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Some of you were either gifted with being able to easily write a paper or many of us are the writers who never know where the hell, to start. For the ones that never know where or how to start, we have always depended on teachers to lead the way. I don’t think very many students ever stop to think about how their past instructors have shaped their writing. We don't notice the ongoing cycle of how dreadful writing an essay is until a particular instructor makes you aware of all the bad habits you have assembled. Along the way of accumulating all these bad writing habits there have been teachers who have unmindfully caused this.
For most of us writers we would say that we are in a place where we struggle to enjoy the process of writing. So
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My ninth grade pre-ap English teacher would always emphasize how our introductory paragraph must grab the reader's attention and should be the best paragraph in the essay. Statements like these that various teachers still make are what cause students like me to have such a struggle and no enthusiasm when writing essays. I can surely say that one of my English teachers in particular taught me absolutely nothing about being a better writer. She spent most of the class time giving us reading assignments and attempting to teach us how to analyze an article that in no way benefited us. One of my English instructors had us write essays and ended up never even once looking over them because so many students turned assignments in late she decided the essay assignment needed to be cancelled. Now why in the world would you cancel my essay assignment I spent hours on because big forehead Susan and redhead Noah make their own deadlines? On the rare occasion she did "grade" our essays she handed mine back with no comments about the contents and red pen on all the grammar and punctuation mistakes. The idea is to create great writers not to discourage unrevealed poets and advanced writers about the art of …show more content…
I truly believe that some of my past instructors had good intentions when teaching us grammar and literary devices. There are also teachers that are tired of being underpaid and discouraged those are usually the ones who give out the unbeneficial articles and busy work. Teachers will soon realize that writing will only become enjoyable when given the freedom to express themselves knowing that grammar and punctuation won't be the only subject graded. Giving students reading assignments that they can relate to and improve them as writers is one of the best things to do. It makes such a difference when you read articles/papers that you can relate your personal habits or life experiences to because of a sudden it has attracted interest in you. Teachers have the tendency of always emphasizing statements to conform students to avoid doing certain habits they consider bad or wrong. Donald M. Murray writes, "I have begun to understand, better than I ever have before, that all writing, in many ways, is autobiographical..." Teachers and students fail to see that you don't have to use "I" in an essay to make it personal. Besides, using "I" in an essay that I'm writing is logical. If I'm writing the damn thing why am I not allowed to use "I"? Assigning busy work that has nothing to do with creating the best writers is a no go. Us as students understand the importance of grammar and
In Phillip Lopate’s, “Writing Personal Essays: On the Necessity of Turning yourself into a Character” he explains how bringing ‘I’ to an essay is okay as long as you do it in a creative way and make yourself into a character while writing. He brings his own creativity into his writing about how you can turn yourself into a character and tells the reader the right ways and the wrong ways of doing so. He also persuades the reader that it is okay to put ‘I’ in an essay who was possibly taught not to use ‘I’ in an essay
Essays are not just the standard five paragraphs and then done style that was taught to students in grade school. The article “The Sixth Paragraph: A Re-Vision of the Essay” by Paul Lynch, explains quiet well how essays are typically taught and why. It is basically because it is easy to grade and even easier to write. Even when talking about writing or giving an example to a person it’s quite typical to start using the five paragraph format. While writing the standard essay the guidelines are quite specific. BE precise, stick to the topic, and stay impersonal. However, the author states that this made her realize that essays can be confining instead of teaching. So instead the author decided to listen to her students and quit focusing on the
According to Runciman, there are many plausible reasons that students and other people don’t enjoy writing. Evidence, assumptions, and language and tone are the basis for which Runciman makes his argument. Overall, this argument is effective because reliable and well known sources are used in a logical fashion. Also, the assumptions made about the audience are accurate and believable. Runciman used his assumptions wisely when writing his claim and in turn created a compelling, attention capturing argument. The article was written so that students and teachers at any level could understand and easily read it. This argument is interesting, captivating, relevant through its age, and can relate to students and teachers at almost every academic level.
