My Writing Experience

Since grade school, I have always found it difficult to express my thoughts on paper. It has always been frustrating and too time consuming for me complete. I’ve always been more of a literal, verbal, and straight to the point individual so long written out expressive essays have been a real problem. Science and Mathematics has always come natural to me but English (writing) has always been my downfall in school, with grades and confidence. Since I have started college, my writing courses have gone from one failed attempt to the next. Writing has always been a difficult skill for me, so now that I have been introduced to formal research paper in college, it has become one of my most trying challenges yet; almost as difficult as learning a

I was majoring in Nursing so English Composition courses are a required prerequisite for the program. It was my second semester and I had received great grades and couldn’t wait to finish the spring semester so I could apply for the nursing program. It was the first week of taking English Comp I and the professor was explaining the requirements of the course and the many thing we were going to leave the class having learned. I was confident and ready to get started. All of that excitement came to a halt when we were asked to do journal entrees. I thought free write would be an easy assignment but I couldn’t help but get so annoyed and frustrated as I tried to write my feelings on paper. I wanted to write what sounded good and what looked perfect. I was more worried about critiquing myself than the free write assignment it was. That was the start to a series of long events. I had no idea what I was in for as the course went on. I understood all of the basics skills and steps of the writing process such as brainstorm, introduction, thesis, body, and conclusion. My problem arose far beyond the writing steps. I was unable to find the perfect words to write especially for peer review. I was looking to get it right the first time. I was trying to make myself sound more intelligent and perfect on paper and not allowing myself room for healthy failure and to learn. The semester was halfway over and I

But as I continued to think about it, I began to finally understand that formal writing is not just a required course for a degree but it is also widely used in many professional fields today. I realized I needed to do a self-analysis to get to the root of my writing low self-esteem. As I studied myself, I realized this did not start in college or even high school. I have had a writer’s frustration for as long as I could remember. Writing of any kind is not my strong suit. I realized I was over thinking as I write. I felt as though others would laugh at my messed up grammar, my miss use of punctuation or commas or the overall general idea of the paper. I like to be in charge and on top and I’m very good at picking up on new things quickly so NO-ONE CAN KNOW THIS WEAKNESS. I realized my own mind was my enemy and greatest challenge to overcome if I want to be successful in life. I continued to study myself to find out what part of formal writing I needed to work on the