Essay Writing and How I Write Essays...
Everybody has expectations of what they think a writing class at a university will be like. Mine, however, were more of concerns and worries than expectations. I thought of college writing classes as constant essay writing, papers due everyday, along with in-class writings right and left. Although this may have been me just panicking, after all English is one of my weaker subjects, but I feel coming into a class worrying for the worst will prepare me for anything that I am about to be faced. That way, if it is a non-stop writing melee I would not be too surprised. To be honest, I cannot say I would enjoy any part of any type of writing class. It is just something that needs to be done so I suck it up and do it. However, if I had to pick a favored writing assignment, it would probably be term papers, research papers with a very narrow range of essay topics. I find these assignments easier as compared to writings with a very broad topic range. I often times find myself struggling for a topic in these situations. It seems that by the time I figure out what it is I want to write about, times becomes an issue and I end up rushing my paper to get it done by the due date. On the other hand, when I am given an essay topic to write about, that is what has to be wrote and that is that. I do not waste valuable time brainstorming to find a topic and I usually have no problem getting it done well before the deadline. One example of a type of writing I had to do where the topic was given was in my Junior year of high school. My English teacher gave the class a list of rare, virtually unknown animals and everyone had to pick one.
The creature you pick being the animal you wrote on. We were told to research this animal but to focus our writing on how we felt toward this animal and our thoughts about it, not just merely throwing facts about it on a paper. Although I find this type of writing assignment to be easier, sacrificed is the imagination and creativity in coming up with a subject topic. Even though I prefer having a writing topic given to me rather than given a broad subject range, no one likes to be told what to write about all of the time, you just do it.
Essay writing is unique to everyone. It's amazing, you could ask a room of 500 people to write down wha they think or how they feel about a particular subject and you are sure to get 500 different responses. No two writings are alike (except in a case of academic misconduct), and this is what appeals to many essay writers. I define writing as the transfer of thoughts and ideas on a particular subject from the mind to a sheet of paper. I am always thinking, and thinking comes without trouble, its transferring those thoughts onto paper is what tends to be difficult.
It is like two different languages, the language of your mind, which is innate, and the language that is put onto paper, which must be learned to be able to do well. I'm the world's worst when it comes to transferring my thoughts onto paper. I oftentimes am mistaken to mean something that was not intended and for that reason I end up confusing the reader. I tend to drag sentences out to the point where it becomes unclear and hard to read. An example of his was in my senior year of high school. We kept a journal and wrote in it everyday about a topic the teacher would have on the board. In one of my journal entries, my work was "killed". I was returned my journal and I swear every other sentence was labeled as rambling. As a result of this I now look for sentences in which I seem to ramble and try to correct it.
There are certain things I can do that can make the transfer of thoughts onto essay paper a bit easier. Choosing the right environment is very helpful. I cannot just sit down anywhere and write. I have some strange environment requirements that I like and that will make writing seem to come easier. Being in a dead quiet area is not going to cut it for me. There must be some kind of noise going on within a reasonable noise level. Say for example, if I know I am going to work on a paper in a library, a place known for its lack of noise, I will often make up for the lack of noise by bringing a cd-player and headphones with me. I tend to like to listen to rap music when I am writing, or any other type of homework for that matter. I would not be able to explain why it is rap that I listen to other than that is the music I like. It just seems to make essay writing easier. Who knows, perhaps it is the fast paced speaking that turns my brain to fast paced thinking and writing becomes easier.
Rambling, as stated above is known to be a problem in essay writing for me. In addition to rambling, I also seem to have a problem with the overuse of pronouns.
Again, confusing the reader as to what or whom I'm talking about and to the point where it becomes hard to read. However, I know that these are some problems that I have with writing so during the revision stages of papers I look for these problems and try to correct them. Although I believe that there are many problematic issues with my essays writing, some known and others unknown, there is one thing that I believe I accomplish well. I argue daily with my friends so its like an everyday practice for argumentative essays. I could choose either side of an argument even if it is a side in which I am not particularly for and come up with a pretty good argument. However, a better argument is more likely to be produced if I actually agree with it. While argumentative essays are favored, I still cannot steer clear of the troubles I have with transferring thoughts to paper and the problems I have when writing essays.
