Whenever I get a writing assignment for class, it seems like a chore. I don’t have a problem with writing, but papers always seem to take more time than they should. Maybe this is due to poor planning on my part, but essays are usually an ordeal, and I dread actually doing the work to finish one. The task is simple enough, but putting it off always seems like a better alternative to writing. I do think about the paper that I have to write, but I do not put thoughts and ideas into a paper or outline until I absolutely need to do so. From the moment I am given an assignment sheet, I begin brainstorming about the paper. I may not use any of these ideas, but I think of them. I also have a tendency to forget good ideas, which leads me to think …show more content…
Because of this, it makes sense to clear my head rather than struggle with the paper. What I actually do to clear my head varies from listening to music, talking to friends, watching TV, or playing games, yet each activity allows me to get my mind off finishing an essay. For a little while, I’m able to go back to brainstorming while I have a little fun, and this makes the already-easy body paragraphs even easier. I make an effort not to forget about my papers, though, because procrastinating just leads to an unfun few hours before a deadline. The writing process changes in the sense that I have a very limited amount of time to finish working, and it causes unnecessary stress trying to complete a strong paper without being able to take a little break. While I feel my work doesn’t suffer from having to meet a fast-approaching deadline, I’d just rather not have to write a paper in an hour, or two if I’m lucky. While I don’t want to write a paper in one hour, I’ll usually try to complete it in one day. I feel that if I leave too much time between working on it, I’ll lose the mindset for writing and slow down the process. If this happens, I have to spend time getting mentally ready to write, and if I wait a long time between writing sessions, I’m liable to forget good ideas I may have had. Because of this, I make sure to get back to work and allow the words to flow once again. Depending on the topic and the class, I may have to write an additional three or
For one reason or another, I'm never able to get the ideas out of my head and on to paper. I can literally go hours looking at the computer ready to start my paper, and the ideas will never come to me. Then, once it is down to the real deal and the deadline around the corner, I stress more trying to put everything together the last minute. In addition, I’m over critical of myself during the drafting process. When it comes to letting my thoughts flow more naturally, I get frustrated with myself when my thoughts are not as organized as I want them to be. In my opinion, my writing process is ineffective because out of the four writing process steps needed to effectively write an essay, I only used drafting. I used it to write my first copy of the draft. It might be imperfect, there may be some grammatical errors, things may be a little out of place - but it's just a rough draft that I can tweak and edit as I go through the writing process. While developing my drafts, I can change and rework each one to be precise. Furthermore, drafting could be the most difficult part of the writing process for many people. For instance, it can be really overwhelming when you have an idea or a topic, but now you have to gather sources, write an outline of how you want an essay to look and figure out how to include enough information to meet word count
Writing was never a known weakness of mine. However, I could never confidently call it a strength. Throughout the course of this semester, my writing style has evolved and I have rid my writing of many habitual mistakes. I have learned to appreciate writing much more, and enjoy the moments where my mind meets words on a paper. Creativity has always been one of my strong suits, but through this course I catered my creativity to compose a variety of essays and speeches. Likewise, public speaking is something that I did not struggle with in the past, yet the structure of the class required a video speeches which was fairly new to me. All in all, I have been able to identify and modify gaps in my composition of writing and speech as a result of this course.
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,
Throughout this class I have learn many different writing styles. We used APA form of writing to type our paper and essay. I have also learned that it’s good to take your time and spend more time thinking about what to write, other than just righting a paper right off back. I have learned that it’s not a good idea to write a paper on the day it’s done, that’s more like a ruff daft. My teacher have helped me understand different point of writing. Which all writing deal with an ethos, pathos and logos, either one or all of them will run through anything that tell you anything in writing. From what emotion are there to who have the rights to speak at the moment to what are the facts to agree with this person. As a class we have read articles, bio from many people to understand that it’s more then what the person is writing. Reading between lines and analyzing a part of the story can tell you more then what the writer is saying. Working together to understand something and work better than being alone thinking about a situation you can’t understand.
Sometimes, I just put all of my papers away and do something else, but usually (I have already begun!) I don’t allow myself to give up writing. Also, I tell myself, “I should write because I must, because I will write this anyway today or tomorrow. Why not do it right now?! So, write!” In addition, I try to begin from the middle. For example, if I need to write an essay, I don’t always begin with an introduction. Often, I write body paragraphs, then introduction. Then I may correct my paragraphs or even swap them, and then I write a conclusion. Very rarely do I write a conclusion first, and then the rest of the essay. Although it may look funny to start an essay with a conclusion, sometimes this helps me to stick around and continue writing.
During this semester in English 107, I have progressed more as a writer. Before I went to University of Arizona, my writing was rigid. I wrote five-paragraph TOEFL style essay all the time in my high school life. After I attended in English 107, I was not confident about my writing skill. Throughout these three projects we have done, I become more and more confident about my writing skill than before. The Student Learning Outcomes also helped me to grow as a writer a lot. In these goals, I did well on several of them, but I still need to work on the other goals.
