Using the material we’ve just drafted, I want you to continue writing and introduce yourself as a writer to the rest of class. You can approach this introduction in many ways, but the point is that we should learn more about your interests, talents, experiences, and/or aspirations when it comes to writing.
For example, you might expand on the narrative you started a few minutes ago and use it to open up a discussion about what kind of writing appeals to you (or doesn’t) or has been significant to you in your life. You might tell us more about your writing process and describe what it’s like as you move through a project. You might share with us what makes you proud about your writing, or, conversely what your fears or anxieties about writing are. You could also explain your strengths as a writer, as well as the areas you know you need to work on.
As you conclude this introduction to yourself as a writer, take a moment and look ahead to the next ten weeks. What do you hope to learn as a writer this quarter? What will make this course a rewarding experience for you?
Once you’ve composed your introduction, take a moment to edit it for clarity and correctness. Then post it here as a comment before you leave class. You should aim for about 250-350 words. I look forward to reading your responses.
As a writer, I have many strengths and weaknesses. I feel as though I have a hit or miss record; there are many writings that I have excelled in, and others that I struggle writing and never come out perfect. I am able to write well on academic/research papers, but I wrestle with writing personal or opinion based pieces. It’s difficult to write about abstract concepts and ideas, but it is incredibly easy to write an organized research paper.
ReplyDeleteI am slightly anxious about this course because much of the writing pieces will not be research, and it puts me into writing in my weaker mode. This is similar to my advanced writing seminar, in which the papers assigned were more opinion based versus research based. Even though the topics were broad and there were tens of examples to use, I struggled to write a single paper. In other courses, a three-page paper would usually only take me two hours to write; for my advanced seminar, I could work on a paper for five or more hours and still not be finished.
I don’t understand why I struggled so much with the papers- I felt like I was often downgraded for no reason, which destroyed my confidence as a writer. The class felt like even though I could have anyone check my work, I would never get a higher grade than just an average on a paper. I absolutely dreaded writing in that course, and only wanted to get through it so I could finish the course requirement and put it behind me.
For this winter quarter, I hope to regain some of my confidence that I lost from my previous course. I want to learn how to become more comfortable with more personal, opinionated writing and learning how to make the writing flow better.
It was the summer before my senior year and I was sitting at my tutor’s office. I was so frustrated because I was trying to build an amazing story for one of my college essays and I was stuck. I could hear kids laughing and screaming while they played outside and I wanted so badly to be out there with them. The room smelled of candy and diet coke and I had a huge headache from eating all the sugar. When I begin a writing assignment I most often have to just sit down and write my ideas on that on that topic. Otherwise I get stuck, which is exactly what was happening that particular day. After that I take the thoughts I can use in my paper and create a formal outline. However, even after all my usual processes writing about myself proved to be more of a challenge. Writing about myself was so different from the style of a research paper, which I was most comfortable with. Research papers are the most comfortable because it was easiest for me to look at others thoughts and formulate my own ideas. The overall fear with writing is that I have is that I will fall back on my old writing habits and write in conversation style. However, the most important thing I have learned is the more I revise my paper the better it gets.
ReplyDeleteMy writing style has changed a lot since getting to college. I actually feel that while I am now more capable of writing informative and persuasive essays (specifically within the international relations arena); my ability to write creatively has been greatly stinted. I am sure this started in high school, but college has really exacerbated the problem.
ReplyDeleteI tend to do exceedingly well when discussing topics about which I am fairly knowledgeable. For instance, US-Mexico relations, specifically in terms of the drug war, US-Mexican policies surrounding drug usage, government regulation and street level distribution trends. I am also fairly well informed concerning human sexuality, the history of the gay rights movement in America (post Stonewall, 1969 era), and the history of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. I can also write fairly well about gender and the various interpretations and beliefs surrounding the social construction of Western ideals concerning masculinity, femininity and androgyny.
