Thoughts to Paper
This semester in a higher level English class has proven itself to be a challenge.
For so long I’ve felt like a strong writer, until I got here and saw how truly
talented these kids are. Long nights of trying to pull beautiful flowing words
out of my head, come out as a scrambled mess. Although the constant struggle to
do well is tiring, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Something about being
around people who are so bright, can almost impact your own skill. Looking back
at my writing pieces, there are obvious mistakes, usually caused by laziness.
Essays that have been assigned with no personal aspect have suffered grately,
while others that have a meaning to me have done much better. I
am a strong personal writer, but could improve on analysis and research
essays.
One of my favorite pieces would be the Into the Wild journals.
While reading the book, I was already thinking about the similarities
to me and Chris McCandless. The carefree and wild side of Chris, I saw in
myself. Adding personal aspects is easy for me to add into my writing. A dash of
personal experience here, a dash of my opinion there; an amazing paper is born.
Within the Into the Wild journals I wrote a specific one that I am quite proud of.
It was about my view on parents, which is sort of a touchy subject. A weird emotion
came over me, not happy or sad, but accomplished that I put that much of emotion into my writing.
Opened up so much that I was willing to put my true thoughts to paper.
In analysis essays I clearly struggle. My weakest piece by far was the Comparative
Analysis paper where we compared Santiago to another character. I can see where
I had a good idea, coming out of a personal place, but failed to get a big
message across. It seemed very unclear, and went far from my thesis. I felt
almost sympathetic for Rainsford, the person who I saw as “in the wrong”. I see
now that I need to stay on the track of my thesis statement, and not branch off
into other unrelated topics. In this specific piece--not only was it
insignificant to the essay--but it was very obvious. I tried to tie in my
strength with personal writing, but got caught up with trying to stick to the
comparing. Due to that it made it sound more like a list; rather than a work of
art.
From now on I can see how I could successfully incorporate my strengths in writing
with the weaknesses. Starting an essay 6 hours before the due date probably
isn’t the best choice, and for sure needs to change. I’m happy with the outcome
of the journals, and ready to start focusing on the not so easy topics.
This semester in a higher level English class has proven itself to be a challenge.
For so long I’ve felt like a strong writer, until I got here and saw how truly
talented these kids are. Long nights of trying to pull beautiful flowing words
out of my head, come out as a scrambled mess. Although the constant struggle to
do well is tiring, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Something about being
around people who are so bright, can almost impact your own skill. Looking back
at my writing pieces, there are obvious mistakes, usually caused by laziness.
Essays that have been assigned with no personal aspect have suffered grately,
while others that have a meaning to me have done much better. I
am a strong personal writer, but could improve on analysis and research
essays.
One of my favorite pieces would be the Into the Wild journals.
While reading the book, I was already thinking about the similarities
to me and Chris McCandless. The carefree and wild side of Chris, I saw in
myself. Adding personal aspects is easy for me to add into my writing. A dash of
personal experience here, a dash of my opinion there; an amazing paper is born.
Within the Into the Wild journals I wrote a specific one that I am quite proud of.
It was about my view on parents, which is sort of a touchy subject. A weird emotion
came over me, not happy or sad, but accomplished that I put that much of emotion into my writing.
Opened up so much that I was willing to put my true thoughts to paper.
In analysis essays I clearly struggle. My weakest piece by far was the Comparative
Analysis paper where we compared Santiago to another character. I can see where
I had a good idea, coming out of a personal place, but failed to get a big
message across. It seemed very unclear, and went far from my thesis. I felt
almost sympathetic for Rainsford, the person who I saw as “in the wrong”. I see
now that I need to stay on the track of my thesis statement, and not branch off
into other unrelated topics. In this specific piece--not only was it
insignificant to the essay--but it was very obvious. I tried to tie in my
strength with personal writing, but got caught up with trying to stick to the
comparing. Due to that it made it sound more like a list; rather than a work of
art.
From now on I can see how I could successfully incorporate my strengths in writing
with the weaknesses. Starting an essay 6 hours before the due date probably
isn’t the best choice, and for sure needs to change. I’m happy with the outcome
of the journals, and ready to start focusing on the not so easy topics.