wide variety of writing quality, It varied in length and quality. Comparing it my own I can’t say that my personal writing is better. Since the people ranged differently. Some of my peers writing was better than mine and others were better. I did realize that most people put in a lot of effort and comparing my writing to that it shows that I need to put in more time to get the quality of writing. Furthermore, I was surprised when there was a minimum of 500 words some people went beyond the requirements while other did it. During the debates, some individuals did put in the effort to make a good argument and that showed through in their mid-term. And since it was a group debate assignment a lot of experience and levels of writing came together to come up with the best outcome.