Even though my expectations are more like fears, I am eager to be exposed to an actual college writing class. Like was said earlier, I am pretty sure I'm not going to enjoy it, after all who enjoys English, but I know I'm not going to hate it.
Perhaps coming into an English class with the idea that I am not going to like it is not the way to go. I shall just wait and see how things turn out before I, "judge a book by its cover" and make up my mind. Who knows, I might just be surprised. It is my style of writing an essay in college, each possess his/her style to write effective essays.
The creature you pick being the animal you wrote on. We were told to research this animal but to focus our writing on how we felt toward this animal and our thoughts about it, not just merely throwing facts about it on a paper. Although I find this type of writing assignment to be easier, sacrificed is the imagination and creativity in coming up with a subject topic. Even though I prefer having a writing topic given to me rather than given a broad subject range, no one likes to be told what to write about all of the time, you just do it.
Essay writing is unique to everyone. It's amazing, you could ask a room of 500 people to write down wha they think or how they feel about a particular subject and you are sure to get 500 different responses. No two writings are alike (except in a case of academic misconduct), and this is what appeals to many essay writers. I define writing as the transfer of thoughts and ideas on a particular subject from the mind to a sheet of paper. I am always thinking, and thinking comes without trouble, its transferring those thoughts onto paper is what tends to be difficult.
It is like two different languages, the language of your mind, which is innate, and the language that is put onto paper, which must be learned to be able to do well. I'm the world's worst when it comes to transferring my thoughts onto paper. I oftentimes am mistaken to mean something that was not intended and for that reason I end up confusing the reader. I tend to drag sentences out to the point where it becomes unclear and hard to read. An example of his was in my senior year of high school. We kept a journal and wrote in it everyday about a topic the teacher would have on the board. In one of my journal entries, my work was "killed". I was returned my journal and I swear every other sentence was labeled as rambling. As a result of this I now look for sentences in which I seem to ramble and try to correct it.
There are certain things I can do that can make the transfer of thoughts onto essay paper a bit easier. Choosing the right environment is very helpful. I cannot just sit down anywhere and write. I have some strange environment requirements that I like and that will make writing seem to come easier. Being in a dead quiet area is not going to cut it for me. There must be some kind of noise going on within a reasonable noise level. Say for example, if I know I am going to work on a paper in a library, a place known for its lack of noise, I will often make up for the lack of noise by bringing a cd-player and headphones with me. I tend to like to listen to rap music when I am writing, or any other type of homework for that matter. I would not be able to explain why it is rap that I listen to other than that is the music I like. It just seems to make essay writing easier. Who knows, perhaps it is the fast paced speaking that turns my brain to fast paced thinking and writing becomes easier.
Rambling, as stated above is known to be a problem in essay writing for me. In addition to rambling, I also seem to have a problem with the overuse of pronouns.
Again, confusing the reader as to what or whom I'm talking about and to the point where it becomes hard to read. However, I know that these are some problems that I have with writing so during the revision stages of papers I look for these problems and try to correct them. Although I believe that there are many problematic issues with my essays writing, some known and others unknown, there is one thing that I believe I accomplish well. I argue daily with my friends so its like an everyday practice for argumentative essays. I could choose either side of an argument even if it is a side in which I am not particularly for and come up with a pretty good argument. However, a better argument is more likely to be produced if I actually agree with it. While argumentative essays are favored, I still cannot steer clear of the troubles I have with transferring thoughts to paper and the problems I have when writing essays.
Even though my expectations are more like fears, I am eager to be exposed to an actual college writing class. Like was said earlier, I am pretty sure I'm not going to enjoy it, after all who enjoys English, but I know I'm not going to hate it.
Perhaps coming into an English class with the idea that I am not going to like it is not the way to go. I shall just wait and see how things turn out before I, "judge a book by its cover" and make up my mind. Who knows, I might just be surprised. It is my style of writing an essay in college, each possess his/her style to write effective essays.
