Wearing a nice uniform that day, I was very excited to join the school. Mom always told me I never started crying when I heard the word ‘school’, instead I used to be happy. I still remember when I wrote the letter ‘A’. I was so happy. A letter I wrote in class brought me so much appreciation that I started loving the letters I always used to write in neat and clean handwriting so I was popular in school as ‘the girl with a beautiful handwriting’. Time went by. Those were the first memories I have about my writing. From my kindergarten, I passed to elementary and middle school. That time I never hated writing, whether it was English or my native language, Nepali. Writing in my language, I used to enjoy so much because it was easier. But, writing in English, I never achieved, how stereotypical American writes. I used to read the newspapers that came in English. I would start a line and was just able to read a few lines with full understanding. At that time, I felt why another language is hard to learn and your native language is easy. I had an English teacher who was from India. He had the personality that anyone interested in English would envy. He used to make learning so interesting by giving us the example of writing. When I wrote a piece of essay in his class, he showed the whole class how writing should be written. I was happy, but I thought upon myself how any native English speaker would react to my writing. I always had that fear inside me even though I used to write
Many people have a habit of writing differently and it can be good or bad. In the essay “The Importance of Writing Badly,” Bruce Ballenger encourages students to write spontaneously without any rules or “error-free sentences.” He believes that there are no wrong way to express how a person feel. It may not be the correct way to write it but it still allows a person to write continuously. Ballenger allows students to write badly because he is more interested in encouraged thinking.
I walk over to the nine-year-old boy sitting across the room as I reach for my pen and sheet of paper. As I approached him, I halted. Quietly, I asked him what he needed help with. Looking confused, he asked me what the word bough meant. I froze. I didn’t know what the word meant. Embarrassed of not knowing a fifth grade word, I asked the teacher for some assistance and after she told me what the word meant I understood and was then able to explain to him that a bough is just a synonym for a branch. Noticing that David was still confused as to what he was reading, I sat beside him and allowed him to read the passage out loud to me. While I defined the words that he didn’t know and listened to him read the passage, I was able to classify him as an English learner who just wanted to be just as good as the other kids.
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.
It is essential to understand that classes taken in grade school do not give students a full understanding of each subject. With the topic of writing, there will always be a new lesson to learn, an aspect to improve, or a differing way to explain. Author Craig Vetter states in Bonehead Writing, “This is your enemy: a perfectly empty sheet of paper. Nothing will ever happen here except what you make happen.” Each story, essay, or response comes from a writer’s experiences. With each attempt at a new piece comes an underlying story of emotions the writer is facing. Each person’s writing is unique and the ideas people have are related to their past experiences and what they believe to be familiar with when deciding which writing style to use. As a high school student, I have learned many things about writing that helped me become the improved writer I am today, but the most essential advice I have received is practice makes perfect. Although there is no actual perfect way of writing, I have discovered that each essay I write, my writing improves. It is easier to spot mistakes, find areas to improve, and ponder elevated word choice to use.
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.”
As a writer, I find myself getting lost. Typically, when I go to start writing I hit a brick wall. It’s as if all my thoughts suddenly escape my mind and I draw a blank. It takes me forever to conjure up some form of a thesis and then takes even longer to figure out what I should write to support it in a way that makes sense. Then, attempting to find a way to organize my ideas and put them together in cohesive paragraphs seems like an impossible task in the moment. It is not uncommon for me to get flustered and just throw something down on the paper because I get anxious seeing how much work is left to do. If I end up going back to read it over prior to submission,
As writers, many students write to the expectations of their professors and not to their fullest potential. Throughout English 101 I had been writing only to please my professor or to fill the basic requirement to pass English. I always felt that my writing ability was never enough for my professors throughout the previous years. They always wanted clear and concise essays, which for some reason was unreachable by me. However, starting college and taking English 101 helped me with my weaknesses and changed my technique of writing essays. My experience in English 101 taught me to write to my fullest potential and to write what I felt; rather then writing what was required.