This article is very helpful when writing an essay for college. I realize that I tend to do the majority of the things he had mentioned. For example, he said that writer
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,
We would do research on a subject or a person, and write about them. We, once again, were not allowed to be unique in our writing or think creatively or critically. This is the time when I was taught the five paragraph essay. As stated in Gray’s article, the five paragraph essay is detrimental to students’ writing. This format for writing is damaging because it doesn’t allow students to express their own ideas about a topic. It does not allow for any creativity or uniqueness in a paper. In tenth grade, I wrote many papers for my English class, but I never once got an A on them. I was led to believe that my writing was weak because I could not relate to what I was writing about. I did not have any emotional connection to the research papers I had to write, and it made it harder for me to write them. I had grown up not being allowed to think critically, and therefore, my papers in high school lacked creativity and deeper
In our modern society, we have forgotten the art of writing. When we write, we think to ourselves, the longer the sentence, the more intelligent I will sound. Many may say it is by writing long sentences. But is it all that true? In this piece of writing I would like to focus on an essay written by Verlyn Klinkenborg, Several Short Sentences About Writing. In this essay he explains how and why when we write, we should keep our sentences short. he also explains why students should be assigned essays that are not determinate on other sources as evidence. I will also be comparing this to a piece written by Sarah Manguso, Ongoingness. I will be comparing these two pieces on their writing style, and their essayistic ideas. My belief is that we need
As time goes by, I noticed how reading and writing became one of my weaknesses. Having an assignment readings and writing an essay about it was one of the things I don’t like doing. I am not sure if there are any valid reason on why I don’t like it but all I know is there is always a point where I end up getting stuck because I do not know what else to say. Also, reading gets deeper and some of the words are hard to understand especially when some of the readings use metaphors. However, in every essay I turned in, I always look forward on all of my teacher’s comments because I always want to know what else I am missing, what else to say, and how to improve it. I guess in this case, Sherman Alexie and I are opposite towards our view on writing but we are the alike on the view of learning and improving.
One might compare this to the grueling, tiresome and back-breaking efforts of writing a good essay. Many of us have been writing essays for a long time now. Some of them are A papers, and well some them not as good as we thought they were. Throughout the years, teachers have shown us the proper technique and several examples of papers,
As writers, many students write to the expectations of their professors and not to their fullest potential. Throughout English 101 I had been writing only to please my professor or to fill the basic requirement to pass English. I always felt that my writing ability was never enough for my professors throughout the previous years. They always wanted clear and concise essays, which for some reason was unreachable by me. However, starting college and taking English 101 helped me with my weaknesses and changed my technique of writing essays. My experience in English 101 taught me to write to my fullest potential and to write what I felt; rather then writing what was required.
My form and structure are not always the best. In one of our more challenging essays, the Rhetorical Analysis Essay my form and structure weren’t as strong as they should be. As stated before, I made the mistake of not staying focused on the rhetorical elements of my topic and venturing my own personal opinion in the essay, which crowded and weakened my form and structure. Continuing with Murray’s path, the development of my essays is based on the rubric. I always seek to include information that the rubric is essentially telling me to include, but sometimes I fall short of developing my thoughts enough. The dimension of my essays also has inconsistencies. I tend to have a problem of expanding into great detail on one point of my essay leaving another point barely expanded upon leaving my essay disproportionate. Finally, the last thing writer’s look for in their essay is their own voice. Thomas Osborne in Late Nights, Last Rites, and the Rain-Slick Road to Self Destruction states “I strive for a good grade, and will work as hard as possible to achieve one, but there is a voice in the back of my head that is effectively scoffing at the ridiculousness of some assignments and expectations that I have had to complete and live up to.” My voice sometimes gets lost in assigned essays when I try to fulfill certain standards that are put upon me. Thomas and I both struggle with writing what we need to write in order to achieve the grade
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
This class has been significantly more difficult than any other English class I have taken all throughout high school. This semester, I have been introduced to different styles of writing that I have never been exposed to before. This class has been stressful, but also fun. With using all of the resources I have been given throughout the semester, I have been able to do my best to further my writing abilities and hopefully only continue to grow them as I finish my later years in college. Throughout this essay, I will discuss my failures, my successes, my overall performance in the class, and my skill development skills.
Habits of the Creative Minds is a simple textbook with a particular twist. I began reading the book thinking it was going to be a basic textbook, but the author,Richard E. Miller and Ann Jurecic, changed the tone of the book and put it into a metaphor. This metaphor was about the reader in your writing, or for anyone reading should feel like Alice in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The reader should be reading, and figuratively fall into the reading, by this the authors means the reader should not want to put that book down. They should be engulfed in the book and read from cover to cover. The attention must be maintained and the best way to do this is by making the writing unique. The authors of this book puts
Although adequate writing skills are indispensable for life, leisure, and employment, quite a few students do not learn how to write effectively. Since writing is an exercise in thinking, it is important to balance the process of writing with the mechanics of writing. The areas of the brain involved in the writing task are varied yet interrelated; therefore, a student’s individual needs will determine the method of instruction they receive. Many students who have low expectations for their own academic success will not make even minimal efforts to complete a...