Personal Narrative: My Experience With Formal Essay Writing

I have truly enjoyed writing for most of my life and after this class I will continue to enjoy writing hopefully with more skill. I have always viewed myself as a fairly strong writer and this class has reaffirmed that for me, but it has also shown weaknesses in my writing. As an introduction level class this has been one of my favorites; at some point I will take a higher level, even though it is not required for my major. Even though this class is almost over I am continuing to learn. I also love that this class will help me with literally ever other class in my college career. I am not a particularly strong reader, but as my writing skills improve so do the reading skills. While in this class I have learned a lot about everything from what I can improve, to subjects that interest me, and constructing a successful paper.

My achievement of becoming literate in both English and Spanish, after overcoming a myriad of obstacles distinguishes my literacy history. Writing was one of the things I didn’t like to do as a child. I always thought writing was a waste of time and that I wasn’t going to need it in life. Even though I didn’t invest much time writing, I was one of the best writers in all my classes, probably because I was very dedicated in the other subjects and I loved reading adventure books. I learned how to read and write by the age of four, since in my native country “the Dominican Republic”, kids are enrolled in school at the age of three; usually parents start their child’s education at home before that age.

I have always struggled with my writing assignments. If I had the option not to write I would take that option with no hesitation. I truly dreaded it, when we have to type essays. Now, I have been into two English classes where I have felt a little more comfortable in being able to write something without being so embarrassed or ashamed in what I’m about to turn it. I still feel horrible about my spelling and grammar.

A saying i've kept to myself is to get back up when knocked down. This saying doesn’t just stand for getting up when literally knocked down but can keep a deeper meaning than what it says as for example being knocked down by a difficult obstacle to overcome and getting up to find a way to get past it and achieving it. Some people may not see this as something important but they don’t think about how getting up after knocked down can be something that can or would have been like a positive outcome into their life and how they are given two choices when knocked down which is to stay down or get back up and continue going forward.

I had always assumed that my legs were strong and that I had decent muscle control, however, this thought was proven wrong at the beginning of my junior year in high school due to a detrimental injury. It was the first game of fall league for basketball, and within the first five minutes I had succumbed to an injury. Tearing my ACL and Meniscus has taught me to continue improving on my strength, not let this one injury keep me down, and to keep a positive mindset.

“Life is like a baseball game. When you think a fastball is coming, you gotta be ready to hit the curve.” -Unknown. Baseball is a game, one that is not timed, one that is not rushed either, but is only allowed twenty-seven outs. For some it means everything to them, for some the opposite. Even though it is just a game, the characteristics and necessities that come along with it, is what people don’t understand. Baseball can teach individuals, all ages, the tools they need to help themselves, schooling and their future. Within this comes the aspects of teamwork, self-confidence, and the importance of family.

The first step of my writing process when I write a traditional essay consists of brainstorming. If a certain format is provided, I have to brainstorm the order of my key points. On the other hand, for some assignments I am given the specifics of what I need to talk about (like these Log Its) and even given subheadings which I must include to offer a professor better access and recognition of key parts. Once I begin to write, I never have in mind that what I write is a draft of any sort. Personally, I like to keep up with my grammar, spelling and punctuation as I go, so once I finish, the paper is pretty close to being finished with very few mistakes. Sometimes, I type a word that I doesn’t fit into the context but at that time, I have a couple of sentences in my had that I know will disappear if I don’t type them out, so I type (?) after the word to remember to find a synonym or change the word.

I believe I have grown a lot since the beginning of this course. My writing was severely lacking grammar and punctuation. I didn’t use any punctuation other than periods and very few commas spersed throughout my papers. My papers still need help in that area, but I have improved. I now know where they need to go and when it’s appropriate to use them. My papers aren’t exactly flawless but they are better than before. I would write how I speak at times and I knew it wasn’t right, but I would still do it because it allowed my papers to flow better in my mind. I read my papers out loud to help avoid my problem with writing how I speak. I’ve learned my writing style in this course, or lack thereof. I found a program that would benefit me now and

I have learned a lot in just 16 short weeks. I have learned how to organize my thoughts on paper, even when I have a fear of a writing assignment. I learned about pre-writing, outlining, rough draft, and finals. In each of these steps, I have learned to depend on each of them. They also help me find out what I need to do next. I always try to reflect on what I have written, even if it may be terrible. I use every bit of information I have to make sure I keep my thoughts in order. My strengths have increased as a writer. I love to write, and I know what to write about when given a topic. I feel strongly capable of writing more assignments, and essays in the future, especially in my Composition 2 class next semester. Having 2 English classes this semester really helped me with being able to

Earning a B in my first college writing course was the first time felt like a successful writer. English in general has always been one of my stronger subjects, but I struggle with writing the most. I tend to get overwhelmed by the writing process. Seeing my grade was evidence that I could communicate effectively through writing. I have not only expanded my knowledge for writing from College Writing, but I also gained confidence as a writer. My process as a writer starts with a blank page on Microsoft Word. To get creative juices flowing, I free write ideas down as they are generated, whether they be fragments or sentences. After getting all the ideas out, I form them into more complete sentences if needed. Next I sort sentences groups based

Today they came back, just like they said they would, just like I knew they would. Today was different though, unlike last time they weren't testing, they were collecting. Every 4 years the kids who are “ lucky ” enough to be ages 10 -18 at the time get to participate in the draft.

In my writing I had many challenges that i had to overcome. Since I was doing a biography, my objective was to find information about that person on what he does and comes from. So I would go find my resources from multiple online sites and see if that site is suitable for my essay.

Throughout my middle school and high school years I have always been thinking about college; where I want to go, what I want to do, how I’m going to pay, etc. Something that I have never thought of has been the class work that I will be doing; I didn’t know there was a certain way to take notes in college, or a certain way to cite my sources, I didn’t even think about how I’m supposed to write essays.

Hello, this is Kiki Mertely from second period. The Mock Trial grade really brought down my average, and my dad is killing me over it. I'm just wondering if there'd be any way to get some extra credit this grading period. I do realize that the Smithsonian grades are coming up, but my dad claims that they're in the next grading period. So if there's anything extra I can do to bring up my average this grading period, I hope you would give me that

It all started way back in second grade. It was Easter weekend and me and my family and my Aunts and Uncles and cousins and second cousins were all out in the desert camping. It was late morning, when the sun was almost at it's highest in the sky and it was beating down on us. Me and my dad borrowed my Uncle Mark's bright red quad and we took it out for a ride. We were riding at about 5 or 10 miles an hour because I was steering and my dad wouldn’t let me go any faster than that. We here someone else coming around the corner so I find a clearing and pull all the way off the road. The unknown vehicle comes around corner and we find out it's a Yamaha Rhino and they are cruising. The guys in the Rhino freak out, slam on the brakes. The road