I enrolled in Creative Writing as a challenge to myself to branch outside of my comfort zone of reading, and reverse the roles by becoming a writer. Coming into this class, I had no previous experience creatively writing; however, I knew that in order to go into my desired profession as a developmental editor for young adult fiction, I must know how to do what I want to tell others to do, write a well formed story. Through my experience in this class, I have had the opportunity to learn about the creative writing process and my personal relationship with it as well as dabble in multiple forms of creative writing, for which I would have never otherwise tried.
In this class, I have learned two crucial components of the creative writing process.
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At the beginning of this class, my main restriction in writing was that I always wanted whatever I wrote to be perfect and be on the same level of the stories I read. However, the truth is, everyone starts somewhere, and overtime you grow and learn. Everything I write does not have to be a perfect masterpiece, especially not on the first try, but I do have to try. Although, I am not proud of everything I’ve written this semester, I am proud of the fact that I wrote them, because, if I had not done so, then I would have never done it, later. Now that I have these drafts and manuscripts, I can and will continue to improve and add to …show more content…
In addition, I also wrote four full short stories, my favorite being “Demon Driver,” as I sincerely enjoyed creating the small details that littered the flash fiction. One thing I used to hate in high school literature was how I was constantly asked to reflect on a story and describe the allusions, irony, and such techniques used in the prose. However, in writing “Demon Driver,” I found myself using such techniques to leave little “Easter eggs” so to speak for myself and my readers, from the characters names to the specific vocabulary and imagery I used.
Although I ultimately enjoyed writing each assignment, I was most challenged by poetry. I have never been a fan of poetry. From high school, I developed a negative disposition towards it, as the aged poems never stood out as something special to me, yet I was always forced to elaborate on meanings, morals, and techniques found in the few, short lines. Thus, in writing my own poems, I struggled to overcome my dislike for the art form, and simply
Throughout the progression of this course I learned countless things concerning my writing. {Simkin, M. G., Crews, J. M., & Groves, M. J. (2012). While it’s there’s a many amounts of things ‘ve learned throughout the course, there are several things I‘ve learned which include the step by step process, including the correct usage of grammar and properly proofreading my work before I turn it in. I found out i had a major problem with my punctuation usage and insufficient when it came my periods and commas. I’ve invested some time writing through grammarly and other helpful sites to improve my writing skills. I appreciate the assistance and help I received from Mrs. C
Everyone on the planet has a goal set in life, but only a handful attempt to improve to obtain their goal by studying the subject their goal is in. In my English class, English 101 this quarter I was astonished by how much I had progressed as a writer sharpening my writing skills and also learned a lot about writing that I hadn’t learned before. In my writing portfolio for this quarter I had to write an autobiography essay, a research essay, and this reflection essay to develop my writing skills better. The writing assignments were fun to do because it challenged me to work on essays of different styles that were new to me. The essay assignments helped me grow as a better writer that gave me the self-confidence and skills to take on the world on my own.
“The Novice as Expert: Writing the Freshman Year” reflected my writing experience while I transitioned from elementary writer to a critical writer. Sommers and Saltz write, “freshmen need to see themselves as novice in a world that demands ‘something more and deeper’ from their writing than high school” (Sommers and Saltz 134). This line highlights the hardship that most students face when trying to write successfully. My earlier written works were much weaker than my current pieces because I often wrote for the sake of passing the class. While developing my writing, I focused on the new ideas that were introduced rather than limiting my argument to familiar techniques and ideas. Because of my new attitude towards writing, I began to demand
At the start of this course, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had a goal for myself to improve and learn skills that would make writing less daunting for me. I have learned so many things about my writing that I didn’t think much about before. Another goal I had was to break the cookie-cutter mold that was set upon me throughout high school. During the process of revision, I discovered many things about myself as a writer and techniques that have been effective for me in the writing process.
There comes a time in life where we see an impossible obstacle, and do the best that we can to overcome it. For me, this was my AP English Language class in high school during senior year. The time was now, summer is nearly over. I analyzed my strengths and weaknesses, giving a full re-evaluation of myself. In the end, I consider myself an average writer. There have been times in the past when I’ve written letters or personal stories. However, those have never been my strongest set of skills. While I have been serious with my writing, I never recognized the unbelievable advantages that good writing has. Therefore, I’ve made it my goal to improve my literal skills and become a great writer. Maybe this new class will assist me in becoming that
From the early beginning of the school year to the current day, my writing skills and knowledge have improved and broadened over time. If not drastic, the change is noticeable nevertheless. For almost an entirety of eighth grade, assignments of varying difficulty challenged me to a degree. To be frank, some seemed as though they were beyond my comprehension and ability. However, determination amalgamated with knowledge obtained in advance helped me to overcome my doubts, for I exceeded my expectations; surprisingly good grades and comments are a delight, owing to the fact of that I don’t tend to think of myself as being proficient at writing. Consequently, the assignments given to me this school year shaped me into who I am as a writer.
