My Writing Process Reflection

In the 2011 article “Helping Students Meet the Challenges of Academic Writing”, educators Linda Fernsten and Mary Reda offer innovative self-reflective writing exercises that post-secondary instructors can employ to help students improve writer self-image and academic writing. The authors’ rationale for reflective and practical writing strategies were developed from direct classroom experience, and are based on four (4) assumptions. Their claim that self-reflective writing can aid student writers in overcoming conflict (due to dominant culture, upbringing, former writing experiences, gender, and other marginalizing factors) to improve writer self-identity is plausible. However, their argument that cross-curriculum academic writing can be improved through self-directed, self-reflective writing requires further investigation.

My writing styles have changed drastically over the past four years of high school. This memo will explain how my writing has changed and how my knowledge of writing has improved.

Writing is different for everybody. After reading the first part of On Writing Well by William Zinsser my perspective toward writing changed; starting off by the fact that he admitted that “writing is indeed hard” (12). This author, with humorous stories and anecdotes, explained several principles that help one understand how to write efficiently. First of all, be yourself! Zinsser emphasizes the fact that you should be true to yourself and your writing in order to engage a reader in your piece. Other essential principles are: Be precise and avoid clutter. He claims that “the secret to good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components” (7). As I read, I noticed how important engaging a reader becomes to an author but Zinsser reminded me how my writing was made to “please myself first” and then an audience (25). The last but not least rules to follow are: to “avoid clichés” (Zinsser, 35) and “separate usage from confusing jargon” (Zinsser, 45). It is important to maintain your reader active by expressing clear thoughts and avoiding typical sayings that only make a literary piece

Reflecting at my own writing process and using my experiences as a way to shape my future practice as an English teacher, has brought light to the concepts of style, providing opportunities for multiple forms of writing, creating low-stakes writing opportunities, addressing authentic audiences, and establishing non-judgmental/safe space classrooms. Based on the theory that Milner et al. outline in the "Process Model," (2012, p.339) I would almost explicitly follow this pedagogy as a way to help students explore writing. For example, I would focus on the steps relating to revision (step 2), teaching multiple forms of writing (step 3), creating opportunities for teacher conferences (Step 4), and providing students with authentic, and divers audiences

People have many ways that they write. Some do a process of doing drafts so they can look through, edit and make the paper better. Others will just write a paper and turn it in. My process consist of starting with making a thesis. Then from the thesis I create the topic sentences for the topic at hand. The best way to write the essay in a good format and have good detail in the writing I would write a paragraph a day. By doing that process it allows me to get what is needed out on the paper so none of the paragraphs are mixing content and making the paragraphs less structured. This process not only makes writing essays less stressful while also getting the paper done quickly.

The writing process takes different shapes and sizes for every person. No two people write the exact same way, but describing my writing style can help others to see some basic patterns. Personally, overcoming distractions to find the motivation to start assignments is the hardest part, followed closely by attempting to keep myself on track. I also have several repeated, or recursive, tendencies throughout my process. In the end, it all comes together into one circular system, in a similar fashion to eating dinner at a dining court.

I have been practicing on how to improve my writing over the past few weeks, which has taught me a great deal about writing. My teacher would like me to evaluate and explain my strengths and weaknesses in my own writing. This evaluation is in between my two essays. One on my own and another with my teacher's help. I have strengths and weakness in my introduction, body paragraphs ,and my conclusion.

My experience in writing is rather slim, and primarily for the sole purpose of communicating with fellow colleagues and clients for business needs. Conversely, I have been commended for my writing skills. Prior to college, I never analyzed my writing process, I just did what came natural. Nevertheless, I believe my process begins by jotting down my thoughts, with no rhyme or reason; I lay them out, then begin fitting them together like puzzle pieces of a complete message. I rewrite my paragraphs accordingly, so my message flows flawlessly. Writing, as in responding to emails, comes rather easily to me; with content of familiarity. I purposefully clean up my writings for grammar, spelling, the removal of filler words, and to place transitional

When I look back at my writing before having any college experience, I can see that I had a lot to work on. I can say that I was never really a big fan of writing anything much less essays. Even when I was younger, I just did not have a great big interest in writing. This was because I felt that I could not elaborate as well as others. I was not use to having to write anything really, but I now feel that I have a better grasp on the steps that I need to take to get my writing on the level that it needs to be.

From the first assignment to the last, I realized that my writing process has changed a lot. I usually write my papers in my room, whether on a desk or on my bed. I did not organize my thoughts as eloquently as I should have. My ideas were more sporadic, and I did not give myself as much time to write it out. In addition, I was more worried about the page limit rather than the content of my work. Similar to the other assignments, I did not start my process with an outline. I went straight towards writing my paper without giving any structure, which did not help with the organization of my papers in this class.

Everyone has their own approach to writing, but there are always ways to learn new methods to improve their writing style. Personally, I have experimented with different approaches to improve my writing every year. However, I have realized that I still have a lot of room for improvement and exploration. After reading Foley, Murray, Lamott, Elbow, and Flower, I gained a better understanding in how to improve my writing and identifying the mistakes and styles I have adopted in my writing that are not as effective. Thus, these articles have explained many strategies and styles such as the five paragraph essay, steps to having a good writing process, and the way of revising a piece of work until it seems like the best product. In short, revising

My writing process has evolved throughout this course. At the beginning, I wanted everything to sound really good. I would sit and ponder on what word I should use, then at times I would fall asleep while I was “pondering” what the right word was. For most of the class I would right like that; I think I had the most change with the last literature review. Finally, I realized that I don’t have to write everything in the exact order it will be in my paper. The last literature review, I wrote in different sections, and it was really chunky. Another thing that changed was my desire to find just the perfect word I needed. I learned to be content with not knowing what word to use. When I didn’t like the wording, I would highlight it, and know that I could come back and fix it. This proved to be much better than sitting and stewing on what to write.

The only strength that I can think of when it comes to my writing style is expressing my ideas clearly and concisely. The last assignment was a little bit challenging because not in a million years would I have thought of active and passive writing styles. It’s not that I have not been taught these skills. However, writing has always been my favorite subject. Moreover, I am grateful that this class is teaching me about writing on a professional level because this is a paramount skill to have in any profession. The last assignments, Call and Domestic Violence, I struggled a bit because I classify my writing style as passive instead of active. When I discovered that active voice was frequently utilized in police writing, I was supervised. However,

Writing is way that we can express ourselves, it is a way to interface ideas and thoughts and to prove a point. Throughout my writing experience or process I have struggled with writing especially using details or really expressing myself my work. In this course Facts & Fiction: Portraits in World Art I expect to gain more knowledge on how to write a perfect essay, story, letter, and assignment. I expect to learn new genres and rhetorical situations. I also think my writing will improve academically and I will develop my skills in writing. Also taking my writing to a different point of view, level, and writing something different rather than the usual. I look forward to getting feedback from my peers and learning their thoughts on my writing and how they can help me improve.

A writer sits at his desk, scribbling on page after page, surrounded by heaps of crumpled paper. After pulling an all-nighter, the writer leaves with a brilliant composition in his hands. This is how I initially imagined the writing process, but after this semester, I now know that this far from the truth. It is impossible for a one to experience the writing process in isolation, and it does not take place over a few hours. Instead, I have found that the writing process involves extensive research, collaboration, and several revisits to the writer’s work. Throughout the writing process of this collective research project, I learned how to conduct proper research, connect evidence to my own ideas, structure my writing to make my composition, and collaborate with my peers afterwards to create several drafts prior to producing my final project.