Personal Narrative: My Growth As A Writer

I have a love-hate relationship with writing. I can write well according to some of my peers; though this could just be from the fact that I seem like the quiet, studious, type who has spent most of her time with the straight "A" nerds who went on to top tier schools such as Stanford. Sometimes I am not too sure of my own writing abilities. On most essays, I get a little bit above average grades and every once in a while I get a few more points than usual. I have noticed that my writing is better when I have to write about a topic I am passionate or know a lot about. The more I have to work with the better. Otherwise, my writing seems poor, forced, and somewhat bland. It usually follows a poor or basic thesis statement and lazy paragraphs. I believe motivation helps me to write better,

During this spring semester, I have grown in many ways as a writer, and a student. I have started to realize, and accept the flaws that I have created in my writing. In the past, I never looked into my writings and saw my problems, and if I did, I did not accept that they were problems. In my writing pieces in the past, I was very hard-headed about what I thought was correct versus what was actually correct. I have also become More familiar with different formatting options on Microsoft Word to create a more professional piece or writing. However, figuring out all the parts of writing and making them work together is the most difficult part of writing.

In my first “Who I am as a Writer” paper I stated how one of the areas that I needed to improve was writing. I went into more depth talking about how my writing is not descriptive enough and how I cannot grab the reader's attention. Even though I still need to continue making improvements, I have gotten better in both of these aspects. Compared to my papers in high school my introduction paragraphs have improved.

Throughout the course of freshmen year I have developed different skills and opinions on writing. I feel I have created a more mature style of writing and a better understanding of literature. I have changed my view of writing over this semester and acquired a strong liking for it. The importance of writing has become more visible throughout the past few months. Writing is crucial in many aspects of a person’s life. I have grown to be a more powerful and well built writer throughout this course.

I have been writing papers for a long time, but I am by no means the best writer I can be. To unleash my full potential as a writer, I have to review all my old writings. I have to analyze my past writing style so that I can see if there is anything I can do differently. Overall, the creation process of my papers can be better. Maybe taking a look at who I am as a writer will help me improve.

Would you believe me if I told you that masters of any art still practice the skills that got them to where they are now? This might not come as a surprise to most, but success and perfection is measured in time. Repetition is key when talking about mastering skills. There are many steps that have helped me through my writing process. Thinking planning, and revision are skills that have made me a better writer. These skills are crucial for becoming a better writer because it decides the volume of my work and makes sure the reader understands my intent.

Al, Alde, de, shon, deshon, and Al’Deshon my name takes on many forms. Kind of like my writing in a sense. I have never been a strong writing also being the reason, I took this class first semester I think. If I get it out of the way maybe I’ll have an easier chance of reaching the finish line happening to be graduation.

This semester involved many writings that challenged my process in ways big and small. The variety of prompts each had their own details that required me to change perspectives as well as research topics to test my abilities as a writer. The topic that I felt helped me grow as a writer the most was the Personal Narrative. This essays caused me to think in its own way and only after completion was I able to effectively use the methods it taught me in my other assignments.

As this semester comes to a close, I have become to realize how much I’ve grown as a writer. After taking this class, I have noticed that I have gained more and more of a voice in my writing. When faced with having to write about subjective topics, I have learned how to voice my opinions in papers in order to make them more effective. My writing has greatly evolved because of this class. Not only has it shown me I have to work on sentence variety, but it has also allowed me to work on word choice which is something I have always struggled with throughout my high school career. Struggling with how to put things into words as exactly how I see them has been a struggle for me throughout this course. Despite how much I’ve grown as writer, I have

My growth as a writer has been going uphill since the very first mini paper. I came to Heartland Community College thinking, I was an okay writer. They told me when I took the placement test I wrote a college level but I didn’t see it myself. I would look at other classmates work and be kind of upset with myself for not making the same choices they did. Maybe I could have changed a word or maybe talked about a different subject and try to not go off topic so much. Well if it wasn’t a Gladwell paper because he tends to go off topic in his papers. The break up letter took me so long to do, I was so nervous because I didn’t want to sound like a high school kid and get a bad great for not pushing myself to the next level.

It was two months ago when I discussed how big of a change it was for me to enter into a college writing class. Throughout my first semester attending writing 105, I’ve learned to “rise about my limits”. Reading and writing was a tool I always tend to struggle with yet I continued to focus on exceeding pass my goal. Each essay I wrote became better allowing me to not only learn more but grow as a writer. I started off being able to just write two page essays and now I’ve adapted to being able to write 7 pages without losing track. Over the semester my writing has improved due to dedication, having a purpose and analyzing my mistakes.

I improved as a writer this semester because I became better at composing sentences. I improved not only my grammar but also the content of the sentences and how I articulate my ideas. This portfolio represents an accurate picture of me as a writer, because it shows how I write in an academic setting and the subjects I love. This is apparent in the choices that I made in my selection of writings. However, it could better represent my progress if I had included my scores and comments from all of my assignments. Though, I do believe that this portfolio showcases my progress this semester.

The act of reading many stories and immersing myself completely in my imagination lead to the creation of my very own story. Although the story was cliche and poorly written by a twelve-year-old it is a very important moment in my life as a writer. I learned many new techniques and ways to use my creativity to assemble a plot with twists, vivid scenery, and complex characters. I wrote the novella as a class assignment but continued to the editing and "publishing" through a publishing website without the work counting toward my final grade. I spent some time each day reading through the draft, making cuts, adding scenes, and correcting grammatical mistakes as well as closing plot holes. The tedious process caused much stress and the desire

The biggest point of growth in my writing only came once I started college, before that I only wrote to satisfy teachers and to answer whatever questions they wanted answered. I wasn’t developing habits of mind , which I’m sure was the intent of those teachers, and looking back I never really questioned, sought out anything, or thought of my writing as a conversation between me and my audience. My writing at best was the farthest thing from complex because to me it wasn’t the process it was meant to be, but just another assignment with limitations I was forced to do. If my high school self could only imagine what the freedom and lessons college writing would bring, I probably would have seen my assignments in a less oppressive light.

Over the past few months, I have learned several different writing techniques. While all of the different types of papers were difficult to write, I believe that my writing skills have improved. In fact, I did not understand all of the assignments, but I did try to do my best on all of them. While I should have used more transitional words in between sentences and paragraphs, I feel that I learned a great deal. It is true that I have not had very much writing experience and the writing process is difficult for me. Sometimes, I do admit, it takes days to complete one assignment, but it will be worth it when I am a proficient writer.