Personal Narrative: My Creative Nonfiction

My identity as a writer comes from how I view a piece of writing. I view it as art. To create something that intrigues someone, that makes them angry, sad, or confused is my goal when I write. I want the audience to feel something. It just so happens that for most people, writing with the strategy of pathos in mind is always extremely effective. My environment growing up was that of complete creative freedom and I had the privilege to be able to explore my interests at such a young age. My experience with growing my skills as a writer I think started with my love for creating artsy things if you will, but after many years of being stuck as a novice, I developed exponentially during my high school years. I came into my own as a student and learned how to let my longing to stay creative creep into every project I could get my hands on. But I struggled where I perceived creativity wasn't needed i.e. math and history. I became uninterested and skated by in that aspect. Why would I put so much of my time into something that so strongly opposed who I am as a person?

One of my strengths as a writer is when I start to write I get into a writing flow, it is when someone's thoughts and writing feel like they are completely in sync as they write, and I am sure that almost everyone gets into a flow when they get focused enough. The problem for me is getting into that writing flow in the first place. I am talking about the common writer's block; also, another weakness that I found when I was in English N50 is that I have a particularly hard time writing about myself. I did improve over the course, but I still struggle. The last skill that I exceeded in my last English class is proofreading other classmates work, and that was either because I truly am good at proofreading, or it was because there was a lot of

When it comes to writing I have a mental breakdown, I get nervous, overthink, and emotionally stressed. These three words describe me as a writer. In high school I would have a difficult time starting papers, often times my weaknesses was grammar and sentences fragments. How I feel about writing is how I feel when a love one dies. It's like as if I'm at a funeral and my paper is the one being funeralized. I think the reason why I am how I am about writing is because my college English teacher in high school was so harsh on my papers, and ever since then I've been traumatize to write papers.

I have always been pretty successful in school; however, writing has always been one of my greatest weaknesses. The overwhelming pressure of coming up with what to say and how to say it is extremely stressful for me, and I typically give up on perfecting whatever assignment I am working on. Up until high school, my writing had accomplished just enough to pass me on to the next course. My experience at Savannah Arts Academy, however, inspired me to approach writing in a completely new way.

My growth as a writer was evident in my second peer review. In contrast to the first review, I offered comments concerning sentence structure, grammar, parallelism, APA style, and clarity as well (C. Twyman, personal communication, May 2015). It was obvious that my understanding of scholarly writing had improved. I was starting to see how the conventions of writing worked together to form a complete paper, however I was still unsure about my ability to analyze competent scholarly writing. Although my comments had increased in variety, I still found myself unsure about how to give appropriate directives. In communication with Cheryl, I wrote, “maybe reword this” (C. Twyman, personal communication, May 2015). This short but sweet comment

One of my strength as a writer is that I always have something to say. It is not hard for me to come up with a topic to write or speak about. It is important that I know and understand the audience in which I am writing. I would have to say my challenges are staying focus on topic during a writing assignment. Brainstorming can be difficult at times. I come up with all types of ideas, but struggle sometimes choosing which ones to use in my writing.

I would be an outstanding student in Spelman College's faculty classes because I am hard worker. My work has always came first even when I had experienced a big transition in my life I didn't allow that to stop me from doing my work. My work was always a outlet for me to express myself and to show my teachers how I really think. For instance, in my English Composition Class we read a poem called "I Want A Wife by Judy Brady" then we read a book named "Fences by August Wilson", and one day we were in class discussing the poem in the book and it shocked my teacher when I made the connection between the two. I thought my teacher made us read "I want a wife" because in the book "Fences" the main character named Troy expected everything in that

Writing has always been a tough subject for me. As long as I can remember, I struggled with reading which, reduced my ability to find words for writing. I tend to have awkward sentences and find it difficult to have my ideas flow from one to the other. I was nervous to take a college writing class but, I’m glad I started with Writing 95 because it has helped me prepare for Writing 121. Overall I feel like my reading and writing skills were high enough for this class because I found the work to be feasible. My work has improved from the beginning of the class and I feel more confident in my writing and reading skills.

When I began this writing course, I was asked what I hoped to accomplish. I even wrote a reflective essay as a journal entry on the topic. Looking back at the essay and reading it again, I am struck by how much I have learned in such a brief time span. My initial concerns were surrounded in a perceived fear of academia. I was insecure in my ability to convey thoughts in a structured academic format. I still take time to consider these concerns. However, this course boosted my confidence in my ability to learn to write academically, and effectively.

I found it a little difficult to find what to write about that would satisfy the definition of my “minutia”. Perhaps it is because I did not quite understand what minutia really meant outside of a textbook definition and in the real world, or I have not fully realized or acknowledged on a consistent basis how many of the moments in my life have contributed to that which has an effect on me in the form of shaping or altering me. After nostalgically scrolling through my Instagram profile for a while the other day, I came across quite a few photos of me recording my gym workouts dating from the autumn of 2014 and into early 2015, and I eventually decided that this would suit the requirements for what could be my own minutia.

I like to consider myself a writer and often look for ways to improve upon my craft. I found Crafting an Effective Writer and was pleased with the long-term effects completing this course will have on my life. These effects will cross over all aspects of my life: personally, academically, and professionally as I view them as all being intertwined. In this class, I learned to see that the writing process does not have to be difficult. The guidelines that I have incorporated will ensure that my writing stays on track. My writing will be more focused and better organized. Following my outline will take the guesswork out of what to do next in order to complete my project. Another

A lot of my current art consists of class projects and personnel study that I've done over the past year or so. My "anticipated evolution" however, and not just for the coming semester, but probably for the rest of my life, is to someday be able to say there isn't a thing I can't do. It's a bit of an ironic conundrum considering graphic design and other skills associated with it are an ever evolving medium, but that is perhaps why I love it so much. It's constantly changing, constantly challenging, and in my book that adds up to being constantly satisfying.

Producing my own original work will develop in time. Currently I have notice I have been practicing paraphrasing, this has been one of my struggles. For, example when I turned the first assignment in and it was only 2%, I was jumping up for joy. I usually have more work done by the author and have to keep rewriting until I have a low percentage. This demonstrated that I can paraphrase, but it does take time along with practice. According to Jackson (2014) paraphrasing is rearranging an author’s work and still given credit to author. However I have chosen to concentrate on developing my own skills of paraphrasing. Another alternative to developing my own original research is to develop my tone and voice. This area is underdeveloped the

My generating ideas whenever I write is very simple. I brain storm and come up with my own ideas. It is known that good ideas have the strangest of origin, however, at the end it sometimes turns out the best masterpiece. Whenever I am about to write I brainstorm, because ideas do not accidently happen. It has to come from somewhere, because of a need that was noticed. TED talk, talked about ideas and where it came from. Ideas are free talk and free writing. He pointed out that good ideas happen in discussion places (TED Talk). I agree with his sentiments because when I write I like a quiet place to do my assignments; I perform best when there is a quiet, distraction free environment. Based on the Prewriting: From Mess to Masterpiece, brain

Attitude: I do not like to write, but I believe I can get to enjoy it. The only pressures I have been thinking of what to say and how to say it so. I am hoping this course help my attitude and make me a better writer, in the beginning I was a little discouraged, but thank my friend and family they have given me a strong will to keep going.