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Personal development essay
Planning a personal development essay
Planning a personal development essay
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Bethany Denlinger
Mr. Anders
English 50
7 April 2014
The Little Things in Life
What are the moments in our life worth? They should be worth the world to us! The make us who we are today. In “Let’s Get Vertical” by Beth Wald, in Strategies for Successful Writing by James A. Reinking and Robert van der Osten, we learn about rock climbing. In the next few paragraphs, I am going to show you how this essay belongs to both the process analysis mode and the description mode.
I would like to begin by talking about Wald’s message, which I believe is that the things we do in life help us find ourselves and teach us who we really are. For example, Wald says, “Panic rivets me for a second, but then a surge of adrenalin snaps me back into action” (488). The moment when we only have a few seconds at most to make s decision are when we realize who we truly are. Many different factors come into play when find out who we really are, and when Wald shares, “[Rock climbing] offers so many challenges and so many rewards,” it can only make me think that one of these rewards is finding who you are (489). On page 490, Wald declares that when rock climbing “you can both lose yourself and find yourself.” She continues, “Life and all its troubles are reduced to figuring out the puzzle of the next section of cliff or forgotten in the challenge and delight of moving through vertical space” (Wald 490). Our lives are shaped and formed by the little moment in life, which, in turn, help us find ourselves. People can also help us along the journey of finding ourselves. Wald reports, “[Rock climbing] is a unique world, with its own language, communities, controversies, heroes, villains, and devoted followers” (488). All of these people, places and things help s...
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...you can read in the quotes above, Wald has selected exciting information, rather than dangerous information, to talk about in this essay. This is her selection of details. Last, Wald has arranged her detail chronologically. She begins by expressing, “I can’t find enough handholds and footholds to keep climbing,” and ends with, “After catching my breath, I start moving again, and the rest of the climb flows upward like a vertical dance” (488).
In conclusion, I believe that “Let’s Get Vertical” by Beth Wald, in Strategies for Successful Writing by James A. Reinking and Robert van der Osten, is both a process analysis and description essay. The message of this essay is that people and experiences shape and form us into the people that we are to be. We should all be excited and looking forward to the events in our future that will help us better understand who we are.
Daniel also provides extensive imagery during this paragraph to help the reader visualize themselves and build curiosity, leaving the reader wondering what they would see and feel if they were also to climb that rock face. Overall, the paragraph contributes a powerful personal experience to Daniel’s argument to experience nature actively.
In order to analyze the essay and answer the question, a systematic analytic approach mustbeset forth. In the case of a narrative analytic approach, there are twomainsteps. First, the piece ...
Writing requires a delicate balance between pleasing an audience, yet finding and sticking true to personal perspectives. More often than not, people find themselves ignoring their own thoughts and desires and just following along with the crowd, not standing up and arguing for anything, leaving behind a wishy-washy essay because they are too scared to stray from the obligations to others before the obligation to themselves. Anne Lamott’s “The Crummy First Draft” and Koji Frahm’s “How To Write an A Paper” both evaluate and stress the importance to find your own voice in writing and to be more critical towards readers. The reader’s perspective needs to play a role in writing, but it should not overrule the writer themselves. Writing needs to
Thomas Osborne opens the narrative with a description of himself up very late at night trying to write a paper. Sadly, he’s been at it for four days, and unfortunately he seems to have writer’s block. Osborne’s personal experience with a first draft that he deems “failed” due to the writer’s block. Also, his realization of his personal writing style and how he uses it to his advantage versus conforming to a more normal style of writing occurs later in the selection. Looking through the lens of a reflective analysis perspective, it’s easy for me to find similarities to Osborne through my writing style, personal experiences, and through analysis I better understood
From our very first narrative, “My Writing Story” to the most recent opinion editorial assignment, I can honestly say I enjoyed writing each paper. But, my favorite writing assignment
Literature: Reading and Writing about the Human Experience. 7th ed. of the book. New York: St. Martin's, 1998.