Throughout the course of freshmen year I have developed different skills and opinions on writing. I feel I have created a more mature style of writing and a better understanding of literature. I have changed my view of writing over this semester and acquired a strong liking for it. The importance of writing has become more visible throughout the past few months. Writing is crucial in many aspects of a person’s life. I have grown to be a more powerful and well built writer throughout this course.
I grew up in a extremely small town outside of Birmingham, and the high school I went to is not known for its academia. If I recall right, my high school english classes assigned only 1-2 papers a year, so writing 4-5 in a semester was a completely new adventure for me. I learned many things in this course that greatly helped me improve my writing. My writing overall improved in style, flow, and basic fundamental writing thought processes, which is all the areas that are hard to learn. I started to see my style and flow had grown bland and very fact based instead of grabbing the attention of the readers. Now that I understand where my writing needs improvement, I can start focusing on those areas and fixing my papers.
As a high school student taking on a college course, I acknowledged and accepted the challenge that lay ahead of me. The main reason I selected Composition I and II was that it allowed me to vastly improve my overall writing skills. Developing my techniques will benefit me when I am required to compose any writing assignments for my future college classes. Therefore, with that goal in mind, I chose to take this class while still attending high school. I began this class as an average writer; additionally, I did not know the majority of the writing rules or how to make an essay meet its potential. Over the course of these two classes, I believe that I have proven my writing to be more seamless and interesting to read.
At the beginning of the semester I entered General Studies Writing 1110, not knowing what to expect. I knew the class was solely based on writing and perfecting personal style, but I never anticipated the valuable information I would learn throughout the course of the year. The only advanced English class I have taken in high school was English Honors in eighth grade. That class gave me the base knowledge of writing, grammar and form that has helped me through my four essays in this class. Starting out, I was not sure what the standard for passing was; even though it was unclear to me what passing was, I strove for perfection. By the time the second essay came around I realized my writing was never perfect. Peer editors and family played a
Looking at where my writing was before class, to where it is now, and to where I want it to be in the future, I have set goals for myself. I want to turn my weaknesses into strengths, and my strengths into shining stars. I want to turn my skills into the best that they can be. I do not want to be mediocre. That simply is not anywhere close to where I want to be. I know that my writing will never be perfect, but then nothing is perfect. But, I want my writing to be the best that it
This letter is meant to be a way for you to get to know me on a deeper level. You are probably using this letter not only to get to know the lives of the students you are teaching, but also to learn about the writing behaviors of your students. So for this purpose I will try to keep my letter short and interesting in order to not mess up. Before we begin I have a quick disclaimer, I am very sarcastic in everyday life so that does show in my informal writing. I am usually professional for most major papers, but for this paper you will probably see my sarcasm. Now that we have gotten that out of the way let’s start this letter.
Throughout middle school my classes were all the same, I showed up, learned, received my assignments, and left. There was one class that was different; it was my Language Arts class. The teacher’s name was Mrs. Lorentsen and she was not the average teacher. For example, in her class we rarely had lectures and I can remember vividly my adventures with her. We completed assignments that were called Independent Study Projects (ISPs), Common Place Books (CPBs), and completed 3D book reports. These are all different ways of presenting information through creativity and problem solving. These foreign type assignments seemed strange at first, as they are different from a traditional classroom setting. I quickly adjusted to her classroom, and learned that I enjoyed this style of learning. Throughout the class Mrs. Lorentsen and I both noticed a commonality in my writing. Putting my thoughts and opinions on paper became a struggle for me.
Through the reading, I was introduced to a genre and flow of writing that I was previously unfamiliar with. Creative fiction had always been my primary focus, and the non-fiction element was one I had not previously put much thought into before taking the course. The two styles are superficially similar, but the major distinguishing point that I perceived was the fact that, as we discussed in class, creative has more of a basis in reality and therefore has a different, more candid appeal to readers.
I took this class in order to learn how to write creatively. I have always been writing, because I enjoyed it, but I did not know if I was doing it ‘correctly.’ I did not know how to shape my ideas and thoughts into the form of a story. Also, I thought what I wrote had to be perfect on the first attempt, but I have learned from this class otherwise. Never having the opportunity to take writing classes or art classes in my youth, I thought that if what I created was not perfect, I just did not have the talent for it. My ideas entirely contrast with those of the younger version of me. I took this class because I could learn and work at it. I enjoyed the short story collection Shadow Show written by numerous writers in honor and in celebration of Ray Bradbury. In one of the writer’s