Personal Narrative: My Writing

Upon entering Columbia College, writing was one of my weaker areas. It was very important that I gained the necessary knowledge and confidence to become a better writer. I didn’t know how to express myself and felt as though my writing was not my interest. As a result of taking English 101, I have gained a better understanding on how to properly research and build a satisfactory paper. Every paper that was assigned seemed like a struggle to complete. Before entering this class, I did not know the meaning of a thesis or why it was important, however, I obtained this skill quickly. I noticed that every paper has an argument and the thesis helps clarify the rebuttal. Now, I have a new outlook on writing. It’s a way to express my thoughts and allow others to see things through my eyes. There is no doubt that I still have a long way to go, but I know if I continue to write, I will get better. Just as I developed more skills in class, the various papers assigned helped to better structure the writer in me. In addition, the subject areas were not only interesting, but very informative and made it much easier to write about my experiences.

What I have learned throughout the year about writing is that it is important to know how to write because you will need to use it for your everyday life, whether it is at school or at your work. My writing process I think that I have changed a little bit on it but I think I need to practice more so I can get better. What I have changed on my writing was that I need to make my writing sound good and that it makes sense. Why I made those changes because I want it to sound good and make sure that it makes sense to what I am being asked to write. My opinion on writing has not changed. My opinion hasn’t changed because I just don’t like to write and I find it boring.

In high school I was not the best at writing. I did not find this out until I was places in advanced English. I was used to writing papers that had to be simple. So when I started receiving C’s and D’s I told myself something had to change. I finally realized that I could not write as well as most of my classmates. So, what I ended up doing was making my papers more complex and making my sentences stronger. When I applied myself I became a stronger writer. As I took the diagnostic test I saw I was making a lot of mistakes. At the end I made a 70. From this I could see why I encountered the bad experiences in high school and in college.

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.

Many people enjoy and have fun writing, but then again, many people dislike having to write, including me. Writing has always been something I was never really interested on for many reasons.

Throughout the seven weeks that I have taken this writing composition course, I have developed skills to help me improve my own writing. Using the writing process is one of the main focuses in the course. The writing process helps writers develop and revise their essay as they work their way up to creating the final draft that can be presented. Although there are many areas in my own writing where I can get better, I have found that my writing has improved in many ways while practicing using the writing process.

I'm not the best when it comes do to writing well. I guess i feel like my writing doesn't sound “smart” it's not full of big words that the reader has to look up and learn more about.

My writing process starts when I am given an assignment. I’m not one to just write for fun, so this is usually the only way I can make myself write. Don’t let that fool you though, because once I start writing something and my ideas start flowing, it’s hard for me to stop. Personally, I love to be able to choose what I’m writing about. I don’t like getting assigned a topic, because that means everybody else has to write about the same topic and that ends up with everybody asking what I wrote in my paper and comparing it to theirs. I HATE when my writing gets compared to other peoples’, because we are all unique and different writers and we shouldn’t be so concerned about who stated certain facts better or got a higher grade.

My writing journey has been pretty remarkable over the years. A lot of trial and error was utilized in discovering the writing style and techniques that would give me the most sense of accomplishment. I’ve been learning through the unit learning activities so far as College Composition II will be a bit more challenging due to the expectation of being able to write an effective academic piece from a formal perspective. There is always room for improvement which is why this semester I want to work on three aspects of my writing: sentence structure, grammar, and learning how to effectively grab my audience’s attention. Sentence structure and grammar have been difficult aspects for me to grasp in my writing due to the lack of frequency in writing academic papers.

Thinking about our first writing assignment, one of the suggestions focuses on the comparison of writing to running, it became apparent to me that this is something I would enjoy writing about. I am a long time running advocate, competing in marathons, and a neophyte writing student, and I find many similarities in both endeavors.

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.

This past month has taught me so much about myself as a writer. The areas I struggle with along with the areas I have improved in. Although my writing process has changed, there are still areas that need improvement. I have a better understanding of a sentence structure. Being able to make a complete sentence and have the correct verb, noun and punctuation makes all the difference with your writing. Your ideas need to be complete thoughts. This is one of the areas that I often struggled with as I had fragment sentences, comma splice errors and punctuation issues. The improvements come from the type of assignments we had this class. Our blog writings, discussions with videos and essay writing has helped me tremendously. The assignments I felt,

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.

Hi, I’m Brooke Yliniemi. I am an involved high school student at Menahga High School. Through creative writing class, I was able to broaden and strengthen all my writing skills. I have always enjoyed writing, but never truly knew where to begin. With creative writing, I was able to find out my personal style of writing and what interests me. My writing has improved abundantly when it comes to writing poetry, and short stories. Through each section, I was able to grasp new skills and create personal goals to become my own writer.

I believe that writing is more than an academic task. It is a life skill. Through positive interactions and dedication within both students and teachers, we as writers can improve our writing. Not only have I found this factual but, I became aware of this the more I produced writings. I stumbled upon this belief through the trial and error I had faced both in school and at home. As a highschooler having that forever pent-up anxiety and stress because you have no idea if you are going to be accepted into the college you want because you’re lacking writing skills is unbelievably stressful. Even now, I sometimes feel as if I have no idea what I want for myself in the future, all I know is that I want to be successful but how? That’s when I was