Many climbers are infatuated with reputability. In a number of cases, self-esteem is easily influenced by external opinions. Western society and its expansive economy have left an unparalleled impact on the nation’s collective psyche; many feel that wealth and peer-determined success are the keys to happiness. Baker and Simon point out, “risk taking in a remote and spectacular environment can provide the material for constructing personal reputation and status” (185). Impressionable minds aspire towards social acceptance in order to find some sense of release; mountain climbing is an ideal activity for those looking to impress. Without a defined sense of self-actualization, individuals cannot add true meaning to their lives. Additionally, a credible claim to being first can inspire emotional security. Individuals seek claims on merits distinguished by narrow categories of self-identity (Simon 190). The first woman and cancer survivor were inspired by self-discovery on their Everest expeditions. Many climbers feel that: “Getting to the top of any given mountain was considered much less important than how one got there: prestige was carned by tackling the most unforgiving routes with minimal equipment, in the boldest style imaginable” (Krakauer 23). Psychologically, the gesture can add positive reinforcement to one’s individuality. An individual’s cultural
When beginner hikers think about hiking for the first time, they may think of all the walking and climbing, what to eat, & a place to sit. But what is the ultimate goal of a hiker--what gives them the motivation to go the extra mile, or the extra day? The fulfillment of it all, the sleeping, cuts scrapes bruises, the will to keep going. The beauty, and the horror of it all, the will to keep going gives a sense of accomplishment above all other things. The goal of the hiker may very well be to expand the essence of their individualism--in a sense to be as free, and persistent as the trail itself.
Anyone who is doing any type of writing piece has a process. They may not know it but it is there and it exists. It is one’s approach to their piece and how they go about accomplishing it. It has to do with how you write it, how many drafts you do, as well as your revision process if you even have one. My writing process however has room for improvement. A summation of my writing process consist of heavy planning, one draft, and little revisions. Anne Lamott, Shirley Rose, and Kathleen Yancey all drew attention to major points through their writing pieces that support and dispute my writing process. Through their pieces they have found a way to inspire, inform, and entertain me all at the same time while passing along great information that
...t。 Singer Position Paper, I got a very low score. Even so, I still want to praise myself for being brave enough to ask if I can rewrite it, which is considered to be the most important step for my improvement. Then I used one hour to work on this essay after class. At the same time, I signed up for the writing tutor online, used my free time to meet with the tutor and fixed it at home as soon as possible. Above all I gradually improved myself. So, I become more and more self-conscious and responsible for the study of writing which I didn't have enough before.
I wrote short stories, poems, and articles; all centering on an idea of deep relevance and striking resonance. I experimented with various styles and numerous techniques with the majority of them proving to be useless and unimportant. However, despite these seemingly futile grasps at concrete steps towards amelioration and evolution as a writer, all of this experimentation paid off when it finally led me to the one particular style of writing that I enjoyed immensely: essays. After discovering my hidden talent for creating formal compositions and literary pieces, my writing had improved vastly. This was because I finally gained the crucial self-analytical skills required to be able to identify my strengths and weaknesses and break through this obstacle which had obstructed my path to
I have always been inspired by the stories of mountaineers. Their passion and zeal drives them to push themselves through worsening conditions, just so that they can fulfill their goal of summiting a peak. I believe life is all about pushing oneself beyond the limits, getting out of the comfort zone and going an extra mile to achieve what one desires in life.
Being back in grad school has been an amazing experience because it has put me back in touch with my own process of writing; I am conscious of how I write in comparison to the way in which I expect my students to write. I find myself using the information that I share with them, although at times I feel the pressure that I must earn all A’s on my papers because if I haven’t mastered the process of writing, then I must be a bit of a fraud to be teaching it. But then I have to remember what I have learned about my own process, and what I continue to learn about my own writing process. I keep in mind the epiphany I experienced in graduate school, and I seek to share this information, for current or later use, with my students in the classroom.
My first time rock climbing, I stared at the wall for six minutes of eternity. I couldn’t stop the tangled knot of thoughts that yanked at my shaking legs (abortabortabort), or my weak hands (you’re crazy, you’re not as good as everyone else; gogogogo). I made eye contact with my belayer and then I made the first jump for a hold. Missing it, I swung out from the rock face in a wide arc like a lost spider. Weighed down by self-doubt and a misplaced sense of achievement (reaching the top) I missed the point of this first excursion: to learn the art of outdoor climbing, which has more nuances than what most people assume.
As I have reflected on the examined life, intellectually, physically, emotionally, socially and spiritually, over the span of this semester and applied it to our own life, I have noticed a theme that links each of these dimensions together. Life is a journey of self discovery where individuals are constantly trying to come to terms with who they are as a person. Through this journey, individuals can find their calling or vocation in life, discover their potential, know one’s self, and even just make sense of life. Furthermore, I will examine this theme of self discovery in the context of each dimension and apply it to what I have learned over the course of this semester.