Personal Narrative: What I Learned In The Writing Process

How can I become a better writer? Throughout my writing experiences, I have learned I have many weaknesses along with strengths. My experiences with writing has not always been the best, but over time, with lots of practice and instructions from my instructors, I can proudly say that I have gained a better understanding on the layout of essays and papers. As well as understanding how to write correctly my goal as a writer is to learn how to overcome my weaknesses and use my strengths to my highest ability. I have many strengths, weaknesses and goals that I plan to achieve and overcome in my college career.

My experiences as a writer have been both very engrossing and strenuous. I have learned a great quantity on both reading and writing, though, I continue to struggle on things that I have learned by this time, making the same mistakes that I do not even realize. Sometimes things are not so easy to understand when reading information, especially if the wording of an article is difficult for example. I love the idea of learning new things everyday. These past years as a writer have been very interesting, and I have learned and grasped many concepts I have been taught along the way.

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.

I always start my writing process by reading the directions. I read the directions three or four times to fully analyze what is required and what is being asked. For instance, in most assignments are not simply questions. There are usually more than one factor in the question. After understanding the directions, I start following the five steps of the writing process. First, I pre-write/ draft a outline to get my ideas into answering all the parts of the question and to establish. Next, I start writing to establish flow of my paper. Then, I submit it to paperrater.com to check for grammar, punctuation, and spell check. Then, I edit my paper from the suggestions paperrater.com suggested. Lastly, I submit my work for a grade.

My current writing process for the past few years has consisted of me being a 2:00 a.m writer. In all honesty, though, I can't recall a time where I chose to put a paper off; I couldn't get to it because I've been a busy bee. I am still going to be a busy bee, but I will have a set plan for papers and set my own deadlines apart from yours. I used to not be able to focus at home considering there are loud children here, but the perks of having a night class include doing homework in the morning when the kids are at school. I bought a desk in my room to remain in a more "school-zone feel" which aids me in concentrating better. As much as I would love to write until my paper is complete, I have to take a break every half an hour or else I will

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,

In this class, I have learned many new skills to improve my writing, and I have also learned new grammar rules. In regards to my writing, I have learned the importance of freewriting when beginning to write a paper. Additionally, I now know to allow ample time for revising and editing because I can look at my work critically for mistakes and make necessary changes. Furthermore, I have learned about grammar rules such as pronoun-antecedent agreement. This rule is something that I know subconsciously, but being made aware of it has allowed me to find mistakes I make more often.

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.

From the beginning of the year, to now the end of first semester, I have learned and experienced a lot in the art of writing. If I could rate myself the level of skill I have accomplished this semester, I would give myself a 7 out of 10. I think I am at a 7 rating because of the type of writing I did this year, and how thoroughly I wrote my papers. I did have really detailed papers this year, and I loved some of the pieces I came up with, but I know I can always do better. I could always add more detail to my writings and come up with an amazing paper. From last year with my writings, I didn’t add so much detail or precision like I did this year with my pieces. I even now write out of school to expand more in my knowledge.

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.

According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary the word refine is a verb that means “to improve (something) by making small changes”. This word perfectly describes my goals as an out of practice writer and new college student. In order to make improvements as a writer a person must be willing to make mistakes. They must be open and accepting of any feedback whether it is negative or positive. After all, you cannot refine your skills and become a better writer if you aren’t willing to take the bad with the good and learn from your mistakes.

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.

There is one major skill and experience that I discovered I had. It was junior year and I was in trigonometry taking a test, after each question I had an uneasy feeling in my gut. I felt that I was going to flunk the test and get an F on the test. The day passed and I learned that I got a ninety-percent on the test. From that day forward I learned that I should go with my gut. I learned that I could trust my mind with what I was doing. The knowledge is there, all I needed was to apply the knowledge. Throughout my eighteen years of living, I have learned that life is full of decisions. Learning that I can trust my knowledge to succeed, I have discovered that making decisions is starting to come easier to me. To myself, learning this skill is

A few months back, I was probably the happiest I thought I could possibly be. Life happens, things change, people don’t have the same feelings… it’s life… its crappy, but I have definitely learned my lesson. I learned the hard way that I definitely cannot count on others to respect my feelings, even if I respect theirs. I learned that sometimes you lose people and there isn't anything you can do about it. I learned that sometimes you lose someone you love and that love is a two way street. I learned that sometimes you get replaced and your love for that person gets placed in the “not important” part of their heart. I learned that you cannot make someone love you and that love is such a beautiful yet terrible thing all at once. I learned that

One year can change everything and you can learn more than you can imagine. I spent my senior year as Mr. Bob Calderone’s apple tutor and there has been a lot of different things that can be taken away with that time. With that, I have learned a lot of useful things that I can apply to everyday life to help other people or even myself. Being in his classroom has shown me how to communicate better with students, or people in general, manage my time to work efficiently, and how to enjoy the little moments of working with my teacher and the students.