The comforting sound of the click-clack of the keys, the smell of freshly printed words, the crisp feeling of having finished writing a master piece. For some, the art of writing is a frightening feat that has the equivalent appeal of being water-boarded. If you would have told me five years ago that I would be forced to write a five-paged essay with the use of scholarly books as well as peer-reviewed articles, I would have silently wept tears of fear. My writing is something that has taken me years to evolve and continues to be a learning process. From a young age I had always done everything in my power to escape having to write. I felt as if I lacked some magical ability to connect. I feared that my readers would not be able to grasp my message. For some obscure reason I felt that I was not capable of reaching pass the margins of the page and into my reader’s minds. But if this class has taught me anything it is how to push past my own mind and enter a world of ambiguity, obscurity, and creativity.
When I was assigned to analyze my writing progress I could not help but feel that I had failed to evolve. I was continuing to make errors and my grades were only marginally increasing from paper to paper. The anxiety and fear that I had finally reached a point in my writing career where I had plateaued, haunted me. Nothing is worse then being stuck at a plateau. I can only equate it to the feeling of driving across a dessert and seeing the same speckled, dead sand for
From elementary school to high school, I was taught that my writing had to be structured and follow strict criteria. After I arrived in Mr. Mukherjee’s ENG 102 class, I was given the opportunity to express my creative freedom through words and graphical pictures. It can often be difficult and challenging to improve upon my own writing abilities unless motived with an idea in mind. When looking back on my time at ASU, I thought about the goals that I wanted to address for myself and the course goals that my instructor had set for the class. These goals include ones that I had accomplished to the best of my ability and ones that I need to address as well as improve.
All writing comes in many different styles and attracts a certain audience in which it strikes their minds and opens them up to a new world of thinking or looking at things. “Writing to Connect” by Mary Pipher tells about this concept and elaborates on it greatly to encourage aspiring writers who may be feeling discouraged. Writing to Connect is a chapter in Mary Pipher’s newest book Writing to Change the World, where she discusses the use of powerful writing, changing aspects of the way people view things, and inspiring others to share their own stories and never be afraid of what you feel needs to be shared. Pipher directs the chapter toward aspiring writers to tell her audience they should never give up and inspires them with the use of rhetorical choices. Specific rhetorical choices provide further support for Pipher’s purpose of writing the chapter, she effectively writes to show her audience it’s never wrong to write what they feel, and to take chances in their writing. In “Writing to Connect” by Mary Pipher, she urges aspiring writers to push past their comfort zone of writing with the use of identification, personal anecdotes, and historical texts/occasions to effectively persuade them to never give up on what they feel needs to be said through writing.
From the early beginning of the school year to the current day, my writing skills and knowledge have improved and broadened over time. If not drastic, the change is noticeable nevertheless. For almost an entirety of eighth grade, assignments of varying difficulty challenged me to a degree. To be frank, some seemed as though they were beyond my comprehension and ability. However, determination amalgamated with knowledge obtained in advance helped me to overcome my doubts, for I exceeded my expectations; surprisingly good grades and comments are a delight, owing to the fact of that I don’t tend to think of myself as being proficient at writing. Consequently, the assignments given to me this school year shaped me into who I am as a writer.
When writing any document, the author must understand their audience before writing anything (Vandermey, 2012). Making sure my content has the attention of the reader is essential for any writer and understanding the process to write interesting material is the author’s goal (Emery, 2014). While all authors have fear and apprehensions about writing, their passion usually comes out on top when authoring a document or paper. My writing style creates fears, however, my passion to communicate properly with my audience drives my overall writing style.
Writing is a skill that is used on a daily basis in different mediums: emails, texts, academic papers, and social media platforms. While some mediums are more formal than others, writing in a proper way is still critical. For some, writing is second nature while others face difficulties constructing the perfect message. Growing up, the concept of writing was much more enjoyable than physically putting pen to paper. I found value in the idea of being able to express myself through my writing, yet when it came to academic papers, I froze. This was due to the fact that my writing was being judged, and that elicited fear which, in turn, made me second guess my writing abilities. While attending community college, I was required to take an
One of the areas in which we must all strive to improve to the best of our abilities is the potential to effectively articulate thoughts and ideas into our writing pieces. Improving my writing capability has been one of the most gratifying accomplishment because I have always been one to feel insecure about my assets as a writer. This insecurity spawns from self-awareness and knowing that writing can place you in a vulnerable state, as you allow others to perceive you personal notions and mental process. Some the most intimidating experience as a writer was having to write three essays within a short period of time because this type of task can demonstrate one’s genuine ability to both write coherently and rapidly. Due to these timed write,
It was two months ago when I discussed how big of a change it was for me to enter into a college writing class. Throughout my first semester attending writing 105, I’ve learned to “rise about my limits”. Reading and writing was a tool I always tend to struggle with yet I continued to focus on exceeding pass my goal. Each essay I wrote became better allowing me to not only learn more but grow as a writer. I started off being able to just write two page essays and now I’ve adapted to being able to write 7 pages without losing track. Over the semester my writing has improved due to dedication, having a purpose and analyzing my mistakes.
