Reflective Summary Of Chapter 3 In Everyone's An Author

My writing process, no matter what, always includes brainstorming, rough drafts and proofreading. When I receive an assignment I read the question over what feels like a million times till I fully understand what it is asking. I will make notes on the handout and as soon as ideas come to my mind i will jot them down, even if I do not end up using them. As soon as I get ideas i role with it, even if I have to go back in the end and change everything. Rough drafts come next. I like to write them out first so i can scribble and make notes to myself and fill things in when i need to. I write in pen so sometimes by drafts can be more rough then they should be, but that is how i like it. After my essay is all finished I proofread, many many times.

Throughout my life, I have written multiple papers as assignments while learning throughout the process. Each time, I learnt from my mistakes and capitalized correctly. I’m currently a sophomore in high school; meaning I have plenty of time to expand my word bank and my knowledge on the art of writing. In Peter Elbows, “Writing with Power”, he emphasizes practices and techniques to help one develop into a more complete writer able to produce high quality essays.

As I look back into my high school years, I thought I wrote papers well. But then coming into a college environment, my papers were mediocre. By overlooking at my past papers, I found that they were unorganized, sloppy and had bad use of diction. From now on, I will use the tools I learned in English 1100-40 as a foundation for the future papers I intend on writing in college. Following the criteria of organizing ideas so that they flow, impacting the reader with diction and also by being creative, will help become an ideal writer. Following the criteria of staying motivated in short and long term goals, taking responsibility for actions and finally the ability to study well will help me develop into a supreme student.

My first step in the writing process has remained relatively the same. I begin by reading the assignment sheet, and then begin brainstorming topics that I could use for the essay. Usually I come up with two or three ideas for me to explore, in case one topic does not have enough information to turn into a good paper. After thinking of a few ideas, I pick one idea that I think is the best, and I try to come up with a basic outline of the paper. Then, I search on Google and read a few articles that I find to see what information is available on the topic and how I can use the information in my paper. It is at this point where I decide whether or not to go ahead with the topic depending on what I find. If I continue on, I widen my search to databases and focus on more credible internet

Writing is not something that always comes naturally. The art of writing requires patience and continual practice. As a Bethel University student, I have many resources available to me to assist me with my practice. One example is Paperrater.com. This is a free resource with a fast and easy way to get an immediate review of your writing. The website offers basic instructions on how to revise papers based off style, word choice, spelling, and grammar rules.

When beginning to write an essay everyone has their own method of doing so. Some may like to brainstorm while others may prefer to go straight into writing about their topic. I personally beginning every essay by collecting ideas about my topic before coordinating them into a type of diagram, next I proceed to do my rough draft before revising over the paper and finally composing my final draft. The point of the writing process is to help break everything down so ideas can be organized and everything can make perfect sense for not just the writer but also the reader.

My usual method for writing an essay made it hard for me to start and actually continue into writing it. I would first start out and open a word document; Then, I would try and figure out how I was going to write the entire paper in my head, which made it really difficult sometimes. Starting the essay was definitely my worst enemy because I didn’t know what to start with or how to go about most papers.

Writing is a practice that most of us were taught when we were young. We were taught the basics of grammar, how to form a sentence, conjunction words, how to write paragraphs and more. Although we have learned this skill while growing up and have used the skill every year after entering kindergarten, this does not mean our writing process will ensure the best work. The authors that I chose each encourage their audience to excel in the art of writing in their own way to help with the writing process.

Teachers, parents, and friends often tell students exactly what the writing process should entail and how long it should take. However, the older I get, the more I realize that the writing process varies not only from person to person, but also from one writing project to the next. Throughout my years of life, I have written countless papers, ranging from a persuasive speech to an extensive research paper, and each project requires an altered version of my personal writing process. While each individual has his own writing process, there can be many similarities between different writing processes. Finding one’s individual writing process takes trial, error, and repetition. When an individual finally uncovers his unique writing process, better thought, work, and writing is produced.

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.

It is essential to understand that classes taken in grade school do not give students a full understanding of each subject. With the topic of writing, there will always be a new lesson to learn, an aspect to improve, or a differing way to explain. Author Craig Vetter states in Bonehead Writing, “This is your enemy: a perfectly empty sheet of paper. Nothing will ever happen here except what you make happen.” Each story, essay, or response comes from a writer’s experiences. With each attempt at a new piece comes an underlying story of emotions the writer is facing. Each person’s writing is unique and the ideas people have are related to their past experiences and what they believe to be familiar with when deciding which writing style to use. As a high school student, I have learned many things about writing that helped me become the improved writer I am today, but the most essential advice I have received is practice makes perfect. Although there is no actual perfect way of writing, I have discovered that each essay I write, my writing improves. It is easier to spot mistakes, find areas to improve, and ponder elevated word choice to use.

Before starting to write this paper or any paper for that matter. I started to think about what I do before I start writing a paper and how I continue to write that paper. I used the chart that was given to us in class to help map my ideas better, this is what I came up with. The general steps I take are listening to the instructions given, setting up the format for my paper, taking a few days to think (unconsciously) about what my paper should include, opening up my laptop and taking a few hours to just type my heart out, I leave my paper for a day or so and I come back and write the new ideas that I have floating down, I then start to revise. These steps do repeat themselves during certain times in my process. Normally I do not use a sheet to write down my thoughts and steps they just happen but for this paper I took a different approach. The steps I take are always the same and the reasons why I explore down below.

This semester I was surprised by how much I actually learned and developed my writing skills. I was given the opportunity to learn the many steps that it is required to become a good writer. Writing requires a lot of work. It consists of various steps; prewriting, drafting, rewriting, proofreading and publishing. . All of these components are extremely important, and necessary, and will need to be follow to improve student’s writing.

Since beginning to write papers in English class, I have had countless successes and failures. While many of my English classes have taught me how to improve my writing, I have not learned very much in others. My most recent English class was last year, my sophomore year. My class was particularly undersized; therefore, it gave each student the opportunity to have additional individual attention. Throughout the class I experienced high points, weaknesses, and even difficulties that I never overcame. Overall, my writing skills improved, but only marginally.

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.