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The importance of personal reflection
The importance of personal reflection
The importance of personal reflection
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After going through both readings the question of who am I has constantly popped into my head. These realizations after each essay have lead to defining who I am as a writer. What are my skills as a writer what thought process do I go through as a writer. This semester has taught me many new techniques of individuality not only in my papers but identity on campus. Even though the essay and the autobiography are written by women the message doesn't change just as gender or class shouldn't classify a person but it does. Just as college and school is constantly a struggle of acceptance not only socially but academically. The things we do group and classify us from being individuals. Writing is one of the few ways to truly show ones individuality through expression of questions and answers about the topic being written about. These questions we ask our self have to be based on everything read from the beginning of this semester on. And that main question is who am I and how does what I am reading effect or interest me. Writing a paper based on purely your own thoughts shows the true individuality of you. As a room of your own you have your own peronality and indviduality to show and to have money means you can express your self however you want just to show your indiciduality. This fiction that is talked about is the fantasy in your mind that you want to display to show your identity. Just as in the following essays this shows that we want to be known for our individuality but we might have to write fiction to do so. “That collar I have spoken of, women and fiction, the need of coming to some conclusion on a subject that raises all sorts of predjudices and passions, bowed my head to the ground. To the right and left bu... ... middle of paper ... ... acceptable. When in fact there is nothing wrong with who we are now. One must accept themselves before they can work on taking the time to let others accept them for who they are. We cannot go through life constantly wanting to change ourselves to what is common. To be common is to be hidden and grouped but to be yourself creates the knowing and effectiveness of your individuality. A room of my own of my own means making my own way through college and creating the path that I will look back on when I get my degree and start my way into getting a job and applying my degree. It is the same as my writing style I need to make my life my own and not try to be like anyone else. Just as I put what I want in my room because it is my own private room and not many venture to it, I must express and act how I feel is me because that is truly how to be an individual.
In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting three inspirational people and their experiences on reading and writing. Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X, and Sandra Cisneros all had different opinions about it. All of them overcame struggles that were different but similar in some way. What really intrigued me was that they followed their hearts in what they wanted to do even though people told them they couldn't.
I agree with what Allen states in the article “The Inspired Writer vs. the Real Writer” because of how much my writing skills had evolved over the years. When I first started in high school, I believed I was a horrible writer and I struggled a lot just to write a few paragraphs. However, after determination, and several trials and errors, I was able to improve greatly on my skills. In Irvin’s article, “What is ‘Academic’ Writing?” goes over the myths about writing. When I first started to write essays, I believed some of the myths that Irvin talks about in the article. Such myths were the five paragraph essay and the use of “I.” However, the more experience I gained in writing, the more I realized how the five paragraph essay is more of a suggestion. The format might had helped when I first started, but I had grown apart of it now. In addition, I had learned how the use of “I” is situational. In some of my past essays, I have used “I” to help develop my essays. In Bunn’s article “How to Read Like a Writer,” it mentions the importance of Reading Like a Writer. When I first started writing essays in high school, my essays were cookie cutter. The essays were not imaginative and lack literary devices. However, the more I payed attention to how an author writes, the more creative my essays become. I am able to include methods that give creativity in my writing,
Although the greater picture is that reading is fundamental, the two authors have a few different messages that they seek to communicate to their audiences. “The Joy of Reading and Writing” depicts how reading serves as a mechanism to escape the preconceived notions that constrain several groups of people from establishing themselves and achieving success in their lifetimes. “Reading to Write,” on the other hand, offers a valuable advice to aspiring writers. The author suggests that one has to read, read, and read before he or she can become a writer. Moreover, he holds an interesting opinion concerning mediocre writing. He says, “Every book you pick has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones” (p.221). Although these two essays differ in their contents and messages, the authors use the same rhetorical mode to write their essays. Both are process analyses, meaning that they develop their main argument and provide justification for it step by step. By employing this technique, the two authors create essays that are thoughtful, well supported, and easy to understand. In addition, Alexie and King both add a little personal touch to their writings as they include personal anecdotes. This has the effect of providing support for their arguments. Although the two essays have fairly different messages, the authors make use of anecdotes and structure their writing in a somewhat similar
The very first chapter we read of Mindful Writing changed my perspective to see that anyone and everyone can be a writer. Brian Jackson, the author of Mindful Writing, wrote, “In this book I want to convince you that anyone writing anything for any reason is a writer…Writing is not something we do just in school. It is a vital means of influence in all facets of life.” It was through that very first reading that I began to think about writing as more than just a dreaded part of school, and I began to think of myself as more than just a student forced to write. Our very first assignment, My Writing Story, helped me to reflect on my identity as a writer. I realized that I was a writer every time I wrote in my journal or captioned an Instagram post. Throughout the semester, as I came to love writing more with each paper I wrote, I was able to create my identity as a writer. I learned that I loved research and analyzing others’ thoughts and ideas, but that writing simply on my own opinions, wasn’t my favorite past time. Through the countless readings this semester, I saw which writing styles I loved and which didn’t speak to me. Each day of class, I chipped away at creating my identity as a writer, and I’m grateful for the lessons that helped me shape and realize that
The search for one’s true identity is a difficult journey. One must track their ancestors, research their heritage, and correctly synthesize all of their gathered information into that specific identity. This journey is especially hard for African Americans whose ancestors were stolen from their native land. They have a desire to reconnect with their origins; however, their search is often hindered due to the fact that their ancestors were stolen. In an attempt to reconnect with this lost heritage, many African Americans in the 1960s and 1970s participated in the Black Nationalist Movement where they were able to claim a general African identity. This search for identity is shown in “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker. Through her text, Walker highlights two perspectives on true African American identity: those who understood and accepted their identity as an African American and those who desired to know their African ancestry. This idea is supported through various sources including scholarly journals, critical articles, and educational Internet web pages. In Alice Walker’s short story, “Everyday Use”, Walker uses characterization, themes, and symbolism to show that the differing perspectives for true African American identity caused a disconnection in African American heritage during the 1960s and 1970s.
