What I Learned About Myself As A Writer

A person can read and write a great deal in one day whether they realize it or not. Whether it be texting a friend or reading a textbook for a certain class, you are reading and writing constantly and a daily basis. What surprised me the most about the reading and writing that I did on Sunday was how much I am reading and writing on my phone. Whether I am texting to coordinate plans with a friend for the night or reading a random article I saw while reading a Facebook news feed, I am constantly reading and writing on my phone. I never considered it reading and writing when I used my phone, I just saw it as looking at my phone. Just staring at this four-inch screen for some sort of entertainment. What also surprised me was how much we read without noticing it. You can walk down State Street and you will be constantly reading by looking at stores, posters, or even words on a bus that is passing by. Our eyes and brains are looking at and reading words all the time.

During my past writing experience, I have struggled with formulating and initiating interesting points of discussion, grammar, and transitions. I have often sat down to work on a paper and found myself completely drawing a blank on anything interesting to write about. Whether I am given a specific prompt or general topic to discuss, I constantly struggle with finding a starting point. Once I do, I become too focused on trying to create a poetic sounding paper, rather than focusing on the main discussion points. In some ways, focusing on making my papers poetic have added detail and depth to my writing. However, this frequently distracts me from my papers main theme. One of my biggest drawbacks with writing has always been proper grammar usage.

A semester has passed since I started college and my journey of becoming a better writer. It has been a very important semester for my future college career, and I would not be here without the things I have accomplished. The composition program has really helped me to prepare for what college writing is all about. Now standing here and looking back I could not imagine how it would be without that class. I believe my English, and my writing is better than it has ever been, and all thanks to the composition program.

I immensely struggled when writing. Taking my scrambled thoughts and uncoordinated analysis and converting it into clean and understandable words on a page was arduous. I could not express my thoughts in proper academic format. I understood the importance of writing to every subject. It was essential that I learn to condense my ideas and feeling into coherent written word. After much debate, I decided that the best way to improve my writing skills was to take an advanced English course.

From writing thoughtful poems to research papers, I have experienced composing a diverse portfolio of literary analysis and criticisms throughout the school year. I started out the year writing minimally. By the end of the year, I noticed I was able to express my ideas and thoughts in a more clear and concise way on paper. Ultimately, each composition allowed me to widen my horizons as a writer and see how I could improve as a writer.

Over the course of this semester I learned a lot about myself as a writer. This English 101 class has really allowed me to expand my essay structure and ways of thinking. This was my first college writing course and it has given me much more freedom when writing because in high school I felt limited and like what we were writing was not very important. In high school I would write essays to just to fulfill the required word or page count and to a degree I still feel like this but maybe that is why I am an engineering major but in this course I actually was able to express my ideas and for the first time really test the limits of my writing capabilities. I really enjoyed being able to incorporate my voice more in my essays and I believe

I have always struggled with my creativity aspect. I do not have much of an imaginative personality, so I grapple a little more with writing papers that with people that have raging imaginative personalities. Having a creative paper is important for the reader to get intrigued to what the writer is saying. Like in my first paper we had to write, the memoir, I had to use personification to describe a car accident I was in. I had a lot of trouble with this, due to my lack of creativity in my writing. However, with a lot of effort, I was able to succeed in writing my memoir using personification.

Looking at my past as a writer I would have to say that I am mediocre but I am sure my wife would think much less when grading my writing. I am not sure I have grown as a writer over the past few semesters or my understanding of what is expected as grown. Either way writing has become easier for me, mainly when I have an interest in the subject matter. In the past I would have been terrified of a ten page paper and even though I would still find longer papers to be a daunting task I would not be quite as afraid now as then. My writing since starting at Robert Morris has grown from the helpful tips provided by a few teachers. Websites to help with proofreading and help in citing works have been provided by past instructors to help attain the

The Memo will directly address my growth as a writer throughout my time in EH 101-13. It will also highlight my current strengths and weaknesses in my own personal writing style.

Writing has never been my strong suit, simply because I am not interested in the given topics. However, the times I really like to write is when I can talk about a topic I love talking about. In those essays, I can write non-stop, but as a college student, in my experience, “free write” topics are rarely given, which brings a weak spot to me. If there is no free write assignment, often times it is a topic I cannot relate to. I need to learn how to get out of my comfort zone when it comes to writing.

     When writing a paper it can be very difficult unless you break it up into sections. When I had to write my first paper I felt like a man on a desert island all alone without a clue on how to do anything. But with the help of a few teachers they taught me how to survive on the island of writing papers. What the teachers taught me was that just like everything in life it needs to be taken in steps. The steps they taught me still apply to the papers I write to this day.

Throughout the course of this semester, I have learned so much about writing. I used to think writing was my best skill in terms of school, but after taking this course, I realized I have a lot to learn still. In high school English was always my highest grade because of my writing, my writing in my SAT scores was always the highest, and last semester in ENGL 1301, I got a high A in the course. But this course has challenged me as a writer to think outside of the box and be more academically smarter in terms of writing. The journals have helped me write about things that we like more than the other assignments because it gives us more freedom and flexibility about what we can write about. These journals are being used as a tool as practice

I would have to say that I am closer to a writer than I use to be, but I’m also not where I would like to be. I was always told that I was a natural writer until I got to high school. Everyone either caught up to my level, surpassed it, or I plateaued. Trying to improve myself, I took honors and AP English literature. Unfortunately, I had only felt worse about my writing when I got to AP. My teacher, Mrs. Tomaselli, never gave anyone A’s so I did not feel too bad about myself, but gave no positive feedback. I did however compare a piece of writing I was very proud of that I did in 11th with a recent piece, both about my Polychondritis. The two pieces made me see the evolution of my writing. As far as the class English 101 goes, I have

Can you consider myself to be a terrible writer? Most writers get inspiration from experiences, circumstance, or imaginations make a contribution in authors storyline. Each writers have their own style of writing since they all different messages, languages, and tone for the reader to actual take a position in the narrator’s writing. In a past even, when my grandfather is no longer with me, he has made a huge contribution in academic life.

We are all capable of many different things, we have strengths and weaknesses that can ultimately make or break an argument you're trying to convey in a group discussion, or even the papers in which we have to focus on. My mindset in everything I do is to ultimately to enhance my abilities and knowledge on the English language, which entails paper writing as well. In high school I was never the greatest at writing papers, so my mindset in writing papers in college was ultimate not the greatest but despite that I was still eager to grow and become better with papers. Throughout the course this year I have grown a lot not only as a writer but also as a student. While being in an English class this semester I have managed to stay in tuned with the interaction in the discussions of our critical