Throughout my journey through English 111, I have learned a lot through all my papers and my writing has opened up within a way I never thought it would. I have many strengths in my papers, but also still have many weakness that I must improve on to be the writer I want to be at the end of this journey. Many pieces I have written this semester, many great ideas put into words that have simply flows onto the keyboard. At the end of the day every paper has it weakness.
When I started to write “A New Road” it was one of my first papers as officially a college student. I was nervous, I had taken a year off college to start to pursue my Military career. I knew I was going to be a little rusty, but that was okay, because I knew as time went along my writing would grow stronger and stronger.
I remember the first sentence that really stuck with me in this piece that I had written. “ Mid way through my journey, I made myself try and forget about home and everything I left behind”. These words are powerful to me it describes my strengths I have as a writer and how I can use my life experiences that I have already faced at such a young age, it brings the reader into my story.
With writing comes great control and being calm in the mind, that is something that helps me calm my thoughts and when you focus on one thing and put everything you have going on, in your head on to a computer or a piece of paper.
Strengths that I have, my words flow and the story I tell people can
The art of writing is a complex and difficult process. Proper writing requires careful planning, revision, and proofreading. Throughout the past semester, the quality of my writing has evolved significantly. At first, I struggled with the separation of different types of paragraphs, and I found writing them laborious. Constant practice, however, has eliminated many of my original difficulties, and helped to inspire confidence in my skills. As a collegiate writer, my strength lies in my clear understanding of the fundamentals of writing, while my primary weakness is proofreading my own work.
From writing thoughtful poems to research papers, I have experienced composing a diverse portfolio of literary analysis and criticisms throughout the school year. I started out the year writing minimally. By the end of the year, I noticed I was able to express my ideas and thoughts in a more clear and concise way on paper. Ultimately, each composition allowed me to widen my horizons as a writer and see how I could improve as a writer.
The ACT was one of the many steps I have had to take in preparing myself for college. In October I will be taking the test again and I desire to receive a score of 29 or higher. My scores were as follows: English 28, Mathematics 24, Reading 27 and Science 24. I strongly believe my reasoning for receiving such low scores was due to my lack of studying. I did not properly prepare myself for such an important test. There are multiple resources I could have used yet I wasted my time and did not take it seriously. Before retaking the test I aspire to grow in my writing by building up my strengths and knocking down my weaknesses.
Additionally, another weakness that I had when coming into English 101 was that I was a selfish writer. Like Trimble said, “His natural tendency as a writer is to think primarily of himself- hence to write primarily for himself.” (Trimble, 4) I was a writer who only cared about impressing one type of audience my professor and not writing to prove a point or expand my knowledge to several other audiences. However, after writing several unsatisfying essays I had come to realize that my style of writing was too narrow and boring. In this realization of writing I discovered that what matters the most is pleasing your audience (many not one), and
Although this paper had some frustration it allowed some of my few writing strengths to shine through.
Most of the time when someone is told to write a paper, they read the directions and follow the prompt. But when told to think about strengths and weaknesses of how they actually write those papers, it is a good eye opener to realize what needs to be improved and what is already superior quality. For my writing, being a perfectionist is in many ways a strength, but it can also be a weakness. My perfectionism affects all of my other strengths and weaknesses in my writing.
I can create my most creative writings in a peaceful enviroment. I'm easily distracted and as soon as I hear another noise my mind instantly steers off track. So when it's time to begin a paper I have the television off, kids in another room, and even the fan on low so I don't hear the ticking. This is my main reason for taking this class online because the sound of other key boards clicking is a huge distraction for me. I also keep a cold beverage and a junk food item on the table next to me to make the situation exciting.
In addition to being physically prepared for writing, I like to take a moment of silence before I start any writing. This gives me time to clear my mind of any miscellaneous thoughts and become focus before I start writing. This is similar to how monks meditate to keep their heads in a calm state of mind, achieving enlightenment and being able to do things better. Similarly to how people just close their eyes to gather their thoughts or to keep calm. I like to just close my eyes and gather thoughts about what I'm
The weaknesses I see in my writing are my sentence fluency and conventions. When I am writing an essay, it is difficult for me to have correct grammar and no run-on sentences.
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.
During the semester, I learned to focus on my strengths and work on my weaknesses. I could use my organization, paragraph structure, and transition skills to keep high quality writing. This will be helpful to assure an above average grade when I take English 102 during the summer. On the other hand, although students often try to avoid their weaknesses, I see them as useful. Knowing my weaknesses gives me the opportunity to work on them until they become strengths. For example, as I mentioned before, organization is presently my biggest strength. However, at the beginning of the course, it wasn’t. I had to practice and work on it until it became natural and
Have you ever been given an assignment where you say to yourself, “how the heck am I going to do this?” or maybe, “what am I supposed to write about?” Well that’s exactly how I felt, thought, and did with this writing journey. Coming up with something to say about my writing journey has been difficult. I would be bold enough to say nearly impossible. So impossible it’s like trying to get a camel through the eye of a needle. Okay that might be an exaggeration, but it has been difficult. The idea that I have a writing journey I understand. But thinking of an event or something that has made my writing the way it is has been difficult. So, what I’ve decided to do then is to write about my writing journey writing this paper.
My biggest weakness is my unlikeness for writing. I don’t enjoy writing because I am never satisfied with the papers I write. I read a lot of books, so when I write a paper I want it to be up to my standards. If I never had a deadline, I would continue editing my paper forever. I want my papers to have the perfect tone. I come off as robotic and boring in my papers. My papers are hardly interesting because
Trying to decide what your personal strengths are, is hard. For myself, I have grown in my strengths, and I’ve experienced my weaknesses. My personal strengths consist of: positivity, encouragement, laughter, and love. I pick these four because I feel that I am truly strongest in these aspects of my life. Being positive is a big factor in everything I do. I always want to be happy and joyful; not only to display Christ in me, but to make others feel the way I do. I want others to appreciate life and to feel any kind of uplift in his or her spirt. Positivity plays into encouragement. I make it my goal to make others feel better about themselves. My goal coming into college was to learn and know every person(s) name that I got the chance to meet. Just taking a few minutes out of your day to truly get to know someone, is such a blessing. It not only blesses me in new friendships, but it also blesses others because they feel that someone genuinely cares about them. Laughter is another characteristic I strive to pour out onto others. I laugh at practically everything. I love to laugh, and I love to make people laugh. I’ve learned the importance of laughter, and I just want to make one person smile every day. Love is my last of the four attributes. Love is so important to me. I love creation (Trees, birds, squirrels), God, and I love people. I just want the love that God has given me, to pour out onto others. I want others to know that I love them. These are my personal strengths
Writing is not just as simple as putting words down on a document or a piece of paper, it is a process. Within this intricate process are steps that involve more than just writing, such as critical thinking, planning, and editing. Using these steps has not only helped me when planning an essay but also when composing one. Throughout this course, I have managed to improve many skills and gain a lot of strengths, but I still possess some weaknesses. Overall, I believe my strengths have definitely outgrown these weaknesses and have led to a better, more high-quality writing process which leads to improved essays.