Throughout the semester i only learned few new things but i did improve and solidify my skill of writing. Before my first year of college my skills have always undermined by other high school english teachers and with that came disappointing grades. I am writing this paper as a reflection of the semester and the progress i have made as a writer. I now understand many things that my high school teachers have done a poor job demonstrating and i am grateful that i decided to take my own route in my education instead of their syllabus. I entered the semester with anxiety that i would perform as i did before but i clearly outdid my own expectations by receiving top grades on my essays.
The setting of A Room of One's Own is that Woolf has been invited to lecture on the topic of Women and Fiction. Her thesis is that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction (Woolf 4)." She creates the character of an imaginary narrator, "call me Mary Beton, Mary Seton, Mary Carmichael or by any name you please, it is not a matter of any importance." The "I" who narrates the story is not Woolf, yet her experiences and thoughts provide the background for Woolf's thesis.
During the course of the semester, all of the writing and research skills I developed helps to strengthen my self-confidence in many areas and it aids me in achieving my goals for the future. By developing more effective research approaches for finding and citing sources, I advanced from an inexperienced writer to a confident writer with the suitable knowledge to create effective essays to capture my audience. Having confidence in my abilities to use the skills I learned will help me to become a success in college. With more practice and valuation of my strengths and weaknesses, I can continue to improve and become an excellent communicator in the future.
Throughout history, women writers used pen names and pseudonyms to avoid the eyes of the patriarchal society. The female writers were no strangers to harsh criticism from the gender-biased readers regarding their artistic works. However such emphasis on gender discrimination coined the words, feminism and sexism, which now reflect on the past and the present conflicts. In the book A Room Of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf tracks down the history of women and fiction to find the answer. She argues, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction”. She chants on and on about the topic of “women and fiction”, contemplating the role of women in the traditional domain and the virtues of women writers. Although, Woolf may have contemplated over such awareness that a woman needs an atmosphere of her own in which nobody can intrude, the modern world has prevailed over such hindrances throughout technological innovations that offer freedom of speech. Also, economical affluence is not a necessity for women to engage in the fictional world but rather a sufficient condition in the modern world. Thus Virginia Woolf’s predictions failed to represent the current vantage point revolving around women and fiction.
In Virginia Woolf’s feminist essay “A Room of One’s Own,” Woolf argues that “a woman must have money and a room of her own” (16) if she is to write fiction of any merit. The point as she develops it is a perceptive one, and far more layered and various in its implications than it might at first seem. But I wonder if perhaps Woolf did not really tap the full power of her thesis. She recognized the necessity of the writer’s financial independence to the birth of great writing, but she failed to discover the true relationship to great writing of another freedom; for just as economic freedom allows one to inhabit a physical space---a room of one’s own---so does mental freedom allow one to inhabit one’s own mind and body “incandescent and unimpeded.” Woolf seems to believe that the development and expression of creative genius hinges upon the mental freedom of the writer(50), and that the development of mental freedom hinges upon the economic freedom of the writer (34, 47). But after careful consideration of Woolf’s essay and also of the recent trend in feminist criticism, one realizes that if women are to do anything with Woolf’s words; if we are to act upon them---to write the next chapter in this great drama---we must take her argument a little farther. We must propel it to its own conclusion to find that in fact both the freedom from economic dependence and the freedom from fetters to the mind and body are conditions of the possibility of genius and its full expression; we must learn to ‘move in’: to inhabit and take possession of, not only a physical room, but the more abstract rooms of our minds and our bodies. It is only from this perspective in full possession of ourselves that we can find the unconsciousness of ourselves,...
Personal and creative expressions are an alternative approach to traditional academic writing. They employ personal experiences to convey anecdotal narratives. Personal narrative in scholarly writing allows for a broader spectrum of emotion, such as empathy, compassion and humanity. This style no longer confines argumentative research to the empirically verifiable. For the reader, creative and personal expression allows for a broader chance of identification with the text. In the 1970s, consciousness-raising was focused on women’s personal experiences (Lecture Slides: January 12). Through personal narratives, consciousness-raising provided an environment in which individuals are able to develop a collective significance
I love hanging out with my friends and doing stupid college shenanigans, but at the end of the day, my room is my safe place. It allows me to escape my crazy, loud roommates (whom I love), and have alone time to take a moment and relax. But my room also allows me to challenge my creativity by becoming my own personal canvas to help me express my style and
As I look back on my schooling I can’t believe how many papers I’ve written throughout my life. Naturally as I’ve grown up, my writing has developed from learning how to write sentences all the way up to the pages of essays that consist of deeper criteria. I know for a fact that I’m a better writer now than I was before. College writing is more challenging and I’ve had to learn how to adjust to it.
Over the period of time that I was in this course, I thought it would be a very simple and easy to finish class. But as time went on, I found myself to be demanded more of what I think, what I feel, what must be relied on my ability to understand the concepts and conventions of not only the essays, but of what goes on in the writers mind when writing.
Sometimes a person may feel that they have no purpose in life. Finding out who you are just takes the time of sitting down and thinking of the importance in your life. Who am I? I am Mercedes Kimberly Kingston, and I am a person with different personalities, characteristics, and identities. The many ways, in which I identify myself, in fact, are the ways that define who I am. My Identity is something only I can fully define. I have a little brother, which makes me a sister; I have two loving parents, which makes me a daughter; I am in college studying medicine, which makes me a student; and I have wonderful friends in desperate need of support, which makes me a wonderful best friend.