When Reflecting On What Made Me The Writer I Am Today,

In my opinion, literacy is the foundation of education. To be a reader or writer can encompass a broad definition. It can range in meaning to describe a child who is just learning the sounds letters make when joined together to form a word, to a description of a poet, music producer, and so on. My experience with reading and writing began with the love of my mother, and grew from my continual interest and fascination for greater knowledge.

Over this quarter of English, I have learned many things out of the three to four essays that we have written. I have learned how to write college papers in the appropriate page requirements. Our teacher noticed after the first two essays we wrote that we suffered from sentence fragments, sentence run ons, and comma splices. I have learned how to fix those errors in my papers that I write. A thing I have learned about myself as a writer is that I write very well when a paper is about my personal life because it is easier to write about yourself than about a topic that you are just researching for the first time. If the paper is about my life experiences, I would get a good grade on it.

Writing is something that has never been easy for me. For most of my life I have tried to avoid it if I can, but of course I can't avoid stuff like school forever. So for the most part all of my writing has been forced upon me. Even with the help of teachers and some helpful hints from the internet, it never got easier. But obviously I have written before and like anyone else who has written before, there must have been some sort of influence. My main influences were the books I have read, my teachers who have helped me throughout the years, my experience, and strangely enough my music.

Growing up I was always told that I needed to attend college and there would be no exceptions as to why I would not; I had never really understood why it was so important to my parents but as years past I began to realize why college was a must in my family.

Reading has always been a pass time I enjoyed doing, there was just something about the fact that endless stories could be created with a combination of words and phrases. Without a doubt, Reading expands one’s knowledge on endless topics as well as expands creativity through inspiration of the various works and forms or literature. Personally, as I grew older and more curious with reading I began exploring different genres to read. My causal reading went from basic non-fiction books to reading things like

When I was eight or nine years old, I decided I wanted to be a writer. By this age, I had already gone through the phases of wanting to be an artist, a cook, an astronaut and was extremely satisfied with my new choice of profession. After all, I loved to read so why not write? Reading was my true love: during second grade, I conquered all of Harry Potter over the course of two months. My mom’s rule was that I had to read the book before watching the movie, so I read and read. I would compete in, and win, all the school reading competitions as well as the summer library competitions. Writing, I decided, was the next natural step.

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.

Escaping from the severe reality of life helps a person get through their difficulties within life. Whether they have emotional or physical problems, or a person just needs a good story, reading can help a person explore new worlds through their imagination. I loved reading from a young age, and treasured the moments when my mother read to me. She helped me explore the unique worlds that authors try to portray through their writing.

I may not be the best writer there is out there but I do put all of me into each piece I develop. I believe in giving it your all at all times. If your giving it anything less why try at all. I'm huge on that theory and I believe it means a lot more than I believe it to be. I hope that each piece I submit this semester is nothing less than my best and I hope to take in all the criticism and use it to my advantage.

I’ve always been an avid reader. When I was in elementary school, my mother would take my brother and I to the library every week to pick out books. I would take the books to school and read them all in one day. I loved reading so much that my teachers would call home and tell my parents that I was reading my library books during class instead of my textbooks. Reading has always been a major part of my life. I used to aspire to become an author. I even wanted to become an editor at one point. I used to make daily household newspapers and magazines for my entire family to read and enjoy. My strong love for reading certainly came in handy during my freshman year of high school.

Growing up, reading and writing were always a pleasurable experience for me. As a little girl, my mother and grandmother would both tell me stories that they had once been told when they were children in their native country of Cuba. Although the stories they told me weren’t being narrated directly from a book, they motivated me to read some stories on my own. So I began requesting books and taking trips to the library. Those stories inspired me to begin writing and so by the age of 8, I picked up a pencil and embarked on my composing journey. I had countless journals throughout the years and even began writing short stories and poems. My father was the one that encouraged me most when it came to my writing as he genuinely believed I was talented.

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

Being a writer is not something that comes easy, it is something that must be worked at. You get better at it over time by practicing and improving your writing skills through the help of tools or other people. I persobnally wanted to better my own writing askills, so I began identifying my problems and finding resources to help better those fields in which I need help. My most major problems as a writer include my style or wirting, transitioning, and forming complete paragraphs. I found many helpful tools on my journey to become a better writer and I believe that I have strengthened my understanding of essay writing as well.

J.K. Rowling once said, “Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power to that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared” (“J. K. Rowling Quotes."). I want to be a writer. A writer is a person who is a fountain of imagination and innovation. A writer is a creator of worlds, a spinner of new realities and master of creativity. When I was younger, I would often spend hours sitting up in trees, my feet dangling and swinging lightly to an unknown rhythm; I would listen as the outside world seemingly stood still. My younger sister would always be a few branches away, and she would plead for stories. I spun worlds of monsters and heroes, worlds full of love and magic and insanity. I would become immersed in my stories as my listeners, and started jotting down concepts that would come to me during a dull day. Once, I had a journal full of oddball ideas and intrepid adventures. I adore my gift, and it’s inspired me to become a professional writer so I can give my ideas a new life, and become real.

The most difficult part about writing an essay is getting started. Writers block is definitely a writer’s biggest fear. Hours upon hours spent drawing blanks, chewing away at the top of the pencil searching for ideas is certainly common for even the best writers. Even the author of Please Don’t eat the Daisies Jean Keer admits that she feels most inspired when she reads labels.