Personal Narrative: My Experience In My Writing

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'm not the best when it comes do to writing well. I guess i feel like my writing doesn't sound “smart” it's not full of big words that the reader has to look up and learn more about.

When I start my writing process, the topic is key. The decision of what I'm going to write about is based on how I feel about the topic. If I have some baseline knowledge about a particular subject and it relates to my life somehow, then it becomes a bit easier for me. For example, if I had to write about Army life, I can easily relate to this subject and can lean on my experience to help guide me in the right direction. Another tool is research, using proper citations in my work to support the opinions or ideas.

What I have learned throughout the year about writing is that it is important to know how to write because you will need to use it for your everyday life, whether it is at school or at your work. My writing process I think that I have changed a little bit on it but I think I need to practice more so I can get better. What I have changed on my writing was that I need to make my writing sound good and that it makes sense. Why I made those changes because I want it to sound good and make sure that it makes sense to what I am being asked to write. My opinion on writing has not changed. My opinion hasn’t changed because I just don’t like to write and I find it boring.

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 writing process has drastically changed in the last few months. I am at a point where I still make mistakes, but the fear is gone. Currently coming out of WAC101. The most important thing I have taken away was to write often and then rewrite. This has been extremely beneficial in helping my comfort level, approach, and process to writing. Before I started that class I had a fear to write with constantly questioning every sentence I jotted down, asking myself is it good enough? What will someone say about that? Now, I feel I have the ability to write to a few different audiences with structure and substance. Not saying I am an amazing writer now because I am still far from good.

My writing process in the past has never been concrete. It was even very rare that I had a process or even realized that I had a process going on. All I did was write without revision. For example, one time I had a research paper due the next day. I made the decision to take all of the examples I had, write it out, explain it, then give my take on the example, 30 minutes before it was due. Although it was littered with grammar mistakes, I got a passing grade. However, this anxious direction of writing held me back from creating great writing assignments and projects.Because I was being told constantly that I had "great ideas but terrible form" made writing extremely hard and close to depressing.

Al, Alde, de, shon, deshon, and Al’Deshon my name takes on many forms. Kind of like my writing in a sense. I have never been a strong writing also being the reason, I took this class first semester I think. If I get it out of the way maybe I’ll have an easier chance of reaching the finish line happening to be graduation.

Thinking about our first writing assignment, one of the suggestions focuses on the comparison of writing to running, it became apparent to me that this is something I would enjoy writing about. I am a long time running advocate, competing in marathons, and a neophyte writing student, and I find many similarities in both endeavors.

The first step of my writing process when I write a traditional essay consists of brainstorming. If a certain format is provided, I have to brainstorm the order of my key points. On the other hand, for some assignments I am given the specifics of what I need to talk about (like these Log Its) and even given subheadings which I must include to offer a professor better access and recognition of key parts. Once I begin to write, I never have in mind that what I write is a draft of any sort. Personally, I like to keep up with my grammar, spelling and punctuation as I go, so once I finish, the paper is pretty close to being finished with very few mistakes. Sometimes, I type a word that I doesn’t fit into the context but at that time, I have a couple of sentences in my had that I know will disappear if I don’t type them out, so I type (?) after the word to remember to find a synonym or change the word.

My past writing experience has ranged from writing one paragraph free flowing writing, to having a prompt to write about and typing about 4 or 5 pages. In high school, I do not think I have typed more than 5 pages on one topic. When I first started to learn to write, my teachers mainly looked at my grammer or just simple spelling errors or other simple mistakes. However, as I've progressed through school my teachers started to look at paragraph structure, thesis statement, conclusion, citations along with other improtant details that I will be using when I write papers. I did not take compostion in high school as I just took English I, English II, English III, and English IV.

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.

I have not taken the ACTs yet, but I plan to take it later this fall. Last spring I meant to take it but tended to postpone registering for the exam. I plan to take it on October 23rd this year. Even though I have not taken the ACTs yet, I have taken the SAT. Though I don't remember my exact score in the reading department, I remember it was mediocre. I hope that I can train myself in the english and writing department so I am able to score well on the ACTs.

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.

Throughout my writing this semester, I know where I struggle with writing and I have learned many skills to improve my writing . Also it will be all about all the activities we have done and how they have helped me with my writing. I will talk about the areas I struggle with and what I have learned in this semester.