Pre-Course Reflection: How I Feel About Being a Writer
Although math and science are my favorite subjects, I don’t always dislike writing. A lot of the time I like writing but sometimes I have a negative attitude towards writing. This is when we get long writing tasks that involve making up your own topic or a general thesis. I have a negative attitude towards these tasks because they are the most difficult for me. However, when writing short organized assignments, I enjoy writing.When writing I believe that I am in the middle on the “writer ladder.” I am not a struggling bad writer at the bottom nor am I an articulate good writer at the top. This is due to a few different factors. I have had good work and difficult work, which shows me my strengths and weaknesses. Organization is important when I am writing. When it comes to specific tasks, I am usually able to write like a good writer at the top of the ladder. However when the topic is general or I have to make it up, I usually don’t write as well. This is because on I like things very organized. On specific tasks, I can outline my ideas and break them up into paragraphs. When my task is general or I have to make it up, I usually am not organized and throw all the info onto the paper. Also, as the paper gets longer, I tend to get less organized. These types of essays are the ones that I have many unnecessary mistakes. I cant remember my best or most difficult work but most of my work I get lazy towards the end. I usually have good ideas but at the end I don’t go back and proof read and clean up the little things. This causes me to do worse on essays than I really should. Another thing I have noticed about my writing is that I tend to not analyze a lot when I am proving a point in a paper. I have noticed that the most common comment on my papers is to analyze. This is because I just spit out the facts but I don’t connect them to make a point. An additional problem I have is creating a thesis. I have learned the method and what makes a good or bad thesis but I have trouble applying this to my writing. These are the causes for my decision to take this class, advanced composition. In this class I help to improve my writing skills. Most classes are about reading, like my last class which was modern literature, so I decided to take this class which focuses more on writing. By improving my writing, this could help me for my college applications and everything else in the future. Throughout this class I would like to greatly improve my writing and I am sure I will.
