Personal Narrative: What I Learned In My 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.

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,

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 learned a lot from this experience. I was familiar with all the kinds of writing, but I wasn't familiar with how to go about writing them. Through the assignments and tests I had to take, I know that it is important to know how to do different kinds of writing. As for grammar, I've become a lot careful with how I write. I've been checking every paragraph as write and this is something I'll continue to do. I've enjoyed writing since the eighth grade, but I've never felt like I've been improving. I've realized that I am much better than I thought I was. I'm glad I had this opportunity. I know it'll really help me in the long run.

Seated in my petunia pink room at my tan desk an excruciating voice rang through my eardrum. “Again!” the voice bellowed. I hurried to rewrite my work. I started at the beginning with printed letters. A,a,B,b,C,c… I wrote every letter of the alphabet capitalized and lower cased. “Now cursive!” snapped the voice sharply. Again, I wrote all the letters but in cursive this time.

My experience with writing has been very up and down because I have a hard time focusing on the topic. I would say that’s something I need to honestly work on because my attitude is if I'm not into it then I'm not doing it simple. Some of my past teachers in high school said that I could write but I honestly don’t know about now. I'll admit that I've gotten lazy in the sense that if I'm not into the work then I'll just pass it with a D or just retake it. I need to get out of that and just suck it up and get it over and done with.

I have not taken the ACTs yet, but I plan to take it later this fall. Last spring I meant to take it but tended to postpone registering for the exam. I plan to take it on October 23rd this year. Even though I have not taken the ACTs yet, I have taken the SAT. Though I don't remember my exact score in the reading department, I remember it was mediocre. I hope that I can train myself in the english and writing department so I am able to score well on the ACTs.

I can still remember my heart pounding out of my chest. It was my first time in Writing 1, and my nerves were mostly the result of a friend’s advice. Winter quarter, my friend told me about her struggles in her writing class and she advised me not to take Professor Bernstein for Writing because as she said “he is really tough and a very hard grader.” However, I had no other option but to take writing with Professor Bernstein because all the other writing 1 classes conflicted with my schedule. Nevertheless, nine weeks have past since I first stepped foot in Writing 1, and I can certainly say that I have learned more than I ever expected. Yes, it is true, this class has been a challenge like no other, especially for me, being that English is

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.

On the first day of class, having forgotten how to write over the blazing summer, I had high hopes I would gain some writing skill. Over the course of the last 10 weeks I learned not only that I am an extreme procrastinator, but that I had a lot to learn in the writing world. I learned many things about writing, including grammar, organization, and expression. Through late nights studying and practice in class, I can proudly say I'm a better writer than I was before.

There I was sitting in the guest room of my aunts house. It was hot, the AC was busted, and I have not even started my history project. “I knew I should have started this sooner.” I said to myself. Ten minutes pass, and I'm still writing the first paragraph, when all of a sudden I hear a voice. “Take a little break man; you’re stressing yourself out.” I tried to ignore it, but the next thing I knew my left arm began to reach for my phone. I stopped myself. “I have to finish this project.” I said to myself, but I was not strong enough to stop myself a second time. As my phone sent a notification about a new video, my left arm sprang up and grabbed my phone. I wasn’t in control of myself. I couldn’t stop myself. It felt like the drive to

As a writer, there are many challenges I face, requiring strength in different areas in order to overcome them. My greatest challenges would be momentum, writer’s block, and confidence. When a writer understands their challenges they can become their greatest strengths. When I am writing it is important to have the adequate momentum to get from notes to final draft. I often find myself losing steam and have difficulty getting my momentum back. Allowing myself to get distracted, taking too many breaks, or starting my writing when I know I will not have time to complete it all, contributes to my failed momentum. Writer’s block can easily be considered the Achilles heel for all authors. When I can’t form a thought worth writing down, I

I've loved writing since I was a young child, especially creative writing. It allows me to express myself, and it seems almost magical to be able to create things simply by writing down a few symbols and twenty-six letters in various ways. I've written many fictional stories of various genres over the years. Unfortunately, while I have done a lot of creative writing, I haven't done as much academic writing. I would like this class to help me become the kind of student who earns A's on her papers by assisting me in becoming more efficient in the overall writing process.

Module four was all about drafting my paper and writing down all the information I gathered form the sources I searched. The documents in the module were very beneficial, I learned how to write more efficient paragraphs, and to write in an academic style. And so in my paper I tried to avoid absolutes, be clear and brief in writing down my ideas and thoughts. Also, I learned how to write in a more logic manner. Some documents taught me how to be more integrated in my writings, how to avoid plagiarism, by applying quotes, or paraphrasing, and making sure to cite the source at the end. I believe I did well in writing my paper.

I am a student who has taken classes at many of the Peralta colleges; Berkeley City College, Merritt and Laney. My highest aspiration is to major in Economics and Business and I am currently looking to transfer to a 4 year university. Someday, I would like to have my own business.