Classes have begun, and I am really enjoying my English Course. I am looking forward to growing as a writer, and seeing where it may take me. Below is one of my first writing assignments. It is was insightful to look back as to where I started with writing, and were it has taken me up to now. It will be interesting to look back on this at the end of the semester and to see how much my writing will have changed.
Writing is
something that over the course of my lifetime has greatly changed. I have often
written in a journal, but not with any clear plan or intention, just to get my thoughts
down on paper. When it came to writing for school I would put it off until it
was almost too late, and then have to rush something haphazardly together.
Thankfully, as I have matured so has my writing. What once was something I would
avoid, I have now come to enjoy the process of writing.
Of course with my
writing, just like all areas of my life, I have some strengths and some
weaknesses. I have always found myself to be well spoken and I often find that
this carries into my writing. As I read my writings out loud, I can tell right
away when it doesn’t feel like my words and when they need to be changed. I feel
that if you enjoy something in life, you will be better at it. As my enjoyment
for writing has grown so has the strength of my writing ability. I am an avid
reader, usually reading at least one book a month. This allows me to see many
different writing styles and discover what I like and what I don’t like in a
writing style.
But with strengths
come weaknesses too, it is just a matter of strengthening the weaknesses to
the point that they are no longer noticeable. My biggest weakness is my ability
to be distracted. This leaves my writing scattered and unclear and often takes
more work than it should to organize. I have found, that I really need to organize all of my thoughts together, find a quiet place (staying far away from the coffee shops - too many distractions there), and allot myself an ample amount of time to write. If I get myself a small snack a drink, go to the bathroom and turn off the phone before I start, I am more apt to get a clear and decent amount of writing done before I find myself loosing focus.
Having the
collaboration of my peers is going to help improve my writing style. The more
people that read something I write, the more that I will be able to get
feedback from them and improve upon my writing. As I am reading other peoples
writing, I will also see styles that I like and could adapt into my own writing and styles that I don’t like, and based
off of that I will be able to change my own writing style into something that I
not only like but that I am proud of.
Writing will
greatly impact my college career. Almost all classes will require writing of
one format or another. This will include papers, essays, discussion board
posts, and more. Without a clear and professional writing ability, college will
be more challenging than it needs to be.
In the future, writing will be very important to my career. I am entering the field of social
media marketing. Much of my communication will be written, whether it is a blog
post, a tweet on Twitter, or a post for a business on Facebook, writing will be essential. I need to be able to tailor my
writing to the format I am in and to do it quickly and professionally.
While working
through this class, I am looking forward to improving upon my writing. I am
happy to say that I am already noticing some improvement. When I first began
this assignment I had read the required reading, but it didn’t really sink in.
I started just writing, and while I was able to get some of my thoughts out and
some ideas about the essay, it was a scattered mess and rewriting it would not
have been easy. After doing the discussion board questions for this unit, I
went back and looked through the strategies listed and decided that creating an
outline would work best for this situation. The last time I used an outline was
probably 15 years ago in high school, but it quickly came back to me and I was
able to get my thoughts organized and the sections ready to type out. I also
hope to improve upon picking a topic and writing specifically about it. I think
that using the strategies that we have discussed will help in this area as
well. Citing my work and using proper format is something that makes me
nervous. It has been a long time since that has been required of my writing, so
taking my time and really making sure that it is done properly is something I look
forward to improving.