Throughout my many years of taking English courses I have learned great things. With this, I have had great writing experiences and developed strength in writing. Though I have learned many new skills on writing, I still strive to be a better writer. In this essay, I will discuss how my education, prior writing experiences, writing strengths, and writing weaknesses factor into my choice.
Before starting school, I incapable to write or speak English at all. Because English is my second language I had a hard time understanding how to read and write in English. My parents and older siblings would often teach me the basics of having to know my numbers, ABCs, and by making me memorizing saying simple sentences and questions. English is everyone in my family's second language and because we did not grow up learning how to speak, read, and write in English which made it difficult for me when school started.
Throughout my education and employment, I had positive responses to my writing and grammatical skills, I am now learning this was incorrect praise. When submitting my passage of writing to online proofreading applications and to friends and family for consideration the conclusion was that my writing is strong in most areas but it still needs work. Strengths are in my use of grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary; but both groups noted weaknesses in my use of too many unnecessary words, especially adjectives and verbs, weak starting of sentences, complicated language and frequent use of a passive voice. Even though the online tests did not show it as an issue, know I have weaknesses in some grammar rules, specifically "i before e except after c" and incorrect punctuation particularly when using informal language.
I consider I improved my writing in English this semester, in this sense, practice was essential. Firstly, I had an important contact with the language, which allowed me to make progress in writing and reading. The tools that professor provided us were very useful. Chapters were helpful in teaching me writing strategies and giving techniques that make it less complicated. For instance, transitional words, outline and brainstorm have already become a habit, even in Portuguese. Moreover, sites such as Corpora, Linguee and Paper Rater helped me a lot with the language in use and grammar corrections. Of all the things we learned, planning was the most relevant for me. In my opinion, it is the most important part of a text, because after I have
All throughout my years of schooling, I’ve had just about, one paper that was about one page long, due every year. My papers never had to be more than one page in length. Therefore, I did not have to do much writing or do many essays. Surely not enough to remember any of the assignments. Writing has never been something I enjoyed doing, so I never bothered to many any memories of my writing experiences. I did not think it was necessary to remember any of them since I only had to do them to get a grade. The only writing experience I remember was the first assignment I had in this English 100 class about a writing experience. All week long, I sat there thinking about what to write about, but nothing came to mind as a topic. Then, one thing came to mind, but it was so very vague, I could not write the length that was needed for the assignment. I could only think of a few sentences to write for it. After sitting for a few moments longer, I thought, how about I write about how difficult it was for me to write this essay before it was due.
I have been writing since I have been in Middle School. I have realized that by college it was easier for me to write down my thoughts in order for me to remember what I have said or done. Writing out my thoughts gives me a sense of recollection, knowledge, and pacification that gets me through my day. I pictured writing to be as simple as jotting down a few sentences, but as I got farther in school I realized that there is more to it than just writing sentences. English has been my most difficult subject I have ever endured, but I have somehow been managing to make excellent grades and achieving all requirements. First in the essay, I will discuss my experiences in the English life that I’ve taken so far up until college. The second part will list my struggles in creating a thesis, a work cited, and properly citing my sources used in the papers.
English is a subject I have always felt strong with as a student, this area of strength has not only benefitted me in my this course but has helped me to succeed in every class I have taken. American literature so far has gave me a new and refined understanding, from read and writing to communicating my ideas in group discussions. Never before have I been able to have such a confident understanding of was I was reading and writing. I have gained a new and refined belief of what it means to annotate a text and why it is important, though I will always have reserved feelings about them. In discussion groups by referring to my annotations I am able to express my ideas and observations about the text. I have never before been so challenged with a piece of writing, throughout my career as a student prompts had always been specific and specifications were always strict. Writing literary analysis was not only a new type of essay writing for me but it required me to refer back to my annotations and think deeper about why I was having certain thoughts and opinions on a text to develop an argument. Whether it is reading, writing, or speaking the significance of everything I have mastered, and will continue to learn in english class will allow me to have fate in they way I express myself in the future.
In teaching and learning English, there are two aspects that should be concerned. The first one is the language skills such as speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The second one is the language components such as vocabulary, and grammar. These two aspects are taught in order to make the students achieve the ability in communicating both in spoken and written forms.