Personal Narrative: My Pivotal Moments In Literature

With the guidance of Mrs. Smythe, my peers, and my parents, as well as my own determination, I have gained much better control over the English language. However, I also learned something about myself as a person throughout my time in English 9/10. I used to let fear control me in English, which would translate to other parts of my life. Throughout my seventh and eighth grade years of Middle School, I would sit in silence for entire class periods, afraid to begin my essays, afraid to have to accept that it may not be as good as my other school work, afraid of what others would think. However, I learned this year that people like my mother and grandmother were not disappointed in my work but instead would suggest ways by which I could improve my writing. Additionally Mrs. Smythe constantly helped through the feedback she provided. Even when I received my first essay back, one that was clearly not to the best of my ability, she gave balanced feedback between ways to improve my writing while also providing supporting for future assignments. “It is not necessary to convert an entire scene, just the moments that are important. The inclusion of text in the last body paragraph is most appropriate, although there is still a bit too much of it. Good effort...” Even if I forget who said what in Romeo and Juliet, or the name of the main character in The Book of Lost Things,

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.

I don’t really like writing because whenever my teacher tells me to write about something I start to get confused on what to say then I start to get mad at myself and start to cry.The best thing I have ever written is when I had to wrote about legos, it was a nine pages and alot idioms and more.

Writing is something that has never been easy for me. For most of my life I have tried to avoid it if I can, but of course I can't avoid stuff like school forever. So for the most part all of my writing has been forced upon me. Even with the help of teachers and some helpful hints from the internet, it never got easier. But obviously I have written before and like anyone else who has written before, there must have been some sort of influence. My main influences were the books I have read, my teachers who have helped me throughout the years, my experience, and strangely enough my music.

After analyzing many of my written works, I highlighted my writing weaknesses along with notable strengths. Evident in my earlier works, my vocabulary was more basic and was not as powerful unlike my more recent essays. Seeking to improve, I started utilizing words I learned during the year

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.

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.

When I think about moments that have defined my education, a few particular moments come to mind. These include when I learned to count, when I mastered multiplication, and when I memorized the quadratic formula. But perhaps the most important moment in my education was when I first learned how to read. However, being able to read almost became something I hated and dreaded doing. Luckily, one moment prevented that misfortune from happening.

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?

As an incoming freshmen my strengths as a writer are a wide vocabulary , word usage, and writing argumentative essays. I feel with having strength in those areas allows me to be a successful write, with success comes some weakness. My weaknesses are grammar, punctuation, spelling ,and thesis statements. I have a hard time trying to depict what is the best punctuation when writing. All throughout grade school and high school I've always been an underachiever in spelling. English and writing are my least strongest subjects. I floundered in high school with these subjects. In my personal opinion I don't think my high school prepared us well enough for writing on the college level.  I think that the areas that I struggle are very basic levels of

My name is Yris Guzman and I’m a senior at Perry High School. I’ve always struggled writing essays. The things I struggle the most with is grammar, spelling, coming up with a thesis, and organizing my thoughts onto paper. I hope by the end of this semester I become a better writer. We all have strengths and weaknesses.

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

I define myself as a weak writer in certain areas, but have great ideas that I can use to express in my writing. The areas that I struggle with is my grammar, spelling, lackluster work usage, and the introduction paragraph. I have great ideas that I can write it is just that I am not very lucid with grammar structure. During my school years in Nevada, I fell behind in my English skills, because they rarely taught me these skills that I have learn at Creekview. So this why I have fallen behind in English. The adjectives that I would describe my writing style is reprehensible, and lackluster. My writing is reprehensible, because of the lack of strength, and complex sentences. Also, it becomes lackluster, because of my dull choice of word usage.

In my ePortfolio, I have gathered a series of my writings that I have completed over the course of this semester. Overall in this entire course I have learned a great deal of material that has pushed me to become a better writer. From my past courses, I have noticed that I am not the strongest writer but I do try my best. With Professor Knox’s tough grading system, he has given me drive to bshow my potiential as a writer. I feel as if my knowledge has increased a significant amount on the following topics/concepts and I support each claim with the correlating artifacts 1) Writing process Artifact 1-Writing Log 3, (2) Discourse Community-Artifact 2 Assignment 2 Partner Review, (3) Rhetoric Artifact 3- Assignment 1, (4) Genre Artifact 4- Reading Notes Week 10; and (5) Critical Thinking, Reading, and Research—Artifact 5--Assignment 5. Every assignment has shaped me into a more developed writer and has prepared me more for ENG 280.

Since the beginning of the semester, my writing has changed and evolved to accommodate and sustain longer essays. With longer essays, there is more room for in-depth analysis. Further analyzing a topic has led me to findings that I did not know existed. As I continue to write, I uncover addition and superior methods to approach my writing to the benefit of me and therefore, my audience. Throughout the semester, I have incorporated techniques to further my narrative throughout my writing.