Christian Hannah
Professor Weeks (Mackey)
ENC1101 - FSCJ
09/20/2017
Lost
As a writer, I find myself getting lost. Typically, when I go to start writing I hit a brick wall. It’s as if all my thoughts suddenly escape my mind and I draw a blank. It takes me forever to conjure up some form of a thesis and then takes even longer to figure out what I should write to support it in a way that makes sense. Then, attempting to find a way to organize my ideas and put them together in cohesive paragraphs seems like an impossible task in the moment. It is not uncommon for me to get flustered and just throw something down on the paper because I get anxious seeing how much work is left to do. If I end up going back to read it over prior to submission,
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Also, I know I can get off topic when I run out of ideas so keeping the main idea consistent throughout the essay is something I surely need to improve upon. On the contrary, some strengths I possess include proper utilization of grammar and diverse vocabulary.
My attitude towards writing is very unfavorable. I just don’t enjoy it at all. It’s a very tedious task when you factor in all of the revision steps that it takes to produce a quality essay. Writing requires a long amount of time spent planning and preparing that is not for impatient people like myself. However, I believe that with a little bit of some confidence and patience, I could learn to enjoy myself when I write. I think it’s a great outlet for some but just hasn’t ever really been something that made me feel relaxed or stress-free. Writing just clouds my head with confusion and anxiety. I guess I can blame this on the fact that all my previous experiences writing has been academic and in a time-restricted environment. However, I am excited to see how my impression of writing changes throughout my college career now that I am not confined to a forty-minute window.
I know that a bad habit I seem to have developed is getting lazy with how beefy the content of my essay is. Sometimes I won’t completely explain something or won’t finish a thought because I tend to get discouraged or because I’m under pressure to finish
For one reason or another, I'm never able to get the ideas out of my head and on to paper. I can literally go hours looking at the computer ready to start my paper, and the ideas will never come to me. Then, once it is down to the real deal and the deadline around the corner, I stress more trying to put everything together the last minute. In addition, I’m over critical of myself during the drafting process. When it comes to letting my thoughts flow more naturally, I get frustrated with myself when my thoughts are not as organized as I want them to be. In my opinion, my writing process is ineffective because out of the four writing process steps needed to effectively write an essay, I only used drafting. I used it to write my first copy of the draft. It might be imperfect, there may be some grammatical errors, things may be a little out of place - but it's just a rough draft that I can tweak and edit as I go through the writing process. While developing my drafts, I can change and rework each one to be precise. Furthermore, drafting could be the most difficult part of the writing process for many people. For instance, it can be really overwhelming when you have an idea or a topic, but now you have to gather sources, write an outline of how you want an essay to look and figure out how to include enough information to meet word count
All throughout my years of schooling, I’ve had just about, one paper that was about one page long, due every year. My papers never had to be more than one page in length. Therefore, I did not have to do much writing or do many essays. Surely not enough to remember any of the assignments. Writing has never been something I enjoyed doing, so I never bothered to many any memories of my writing experiences. I did not think it was necessary to remember any of them since I only had to do them to get a grade. The only writing experience I remember was the first assignment I had in this English 100 class about a writing experience. All week long, I sat there thinking about what to write about, but nothing came to mind as a topic. Then, one thing came to mind, but it was so very vague, I could not write the length that was needed for the assignment. I could only think of a few sentences to write for it. After sitting for a few moments longer, I thought, how about I write about how difficult it was for me to write this essay before it was due.
Teachers, parents, and friends often tell students exactly what the writing process should entail and how long it should take. However, the older I get, the more I realize that the writing process varies not only from person to person, but also from one writing project to the next. Throughout my years of life, I have written countless papers, ranging from a persuasive speech to an extensive research paper, and each project requires an altered version of my personal writing process. While each individual has his own writing process, there can be many similarities between different writing processes. Finding one’s individual writing process takes trial, error, and repetition. When an individual finally uncovers his unique writing process, better thought, work, and writing is produced.
