My Writing Disability

It was the year 1996 in the month of June, I will never forget that month and year because it

In the United States today, there are over fifty-one million disabled adults and children. Throughout our nation’s history, we have not allowed the best treatment and care for these numerous citizens. But, in the recent past, the government has passed laws, made exceptions, and thoroughly tried to provide accommodations to these people with special needs. While this is true, America, as a whole, still views this group as strange or different. Even though this is exceptionally normal, it is not correct. The United States needs to be opened up to the truth about their fellow American citizens. The people of America ought to understand that these disabilities affect not only those who are disabled, but that it affects the family and friends

I have always lived in Yucca Valley, so it is only natural to finish my education in the same area. I was born in Inglewood, Los Angeles in 1994. My parents moved to Hawthorn within a few months. After three years I found myself here in the desert. I have always lived in Yucca Valley, so it is only natural to finish my education in the same area.

At the age of five, I learned of my struggle concerning the topic of writing. In kindergarten, this wasn't too much of a problem (because of the lack of writing-based assignments). Once I got into first grade, where the level of difficulty increased, I learned that I was not a good writer. When I say I wasn't a good writer, I do not only mean my writing quality, I also mean the physical act of writing. To get over this, I was required to practice writing at home, along with being given extra/specialized homework. With all of this help, I learned to be better at handling my writing

My relationship with writing is hard, my writing doesn’t always flow well. My writing also doesn’t always come easily to me. More often than not, I have to sit and think for long periods of time, for to come up with ideas on how to start my essays. When I start with paper and pen my hand will start aching, and that makes it difficult to concentrate on what I am trying to express through my writing as it takes my mind off what I am currently thinking of writing down. Writing is the course I have always struggled with the most throughout high school, and through my first year of college.

In high school I was not the best at writing. I did not find this out until I was places in advanced English. I was used to writing papers that had to be simple. So when I started receiving C’s and D’s I told myself something had to change. I finally realized that I could not write as well as most of my classmates. So, what I ended up doing was making my papers more complex and making my sentences stronger. When I applied myself I became a stronger writer. As I took the diagnostic test I saw I was making a lot of mistakes. At the end I made a 70. From this I could see why I encountered the bad experiences in high school and in college.

Throughout the course of this semester in AP Lang, my eyes have been opened to many of the weaknesses I never knew I had in writing. Coming into this semester, I had heard about the difficulty of this class, but was not unduly worried about not receiving an A; I have always considered myself as a competent if not strong writer. However, after failing to attain desired grades on several important essays, I was devastated, and realized that although I had mastered the basics of grammar and writing, there was still much for me to work on. Also, I did not understand that much of my grade in AP Lang would be determined by speaking in front of others, which is not my strong suit. What I have come to find is that writing essays containing all of the new information we have learned throughout the semester, such as requirements for different types of essays and good writing strategies, takes a lot of work, time, and thinking. Unfortunately, my procrastination caused me to only get done what had to be done instead of putting in the extra work and truly understanding everything.

From a young age, I was considered a competitive individual in the activities I participated. Once I was given a challenge I would try my hardest to be number one. I have always loved to read, enter spelling bees and public speaking competitions. I have encountered many challenges in life, but writing has always seemed to be the most tedious activity. Soon I began to have to read more books, write papers, and do even more presentations. With everything piling so quickly, that competitive spirit within myself passed and was replaced with fear of not doing well. My fear lead to my struggles in my classes, especially English.

Initially my writing lacked structure and a controlling purpose which caused my ideas to be incoherent and hard for the reader to understand. These difficulties could be attributed to the fact that I am an art student plagued with the disorganization and non-verbal method of an artist’s brain. Being this way, interpreting and conveying my thoughts accurately and eloquently into the assigned writings was fairly tough. However, during the course of English 101 I was able to identify my weaknesses through the aid of writing communities such as peer review sessions and conferences with my professor. With the help from these resources and the writing process I learned to better organize my essays and maintain a controlling purpose in order to help my audience

On a scale to rate my writing ability I would rate myself a five. I believe I have trouble with sentence structure and I often find myself composing run-on sentences. My vocabulary level is adequate compared to others at my level of education. My spelling through, is laughable without an ability to spell grammar without a spell check at my disposal. I have no confidence in my capability to use correct punctuation, commas are a big problem for me as well as semicolons. I do not think I would rate my writing ability below a five because social media has enabled me to see other people’s writing ability.

Everyone have had that moment when they look back at their past-photo, Mother’s Day card, or a letter to Santa which would make them go red. That was the way I felt when I read over my essays from the beginning of the year. My old self wrote in a way which was informal, the word choices were not the best, and he also thought too highly of himself. That is why he was so surprised when his first essay got a measly 90. His ego had been boosted by his middle school teachers who would give an A to every student who put a bit of effort into the essays, just to be shot down by the harsh reality of high school. However, as that student progressed through the year, he improved as a writer by not using so many personal pronouns, became a reader of multiple

As time went on, I had more and more teachers that tried helping me with my writing, but nothing was working. All the different methods that I was taught, never helped. It was not until I entered my junior and senior year of high school where I found two teachers that taught me how to make my essay structure better,

If I was invited to an interview for a new job, I would choose not to disclose my learning disability to the interviewer. Despite the fact that there are many upsides to disclosure, I personally feel as though the cons outweigh the pros. Some of the cons include embarrassment, loss of independence, and overall discrimination you may face from employers. First of all, sharing that you have a learning disability can be very nerve-wracking or even embarrassing for some. People aren’t always accepting, and they may see you as someone who you’re truly not. This ties into the second reason why I wouldn’t disclose my learning disability in a job interview: loss of independence. When people find out that you have a learning disability, sometimes they

I realized that my literacy handicap that I had about a year ago had finally started to improve when I thought it would not be improving at all. From the reading point of view, I just imagined every story in my world, in which I am a side character of some aspect being a first-person resource within the story. As I progressed throughout school I would consistently use this same method for every story. The only time this would become a problem would be if the author would be speaking about their own opinions and thoughts on a subject or a certain idea at hand. In which in that point I try and hold my opinions to the side and put myself into their shoes and create a mental state of mind that they are in during the creation of this writing piece.

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.