How My Writing Changed

It took me a while to determine what i was going to write about in this essay. Being as I am a sixteen year old high school student, it was a little hard to dig down deep and decide who has truly influenced my writing. I don’t think I can state one specific person that has impacted my own writing style, mostly because of which i am given a generic prompt for. With that said, my eighth grade writing teacher, gifted me with a strong passion for writing.

Writing has changed a lot over the years. The hot topics fade and new ones replace them. From early America to 1870 there was not many changes in the topics because there was not as many people as there are now. There was only three considerable changes to writing styles and topics. The writing styles and topics over the years have changed from myths, to God, and finally to individualism.

During this past semester in senior composition, I have learned how to properly write an essay. In the first semester of my senior year, I took creative writing with Mrs. Leese; I learned how to write stories and how to find books that I would actually like to read. That class got me to enjoy writing and when I found out this class was going to be all essays, I was not very ecstatic. In reality, I loved this class and everything I was taught in it because now I am able to use it for the better. In senior composition, I believe that my writing improved greatly because of the vocabulary I learned, the topics that I picked, and the punctuation/grammar I used.

In this semester I have improved my writing skills. At the beginning, I didn’t know much about writing. Since English isn’t my first language, I had lots of errors in my essays. Writing in MLA format was one of the things I learned. Also, organizing my ideas, and then, write them in a draft, so my paper would end up worth of reading. Before turning the paper in, searching for errors was other thing I learned, because at the beginning, when I was done with an essay I would turned it in without looking twice, searching for mistakes. Now, I always double check to see if I made a mistake. Likewise, I used many common words to describe an idea or a person, I’m getting better on it, but I still need to work on finding new words to make my essays

I’ve been writing essays and papers for at least six years with several of the years writing an average of an essay weekly. My writing is definitely not perfect. It leaves numerous improvements to be desired, but the practice I’ve had has left me with several characteristics that I greatly appreciate about my writing. Likewise, while taking Writing 122 this term, there are various improvements that I desire to make in my writing as we dive into the finer aspects of persuasive writing and argumentation.

This year in English class I have grown tremendously as a reader and writer. I have learn to think critically and analyze literature and I have also learned how to identify figurative language while reading and incorporate that into my writing. My work from the fall like the Pearl essay is very different from my writing in the spring, like the Tom Robinson editorial. The Pearl essay is very repetitive, while the Tom Robinson editorial is very direct and gets to the point quickly. The Tom Robinson Editorial was written as if the reader had not read the book, To Kill a Mockingbird before. My Pearl essay, on the other hand mentioned characters the you would not know if you had not read the book. My writing had improved over the course of

Socrates once said: “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” Though this quote can be applied to many aspects of life, it is also true about me as a writer. Throughout this school year I have made many changes as a writer. I have improved greatly as time has passed and I have learned from my mistakes. At the beginning of the year I had little knowledge of what a thesis statement is, and what I thought I knew was wrong. Also, I used no transitions between my thoughts and ideas. It made so my ideas did not flow well. The introductions to my essays were vague and undetailed. This made my papers confusing. Altogether, my writing did not sound good. Now I have made changes to my writing through my thesis statements, use of transitions, and introduction paragraphs.

When I started Composition I, I never thought that it will be so difficult. Before this class, I hardly managed to write a 200 word document; now, I am writing documents that contain 2000 words and I have been improving. Personally, it is very important for me to improve my writing skills because I want to be able to write a paper and have people understand it. During this semester, I have learned that a document is never completely perfect; every document could use improvement. The most difficult to write would have to be my Synthesis Essay, Media Analysis essay, and the Research Based Academic Argument Essay, which I will explain later. For these three essays, I had to first write it, then, I would send if to my teacher so that she could make comments and hep me improve my essay. After making the corrections needed, I would send the document again and I would receive more corrections. I learned that every time you reread your document, you can find grammatical or vocabulary errors that need to be changed. Also, I learned the importance of others

