What I Learned My Writing

Throughout my whole life, I really struggled with writing. Every time the English teacher gave the class an assignment to write an essay, I was always felt terrified because I never saw any improvements in my writing whenever I got my essays back from the teacher. However, I wanted to change that this year. Writing 101 has been a very interesting class this year, especially since the theme of the class was “tai chi on paper”. In this class, I learned many techniques that helped me improve my writing like I learned how to take time and revise my writing a lot before I turned in my final draft to my professor.

My main writing strategy that I use is number 10, Concentrating on making sure your sentence-level grammar is accurate because that is the most important aspect of getting your ideas across. I use number 10 the most because it really does not matter what topic you are discussing or what type of paper you are writing, grammar will always be important. Grammar errors would cause the reader trouble understanding your writing. Also another strategy I use is proof reading my papers myself as well. I proof read my papers to pick up on any errors I might had

After rereading the syllabus a few times and reading over the Writing Outside the Lines book, I knew what was expected of me and what to expect of myself. I knew what was necessary for each paper and I had an idea of what the writing process would look like. I also learned some new techniques for brainstorming and freewriting. They writing process can be messy, it isn't neat and tidy. My own writing process is somewhat disorganized and a lot of my writing seems unnecessary and redundant. However, I didn't know what the “typical” writing process looked like (spoiler: there is no single typical writing process!) so I couldn't compare my process to others to see if I was on track. The first thing that I needed to do was figure out what I was writing about, which seemed like an impossible task. After choosing to write about Harry Potter and my experience with the series, I knew that a lot of frustrated hours of editing would be waiting me for me in the near future.

One of the tips that has really helped me the when writing and improving my writing is, write your thoughts before organizing them. My mind flows when I am writing a paper or thinking about the topic and I sometimes forget to write everything down, so before I write a paper I sit down and really think about my topic, then I just write words and phrases that come to mind so that when I start my paper I have a general idea about what I want to write.

     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.

This book helps in ways writing are important when becoming a better writer and will help you navigate through papers you don’t have the desire to write. An important point to remember when writing a paper is to incorporate their thesis. Your thesis will tell the reader where you stand on the subject and what the point is of the paper. When stating the thesis, you also have to state what the opposite opinion would be by summarizing. Stating both views and starting with a hook can grab the reader’s attention and also keep the reader’s attention. Templates in They Say/I Say can come in handy when figuring out how to incorporate or state what others have to say. An example is “In their recent work, Y and Z have offered harsh critiques of _______

Writing is a process that is difficult to start, yet impossible to end. To sit down with a notebook and formulate the first thought that is notable can take a minute, but often takes me hours. My mind is very focused yet the focus of my thoughts wonders. Thus, to say that I was born to be a writer might just be the farthest from the truth. Now there is one large contradiction in that statement. Once I begin the writing process I have a tendency to get caught up in it. While my writing process as well as my writing style tends to vary based on topic and circumstance, my methods remain the same. I know that a course with such heavy writing will bring upon its own set of challenges, I hope to keep realistic expectations while utilizing my strengths as a writer in order to reach my course goals.

In writing, making a good paper isn’t as simple as putting some words on a paper and calling it good. It is something that takes time to perfect.

When I first decided to take the class I didn't expect much from it, except for writing tons of essays each week. My expectations were not high because I knew it was another core class I had to get through. However, my expectations were completely overturned after taking this class for a semester. Instead of writing essays each week we had free writing, a walking journal, interesting articles to read, and most importantly lots of interaction with our peers. This class was nothing what I expected and I was really surprised how it turned out to be one of my favorite classes I have taken so far. I have learned so much about improving my writing and grammar, authors, techniques in writing, and even how to cope with stress and organize my thoughts back in order. I learned all about polemic and dialectic writing as

“Writing doesn’t come easy.” When writing you must be able to transmit a clear message to the reader. In addition, you have to keep in mind a purpose and an audience when writing. This will help anyone send a much clearer message. Composition 1301 was a great experience for me. I’m impressed on how much I’ve learned in such a short time frame. I learned that the mechanics and formatting are important when it comes to writing; however, it is also important how you express your thoughts and ideas in a clear way. Another, important thing I learned was how to create an argument in a research paper. I might not be an expert in writing but now I at least I know what it takes to write a good paper.

The tips I found most helpful for my writing was to proofread my work, to not allow others to discourage my writing, and to have motivation to think outside the box. To proofread my work means to always re-read what was writing before I turn it in for grading. Proof reading is important because any first time mistakes made can easily be recognized and fixed. When I present my work I may not always have great input of my work, there will always be critiques and negative opinions of how I should write my work. However, I am to remain positive, take the constructive criticism and to not allow someone else’s opinions discourage me from writing how I feel. I also have to have the motivation to think outside the box and that simply means to demonstrate

I have learned much from this course and I truly believe that I will take much of this information into my future in education. I learned so much about not only how to write in general, but more specifically my writing too. I think that the greatest factor about my writing that I realized I need to work on is preciseness. I have realized that my writing can be “beating around the bush”, and instead of making a paragraph too wordy, I should just get to the point and then analyze. I learned that a beneficial writing strategy can be overviewing the topic briefly, stating the argument, and then using supporting details like quotes and examples that back up the original argument.

I’ve learned that I am capable of doing hard things. I sought out information that I didn’t know. How much effort did you make? I have become more efficient in my writing skills. I have learned how to find accreted references. When confronted with frustration, I attacked the assignment head on. I was certainly opened to learning new things. At times it was difficult to understand but once I did it made since. I found myself examining other papers written in that same form and picking them out. Taking this course has given a boost of encouragement I needed to continue my education. This was the hardest academic class I have ever taken and I have certainly learned and grown from it. I was surprised that I was able to understand what was being

Furthermore, always when you are writing a paper is to put as much in your own words as possible and try not to paraphrase that much and cite as much as possible. In addition, make sure that the citing matches your references. You then have to proofread your draft paper and to see that it is in proper format with a good introduction and conclusion then you can start writing your final paper. However, proofreading is important to go back and revise your paper (owl.english.purdue.edu). I think the easiest part of conducting a research paper is about what topic that interests me to write. The things I struggle with most are how to start out writing and putting it all together on paper. Choosing a good topic and keep from having writer’s block when you start writing. Also check to my grammar, wordiness or making sure it makes sense. However, when it has been brought to my attention that I am making mistakes and need help I contact a tutor. Because writing research papers are harder for me to understand and to put it all together to make any sense. The most important thing for me is looking forward in the remainder of my schooling is to make sure I write in my forums and my assignments and check my spelling, grammar, citing, and make sure, when I am doing research to pick a scholarly peer review site or a reliable website. Moreover, to make

The importances of writing and becoming a great writer was stressed both in the reading “How to Say Nothing in 500 Words” and also the film clip “The Essentials of Writing”. Both stressed the importances of making sure you have a clear direction on where you want your paper to go. Making sure you write down all your ideas and to insure that you indeed make your writing flow in a certain manor. Both the film and the article both talked about the importances of not wasting words and time to make a point to use the best words to describe or say what ever you are trying to say. One point that was bought more then one time on both the film and also the reading was to make sure whatever you are writing is something different then what others are writing make sure writing is able to stand out because you never know how the person maybe feeling who is ever reading your writing and also if he has seen multiple papers one the same subject saying the somethings. They both had great knowledge on how to create a better writer and steps you should take before starting a writing assessment I plan on using the writing techniques learned from both the film and the reading to help improve my writing skills.