Whenever I get a writing assignment for class, it seems like a chore. I don’t have a problem with writing, but papers always seem to take more time than they should. Maybe this is due to poor planning on my part, but essays are usually an ordeal, and I dread actually doing the work to finish one. The task is simple enough, but putting it off always seems like a better alternative to writing. I do think about the paper that I have to write, but I do not put thoughts and ideas into a paper or outline until I absolutely need to do so. From the moment I am given an assignment sheet, I begin brainstorming about the paper. I may not use any of these ideas, but I think of them. I also have a tendency to forget good ideas, which leads me to think
Getting organized to write a paper is the worst thing ever; the idea charts, the constant erasing, getting up repeatedly to sharpen my pencil. I remember writing this particular paper; I had just gotten to school and put my bag in my cubby hole. The first thing out of Mr. Leisch’s mouth (my teacher at the time) was, “today we are going to write for the entire day, we are falling behind in this subject compared to the other three classes and we need to practice.” As the rest of my peers groaned and bellyached I was thrilled, “today will be the day I write a six!” I told myself. As my teacher gave us our assignment and I
Those that write always have a writing process whether they know it or not. A writing process can be defined by the way an individual gears up for the project at hand. It can be as simple as finding a favorite chair to write in or the act of planning out the writing beforehand. My own personal writing process varies from task to task with a few constants. I generally start my writing process by first reconciling my project; figuring out the best way to express the needs of the work. I do not write down notes or an outline in regards to the project mostly relying on winging it so as not to get hung up on sticking to the outline. I will my best to knock out large chunks of the project before taking any breaks unless I hit a wall, and
When I sit to write, I have to think about what I want to say. This is not easy for me as I tend to think about several things at once. Clearing my mind and focusing on the writing task is a challenge in itself. I do not consider myself a strong writer and find it intimidating especially when I know it will be critiqued. The sense of failure when seeing the paper I worked so hard on look like the newest local headline of a recent murder is disheartening for me. I assume I am being overly critical of myself but those feelings seem to be redeemed when I look over the aftermath of what was my wonderful work of mental art.
The only way you can become better at doing something is simply by continuing to work on your craft. Whether it is a hobby, an interest, or a profession, if you don't keep working, then you will remain complacent. A year ago, I thought writing was one of those things where I would just be complacent in. Not because I didn’t wanted to work harder at it, but because I thought of writing as one of those skills that came natural to you, or you did not have it at all. I always wanted my writing to improve but never knew how.
An aspect that I often struggle with is proper punctuation. Truthfully, I do not know how to correctly use punctuation. When writing, I place punctuation by mimicking authors’ formats or by placing them where it feels right. This is present in all of my writing, but I am attempting to improve. Punctuation also plays a part in another weakness of mine, one that is most likely present within this essay. Since middle school, it was engrained in my mind that a good essay is a long essay, so I have a tendency for wordiness. To elongate an essay, I tend to add needless words and sentences. For example, in the rough draft of the Whole Process Essay, I added several unrelated occurrences to elongate the paragraphs. Although my essays were long and wordy, the professor commented on vagueness and unclearness within the whole process and practice essay. Sometimes, I disregard the fact that the reader might not know what it is I am writing about or the sentence makes perfect sense to me. The latter is the most common, I quickly read the sentence and it appears fine to me. Within the Whole Process Essay, another weakness was brought to my attention. I lack structure, a key element in effective writing. Within the same essay and a few others, I simply added what felt right, sometimes the result would be acceptable but in other instances, it was a long, jumbled mess.
I searched-looking left, right, and then back at my clock-repeatedly until I saw the rectangular piece of a paper held by an unfamiliar face that read “Mina Poppas”. I made eye contact with this unfamiliar person and approached cautiously. The unfamiliar face smiled slightly and asked if I was in fact, Mina Poppas. I replied with the nod of my head and quickly glanced downward avoiding further eye contact that would engage in more conversation. Despite my best efforts of minimal conversation with this unfamiliar face, he began to introduce himself as Mark. Mark mentioned that I had arrived early and the other kids were not there just yet. I had been sent to a four year boarding school extremely far from home by my parents due to
The prom was two nights later. It took place at the school. Alex waited for a Japanese girl wearing a white dress and a white masquerade mask. Eventually, she walked up to Alex.
Click-cli-cli- click, the rapid sounds coming from Mark’s keyboard were frantic at best. He was inside his small cubicle, stacked by all of the others in the office building. His hand shakingly reach for his cup of coffee, and brought it to his mouth, cold. He didn’t care, he didn’t have time to get a new one.
Writing has always been something I dread. It’s weird because I love talking and telling stories, but the moment I have to write it all down on paper, I become frantic. It’s almost as if a horse race just begun in my mind, with hundreds of horses, or words, running through my mind, unable to place them in chronological order. Because I struggle to form satisfying sentence structure, it takes me hours, sometimes even days, to write one paper. It’s not that I think I’m a “bad writer,” I just get discouraged easily. Needless to say, I don’t think highly of my writing skills. When I was little I loved to both read and write. I read just about any book I could get my hands on, and my journal was my go to for my daily adventures. Although it’s
“I don’t want to do this! Please don’t make me! I’m scared!” I stammered and cried at the same time.