Writing Has Never Been My Strong Suit

Writing has never been my strong suit. I’ve always been more of a math girl. I just feel math comes easier to me, because in math there is one solution to a problem. It would be less frustrating for me if there was a clear formula in writing a perfect essay. I feel when assigned an essay I freak out on how to make it seem smart enough and clean it up enough to at least a “B” essay because I know getting that “A” is a stretch. The most frustrating aspects of writing for me are writing the hook, the thesis statement, and being my own worst critic.

Getting the reader 's attention is not as easy as I thought. In the past, I never put much into the hook. I really just thought there are other aspects that are more important, but in the back of my head I was never happy with just an okay opening. The attention grabber needs to be intriguing and make the reader want to keep reading. Back in early high school and middle school, I was told your hook should be a question. I later learned it didn’t need to be a question it could’ve been an interesting fact or a clear image being told. Little did I know there are plenty of other ways to go about writing the hook and gaining the reader 's attention. Remembering back in high school and seeing how my classmates gained the reader 's attention, I knew my hook needed work. My classmate 's essays always came out sounding better than mine since they knew what fit where. They knew what was a good hook for the topic at hand. For a persuasive essay should you lead with a reliable fact, a detailed definition, or should you lead with a story? I guess that 's my issue on the hook. I’m not sure what is going to be most effective or intriguing for the reader to want to keep going. Having to choose which is...

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...which is why I put so much pressure on myself to get it right. My biggest downfall is I put my writing down and just feel it’s never good enough. I think since I am a math person, my writing can’t be as good as it would be, if I could just follow a formula, I think the solution to this would be an outline. I feel having these key features fixed, and not being so hard on my work can boost a “C” essay up to a “B” essay. In all my English classes, they’ve told me how influential your thesis and hook can be, to the reader and to your essay. I just feel mine needs a bunch of work, but I will need to take a different look at how my writing comes out to really get better. I think if I took steps like going to a tutor, asking questions to help fix up my paragraphs, consulting others, or putting extra time into my essays would help match my writing up with my high standards.