Writing in the past has always been difficult for me. I have always struggled with most forms of English. I find English to be a frustrating subject because there is never one right answer. I struggle with writing because I never learned any of the important grammar rules and I do not have a large vocabulary. I try to avoid writing as much as I can, I am a picture person and I would rather draw a quick sketch to illustrate a situation opposed to writing down a description. The only type of writing I have ever enjoyed is poetry. My past experiences for writing have been slim to none; I have written a few papers but have gotten by on writing very little. It is not a good thing, but until now I have been happy to write my poorly written papers

Over the course of this year, have changed as a writer and thinker, but I still have goals to set and things to improve upon. As a writer, I started out thinking high of myself, sometimes writing in a style that made myself sound like I was trying too hard, or using advanced styles and vocabulary that I really didn’t know well enough to use them correctly. As the year continued, I realized that it was more important to write correctly and know what you are doing, than using things that sound fancy. In addition, I learned how to make my writing sound better, so I was able to utilize that in my writing correctly. I have also improved upon getting my ideas onto paper in a timely manner, but I still have trouble with it. I am beginning

My biggest struggle in writing would be starting my introduction because I never really know what information to add in my stating my thesis statement. Although, one way I’m trying to improve this struggle is by either adding small quotes or definitions to hook the reader and to add some info about my topic. Furthermore, one essay that I feel reflects my writing the best would be the midterm essay. I picked the midterm essay because even though it was timed I still took my time and carefully picked which examples I thought would best represent my opinions. In addition, I feel using the quote “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” by Nelson Mandela was a very powerful way to keep the reader interested. Ultimately, while I still haven’t overcome the obstacle of writing an introduction I know I’m slowly starting to find my way towards my goal of not struggling when it comes to starting my essays.

After looking at my writing assignments I think that my writing style has not changed much since the beginning of the semester. I use the same format as I did in the beginning to write my Literary Responses as well as the Homework assignments. Although the style and formatting of my papers did not change much, I think my analysis of the works have improved. I am able to describe the artworks better, and I have an easier time reading the Literary Response passages and interpreting it to my writing. In the beginning I struggled with writing these essays, but as the course went on it become easier for me to write them. These assignments really help’s with writing the essays on the exams, I am able to describe works more thoroughly and I can get my thoughts on paper

Writing is always a challenge to me. Before I entered English Composition 2I class, my writing skill is not strong. Grammar, especially, is my weakest point. Although for now, I may not come up with an essay with zero grammar mistakes, I indeed believe that my grammar improves a lot. I also learned how to better structure my paper by logically orientating my paragraphs. I learned that I need bridging sentences and transitional phrases to make my paper flow better. I learned several strategies about writing introduction and conclusion paragraph as well. All the improvements are showed in my final portfolio. In the portfolio, I put in my writing project #2, which is about stereotypes of North Eastern Chinese people, and writing project #3,

High School career, I have never thought of myself as a sophisticated or even well-developed writer. Throughout my years at North Kitsap, English class has never been my strong suit, mathematics is where I am meant to be. I started out the year often using personal pronouns, weak intensifiers, and spelling/grammar errors. Now at the end of the year I have learned to stop those from occurring as well as using more formal diction and more rhetorical devices as I write. This year I believe my writing has gained sophistication due to all the essays assigned my Mrs. Dunbar. The experience obtained from all the essays has given my recent and will give my future essays higher quality content which will prolong my writing in a stronger direction.

My experience as a writer before this semester of college writing one, was almost non-existent. The best training that I had before this class was an internship while I was preparing to separate from the Army. I had the opportunity to work for a marketing company in Fayetteville, NC called 219 group. My Army unit allowed me to do so, and ended up being a terrific experience. Most of my work involved social media marketing, but I was also able to write a few blogs that were posted on clients websites. The blogs were used to promote the websites Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The only basic requirement was to stress certain key words that I had to use repeatedly and since nobody read the blogs it was a perfect job for an intern. Besides the internship I did a little writing that was required for my job in the Army. The Army has a writing style that is very different from college writing or any essay writing. With very little experience and training in writing before my college writing class, what little writing I did was not the best quality. I had many faults and difficulties, too many to mention is a short essay. Although, I still have many difficulties as a writer, I have made significant improvements with just one semester of college writing. In the following paragraphs I will mention some of the writing projects that were completed during the semester and the revisions that I have made. I mention in this paper and provide in my Portfolio, three documents that show how