Throughout this semester, I have personally developed and improved as a writer, through the weekly writing tasks set for the writers Journal. This procedure of composing Journal entries and assessment tasks involves critical reflection on the information provided and on myself developing those skills. During my school years, books were always as a part of my life, reading gave me joy, swept me towards my memories and took me along Journies never been before. However, I never thought of myself as a writer, composing short stories, writings and texts for others to read. I have realised that my goal is to become an influential educator to children who are yet to discover their potentials, goals and interests. Loan and Muir (2017) say “as teachers,
This semester has proven to be challenging and time consuming, but upon completion it was worth it. Throughout this diminutive semester I have gained a vast deal of knowledge in literature. The topics I have explored this semester introduced me to new information and concepts. Writing a paper can be deemed as a personal challenge, writing is more than mindless thoughts tossed around on a piece of paper. It is a personality of its own, writing is its own art and it truly introduces creative thought. Writing is truly a gift, and will only continue to develop.
My interest in writing wasn’t always apparent to me even though I sought out activities that included the skill. I enjoyed English classes growing up, but I never thought I would utilize writing at a heightened capacity for different disciplines and my own creative pursuits. Soon enough, writing became an activity that I did outside of the classroom, especially in public health pursuits during my time in college and creatively post-graduation. It is a part of my constant development as a person who contributes to causes and activities that I care about and a part of the impact I believe I can make in the medical field.
I am similar to the novelist Anne Tyler because she once said “If I waited ‘til I felt like writing, I’d never write at all.” This is me all too well because if I also waited until I “felt” like writing I would not ever write either. Writing is not something I do for fun; it is like a chore. In this paper I will discuss what kind of student I am, how strong my formal English writing skills are, any special needs I have, my major, and dream job.
In order to improve my writing skills, I kept a journal, I wrote each and every thing I did. This journey of mine was going to have some ups and downs, but I knew that to really achieve my goal, I had to do everything possible to make it come true. I knew I’d have to stay committed to take on this challenge. My last year of high school came with some grave challenges. My English teacher focused more on writing. We wrote papers from short articles to writing a research paper as our last assignment. That itself, was a really big struggle. In the end, I made it through and ended up with a decent grade.
With the progress of my reading level and my writing skills, I grew to be more confident in my self, taking harder classes and turning in advanced work. All the work I put in, all the hours I struggled, and going to classes before and after school made me the reader and the writer I am today. One motto I have always lived by is, “there is always room for improvement”, meaning that having the right mind set or attitude can push you forward and help achieve any goal. Richard Nordquist, is a professor emeritus of rhetoric and English at Armstrong Atlantic State University, explains it perfectly when he says “Certainly you can change your attitude--and you will, as you gain more experience as a writer.” In my case, where I am now is the result
I’ve never been the type to just love writing. Before my senior year in high school, I always felt like writing was more of a job. I knew writing had educational purposes, but it still didn’t make the process any better. My whole view on writing changed last year. My 12th grade English teacher, Heather Carpenter, influenced the way I viewed writing. My whole class was assigned to write almost 30 papers for a Senior Portfolio. Each paper had us reflect on our high school years or tell us about our future plans. When I first heard about this assignment, I immediately dreaded all the work. As we all worked through the assignment, my dread turned into enjoyment for writing, all because of my teacher and they way I started to view writing. Even though writing can be difficult and time consuming, it’s good to be an open minded writer because it can release inner thoughts and emotions and make a person willing to consider new ideas.
The beginning was, is, and may always be the most challenging part of writing. I have told myself time and time again that if I cannot give a task my best, I will not give the task a single drop of my energy. The prediction of my failure is a self-fulfilling prophecy. I am finding that with the release of my pride my wings have the space to unfurl. Over the past three months I have written, edited, and rewritten more than I did during all the time I spent bound to an unforgiving chair in a chillingly white classroom with an instructor who droned on lifelessly.