Personal Narrative: Why I Challenged My Writing Skills

Over the course of this semester, I have learned many things to improve my writing. Having taken the course before, this semester has been an excellent opportunity to expand on my existing knowledge. Although I had written many essays before, there is still much to be learned and improved. Two factors of writing that I had learned or improved on this semester were transitions/topic sentences and how to properly structure a conclusion paragraph.

One of the most important course objectives that I’ve grown accustomed to is the writing process itself. In the writing process, we are able to revise our writing where it is weak and earn a better grade than before. Since I took advantage of the revision process, not only was I able to improve my grade, but I was able to prevent the same mistakes from happening again in other writing assignments. From revisions alone, I’ve learned how to improve my writing skills and catch mistakes that I wouldn’t have seen

At the moment, there are only 5 articles available for a 3-star rating, which isn't much. I was wondering, can I apply to any teams at this stage? Are there other ways to find additional work?

One of my strong points in writing is coming up with ideas and knowing how to get started on a paper. I guess you can say I am a free writer. Whatever in my head ends up on paper and I could write about a lot of things that matters to me or upsets me and feel passion when writing it down, but there also a weakness that I can’t overcome because my inner critic come along with it. Which makes me completely change and overshadow my own writing. I have a problem with revising and not being able to see the flaws in my writing, but that’s not it. I overpower one topic with another one in other words I would mash up two topics that is the exact opposite of each other which contradict my whole paper. The other problem is shorting up a sentence as well

This is the 25 minute writing challenge, where I’m not allowed to use the backspace button on my keyboard or edit what I’m typing. There are probably going to be many typos in this small paper, but that’s apart of the challenge as I can't edit anything. I honestly have no clue what to write about, but atleast I’m 3 minutes in right now.

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.

As I read the comments on my Instagram post, I laugh. I had posted a picture from when I was little, so of course, my friends had to make sarcastic comments on it. While I was reading them I noticed words like “lol”, “tho”, and “bc”. I was five in the picture and I was not taught to write like that. No one was. We were taught to read beyond our level, write grammatically correct, spell right, and speak clearly. Well at least that was what my sister, Riley, taught me when we turned her bedroom into a classroom and played school. Riley is two years ahead of me in school. When she would come home, she would teach me what she learned that day. I loved playing school and it gave me an appreciation for reading and writing because we did it for fun. This also allowed me to strive for more than average since she was teaching me things the others wouldn’t learn for a couple of years.

It was two months ago when I discussed how big of a change it was for me to enter into a college writing class. Throughout my first semester attending writing 105, I’ve learned to “rise about my limits”. Reading and writing was a tool I always tend to struggle with yet I continued to focus on exceeding pass my goal. Each essay I wrote became better allowing me to not only learn more but grow as a writer. I started off being able to just write two page essays and now I’ve adapted to being able to write 7 pages without losing track. Over the semester my writing has improved due to dedication, having a purpose and analyzing my mistakes.

While attending writing class, I learned about the 4 steps in writing, bases for revising, organizing, and connecting specific information, and I also learned about the different types of essays such as descriptive, narrative, process, cause and effect and argumentative essay. I have been a student at Milwaukee Area Technical College for 1 semester, and over the course of my enrollment I have grown and learned more that I knew prior to attending this writing course. Participating in this writing class has taught me so much more than stuff about literature and language, it has taught me another way of expressing myself. I have learned here how to write and express myself, how to think for myself, and how to find the answers to the things that I don 't know. Most importantly I have learned how important technique, outlines and organization are. My goal in this paper is to inform writers about how my writing skills have improved.

Sitting here i think about how absolutely terrible my writing skills are and I ponder on what I could possibly write about.10 things about one topic seems kind of difficult to think of when you have to have interest in the topic yourself. Last night I sat in my bed thinking of the easiest thing for me to write about and that is my stress. It’s something I can really talk about and actually put thought into. The ten things that stress me out most would have to be the following; feeling alone, getting the short end of the stick in most situations, my mom going to rehab, working for everything I have, emotionally and physically, how my sister gets treated by her boyfriend, my dad's feelings, my house being put up for sale, where my mom is going to end up after the house gets sold, my brother Steven passing away, and the constant drinking when I see my mom.

My writing experience started in high school. I was part of the high school yearbook. I was business editor as a freshman up to being the editor my senior year. I also participated on the newspaper staff. I had some experience in college, but I did not finish college. I then did not have any more experience until I started work as a leader at Nisco. I finally started college classes again.

I have always been a very driven person, and I believe that my current career goals reflect that. I want to be a surgical missionary. I often joke with people that my goal career title is “world-changer,” but joking aside I do hope to make a difference one day. To do that, I am going to be in school for a very long time. School means that papers are going to be written, while English class might have a few more papers than other subjects, every class is going to require some type of writing at some point. Furthermore, in the fall of 2017, I plan on attending the University of Alabama and majoring in International Studies while on the pre-med track. Therefore, good college level writing is a skill that I need to develop now if I hope to reach my future career goals and be successful throughout my entire college experience. That is why throughout this semester I have been happy to see my writing improve as I have demonstrated my ability to understand and meet the requirements of multiple student learning outcomes such as applying critical thinking and reading skills to a variety of texts and employing appropriate writing strategies for each assignment’s audience and purpose. However, my writing needs to continue to improve in other areas, such as demonstrating correctness in the written conventions of University discourse.

For the past 5 months of the semester, I’ve learnt a lot for myself, an international student, to improve my writing skills in many different fields and circumstances that I personally think is extremely important for the business world today in this class. Writing for business is not easy like it seems. Putting all the essential information and details in such a limited length can be frustrated for anyone and one small little mistake can result in a really bad consequence or lead the whole organization into a tough situation. At the beginning of the semester, I understand my strengths a little bit and how to use them in general since all the English and Communication classes I have taken, but to be honest, I didn’t expect any differences between JGEN and them.

Would you believe me if I told you that masters of any art still practice the skills that got them to where they are now? This might not come as a surprise to most, but success and perfection is measured in time. Repetition is key when talking about mastering skills. There are many steps that have helped me through my writing process. Thinking planning, and revision are skills that have made me a better writer. These skills are crucial for becoming a better writer because it decides the volume of my work and makes sure the reader understands my intent.

I believe I have achieved most of the course learning objectives as I pass this class with a c or higher. I undertook the writing process we learned in class and it has helped me become a better writer. Before I entered my freshman year of college I didn’t know how to write. But as I undertook the writing process I was taught in class I now know how to write. First when it came to writing my assignment papers for my class I grabbed a notebook and did prewriting . I brainstormed a list of ideas for my papers. I then had a plan on everything I was going to write about. I then sit down and write my first draft. I make sure my first paragraph is a strong