My Challenges As A Writer

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.

From a young age, I have always been taught to understand the value of education and learning. Reading and writing have been emphasized to me as tools for success, that should always be constantly improved, for as long as I can remember.

All of these things - diction, details, language, syntax - must be woven seamlessly together to create a sound essay. That is hard work, hard work that I did not want to do. I love writing, but I struggled more than I thought I would and feared that my lack of creativity would write the essay instead of granting me control. But before I could take control of actually writing, I needed to decide what to write about.

Writing has never been my strong suit, simply because I am not interested in the given topics. However, the times I really like to write is when I can talk about a topic I love talking about. In those essays, I can write non-stop, but as a college student, in my experience, “free write” topics are rarely given, which brings a weak spot to me. If there is no free write assignment, often times it is a topic I cannot relate to. I need to learn how to get out of my comfort zone when it comes to writing.

I started writing my essay by thinking about the obstacles that I had encountered in life. In my essay, I wrote about how I was struggling in the AP U.S. History class. The most challenging part of writing my essay is how to organize the essay. It is very difficult to decide which moment to include in the essay. I wanted to focus on the AP U.S. History story, but I also believed that it was important to talk about the struggles that I had to face when my family immigrated to Chicago. The least challenging part of writing my essay is coming up with the similes and metaphors because I often used them in my writing, so they just came naturally in my head. The feedbacks that I received from my peers were very helpful. They helped me fix my grammar

Essay writing became difficult when I started 10th grade Honors English. My papers would never get above a C which baffled me. I had done well in previous English classes prior and received high marks on all my creative writing assignments. By the end of the year I realized it had to do with my thought process. My imagination wasn’t beneficial when it

When beginning any writing assignment, it can be a rocky start. It involves critical thinking and applying to your writing. First, you have to be skilled and be prepared in writing to get where you want to be. Therefore, my writing was complicated until I got into writing better than before. There comes a time when you have to start from scratch and work until you earn what you deserved. It was complicated to figure out what to write about, and to be precise. At first, I had adequate writing skills, but as I progressed through middle and high school, I have made vast improvements in my writing.

In high school I challenged my writing skills by taking advanced placement language and literature. Both courses assigned essays that required scholarly text to support my points and ideas stated throughout the paper. My biggest takeaway from these classes was that having textual evidence from reliable sources will help strengthen my writing, also known as ethos to persuade the audience. During my junior year I grasped the concept of ethos, pathos, and logos, how each could be used to shape writing concepts or perspectives. Personally it takes me a little bit of time to adjust from different writing contexts that need to be addressed, but I always thoroughly analyze instructions to reach success. I improve as a student when I practice analyzing

Typically, after being assigned an essay, my first step used to be sitting in front of the computer and starting to type aimlessly with no specific goal in my mind. This process usually ends up taking hours, and I do not end up accomplishing much at the end. This year, I plan to formulate a new process that will hopefully improve my writing exceptionally. Breaking down the essay writing into pieces will result in quality content. The writing process that I devised incorporates some of the basic elements of writing such as: prewriting, revising, and editing.

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

Writing is a process that is difficult to start, yet impossible to end. To sit down with a notebook and formulate the first thought that is notable can take a minute, but often takes me hours. My mind is very focused yet the focus of my thoughts wonders. Thus, to say that I was born to be a writer might just be the farthest from the truth. Now there is one large contradiction in that statement. Once I begin the writing process I have a tendency to get caught up in it. While my writing process as well as my writing style tends to vary based on topic and circumstance, my methods remain the same. I know that a course with such heavy writing will bring upon its own set of challenges, I hope to keep realistic expectations while utilizing my strengths as a writer in order to reach my course goals.

Originally I hated having to read and write, it was a horrendous repeated process that I was forced to uptake everyday of my academic life. All up until my dad started playing audio books in the car on the way to school. Now I can thank my dad for encouraging my sister and me to read, because without his guidance I would still hate reading and writing.

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.

When it came to the essays writing became a little trickier because I had to understand what it was I needed to write about and the style in which I need to write it in. There are nine essay writing methods which I learned while attending this course: exemplification, compare/contrast, cause and effect, proposal, narration, process, division/classification, definition, and argument. The only problems I encountered when trying to write the essays that were assigned to me by the instructor was finding suitable subject matter to write about. Once I found my topics for my essay, everything else became easier. I would first produce a rough draft and then the students, the instructor, and myself would go over them in class and decided if what I was writing was in its best form. Most of my rough drafts needed improvement, but if it didn’t it wouldn’t be a rough draft, so it was understood. My final drafts were very satisfying for me as well as the grades I received on them.

During the last 8 weeks, I have had the pleasure of taking Writing 101 as my first class along with Biology 103. I was faced with many academic challenges along the way and will work towards those for the next courses I take at the University of Maryland University College.