I do write in a different voice than the one that I use in my personal day-to-day interactions, but it also depends on the style of writing and the situation. There are various kinds of papers that I have had to write in my academic career, such as, persuasion, argumentative, literature reviews, research, reflections, compare and contrast or descriptive. My voice in these different types of papers changes depending on the style I am writing; I am still the same person, just portraying my personality and voice in a different way. I believe this is one of the easiest ways to appeal to a certain audience and to attract people to read your writing.
“Hey, you! Pay attention!” A common statement I tell myself anytime I try to write a paper. Procrastination is a large portion of my writing process. I believe my best work is produced when I’m in a time crunch. The stress of time running out just makes the thoughts flow like a river of words.
I learned about the different styles of essays and how I can effectively improve my writing techniques and integrate them into my professional writing experiences. I know what to look for and how to improve my writing text. Knowing how to apply these techniques in my writing will better able me to write informative and persuasive documents and describe the detailed facts into my professional career writings. By knowing what a thesis statement is, it will allow and guide me to keep my argument focused when writing for my work place.
As a writer in English 102 I learned different styles and techniques when writing an essay. Even though having to transition from high school to college was really difficult to comprehend. Especially, the learning styles that I was given such as hegemony, ideology and other cultural studies that I wasn’t familiarized with. However, I take my time off and fully understand what these concepts really mean. I started to read the big red book and take notes about cultural studies in class. Hegemony and ideology started to make sense. I can understand how our society shapes these cultural studies. Especially, wealth because this power can truly change people. That is why power is only meant for certain people, it also makes sense that if every individual really want power our society would corrupt. Imagine everyone in our society having lavage lifestyles. The economy will go downhill because who needs a job when you have lots of money. Also, they don’t even want to bother the things concerning our economy and/ or our environment. It is why applying cultural studies outside the classroom can help understand the importance of power. The example I mention also creates
After many years of writing essays for school assignments, I remember catching myself being stuck before writing wondering how to start the essay or what other details to include. Until now is when I know that it’s called Writer’s Block. Funny how before starting and during the journal I experienced writer’s block. When I experience writer’s block, I tend to pause for a couple of seconds or a few minutes to gather myself by taking a deep breath and concentrating without straining myself to think harder. Also, if I’m home and experiencing writer’s block, I’ll grab a snack or something to drink in order for me to at least get up walk a couple of step to get my blood flowing. While I walk I can also think about ideas for the essay, usually it
Writers get what is called “writers block” when they are unable to produce new work. Me, I get what is called “mental block”, which is my inability to keep my train of thought. Writers block and mental blocks are similar in a sense they both impact your ability to put together your thoughts. Normally this causes me to write a wall of words, in result not allowing me to express or get my main idea across clearly. Spawning uncertainty, disorientation, and unnerve, that prevent me from producing my own work. Trying to remember or trying to figure out how certain things in my essay should go is a constant struggles that came about from my block in thoughts. Leaving me gazing at a blank paper trying to figure out how or what to put on
When I'm actually writing, I write as fast as a turtle can crawl. A 2 page essay usually takes me around 6 hours to finish. My teacher once told me to use a process called brainstorming which I tried but found it not very helpful. It's no brain buster for me to start an essay. I just sit down, roll up my sleeve and start jotting down that first sentence. But what comes next is an arduous journey. I usually have thoughts going on in my head and while I'm pondering on which thought to put down on paper, I would forget what they were and I have to start thinking all over again. It is extremely taxing on me mentally. Once I'm stuck, which occurs almost after every sentence, I would reread the whole essay again. Worst yet, I have a fond habit of procrastinating. I can only write in peace and quiet, and that's only possible after everyone's in bed. Then surrounded by the infinity darkness of my room, I would merge with my paper and pen under the dim table lamp voided from the consciousness of space and time. Only when dawn glimpse through my window, would this timeless eternity be shattered. I would wait until night to start my writing trek, and "night" means the night before the assignment is due. This way I can finish the essay in one attempt instead of having to span over
There are many writing styles that many people pick up as they go through there many years of schooling. Each person picks up the same type of writing styles but as years go by people seem to pick up there own little types of writing style that separates them from everyone else. As I have gone through many years of English classes I have acquired more and more skills and many more are sure to come as I continue my education. My writing skills have only gotten better from the time of ninth grade English class until today. Since my days back in junior high school I was only taught the basic skills to write papers and since then they have grown to make me a decent writer. I have many strengths and also
A writing assignment used to mean an easy five-paragraph essay. It was an essay that students mastered and could complete in an hour. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case and we are now assigned papers with a requirement of at least five pages. Throughout the past week, I have asked several classmates about their assignments, specifically, about their writing process. From there, I noticed that several students did one thing similar…they all gave up after just an hour or so. While, I am no stranger to procrastination, I never thought this would be a common part of the writing process for college students. After carefully examining the responses I understood that while “taking a break”, students thought: new ideas would come to them, they would get more time to research, and maybe the requirements would change.