I love commas and semi colons (Charles Dickens is one of my favourite authors). I hate alliteration and hyperbole (well, hyperbole can be amazingly fantastic outside the academic realm). I enjoy every person’s syntax, and love it when the vernacular is used to shock. I abhor the use of prepositions at the ends of sentences. I utterly loathe the use of a thesaurus similar to the methods of Stephanie Meyer and Alex/Sasha from Foer’s Everything is Illuminated, i.e. right clicking on the small word and choosing the biggest word without considering context and meaning. Finally, I have no problem meeting page minimums, but page maximums are exceedingly difficult for me. I tend to write at least 25% more than is required, and spend the next few hours editing and eliminating pointless words and phrases.
Oh, yeah, and I without spell check, I probably would have flunked out of school already.
As a writer I am most interested in persuasive writing because of its inherent practicality for virtually all aspects of life. In the past, I’ve used my persuasive pieces for things such as appealing to a county judge to get a speeding dismissed and submitting a letter to the editor of the local newspaper in support of increasing access to youth athletic facilities in my town.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoy writing narratives. However, sometimes I find it tempting to embellish so much upon my experiences that my personal narratives turn into pure fiction. This is something that I had to be diligent not to do in my personal statement for the Common Application. I overcame my tendency to over embellish in that paper by coming to the realization that by only sharing life experiences and their impact on me for what they were, the admissions office had the best chance of learning about who I really am as a person. By approaching my personal statement in this manner, it turned out to be one of the easiest and most natural papers I’ve ever written.
When I begin a paper I spend a good deal of time developing a powerful yet concise thesis statement. As I write the paper, I make sure that each and every paragraph supports my thesis statement and if need be, I tweak my body paragraphs or thesis statement to be sure that the two support each other in a logical manner. Then, I spend a lot of time proofreading and altering my diction to be sure that the paper is developed to the best of my ability.
I have moved every two to three years of my life and while some may deem this a blessing, some a curse, I have always seen it as both. While on the surface this seems to have no connection to writing, I can stand as the first person to say, it has everything to do with my own experience as a writer. Every new place, brought upon a new challenge in communication through the written word and ultimately, gave me a chance to better understand myself as a writer but at the same time, serves as a constant reality check to never become comfortable and continue to learn. As a person from the south, I often have to rethink the blend of country and Cajun jargon that I find in my writing. With that said, I have found that ultimately, this is the way I speak and communicate, it is my voice. The biggest thing I have learned over the years about my own writing is to find my own voice for a piece and adjust accordingly depending on the situation.
ReplyDeleteWith that said, my favorite kinds of writing fall into the more creative writing realm. I have a specific dislike for the traditional 5 paragraph essays forced upon us in high school. While I have had many research and analytical essay assignments, I prefer a more freely formatted paper.
Looking ahead into this quarter, I am a little bit nervous about all of the different types and styles of writing we will be exposed to. However, I am also hoping that I can improve on editing and grammar, which are for sure my biggest weaknesses.
My academic writing experience is very limited. I graduated high school in 96’, went to a trade school to be a designer and then took a certificate course for small business management. I don’t remember learning to writing in any way, whether it is formal, creative, professional etc. All I did was write down whatever was in my head and arrange however I thought to make the most sense.
ReplyDeleteI started a business in 2004 and was quickly thrown into learning about business and professional writing. Specifically, when it came to introducing ideas and concepts. Pitching ideas wasn’t easy to accomplish so everything had to be presented in a organized and clear fashion. Over the years I learned simpler and better ways to articulate a message that truly represented the ideas, concepts or leadership set forth. I have never really felt confident about other types of writing.
My fears about writing come from not feeling confident enough to commit to paper. I fear I will not do a perfect job representing my ideas and myself because of my limited past experience with writing fundamentals.
My ambition for this course is to learn ways in which to organize my thoughts, process to paper and apply structures that will represent a proper representation of the original intent. My hope is that I leave this class with some confidence in my writing so that I can share more ideas and myself with others.
Sitting in the practice room dungeon, my mind began to wander away from Beethoven’s Sonata. I suddenly realized that I had a comparative analysis essay due in a few days. I slapped the piano keys in frustration and slammed the piano lid closed. My first music analysis essay, but where would I begin? I set my laptop on the now silenced baby grand and pulled up a sticky note on my screen. Sticky notes have a much more casual feel than using overwhelming Word Documents.
ReplyDelete“Alright,” I thought, “Beethoven and Mozart…Beethoven and…Shoot!”
I had no idea where to begin. I thought maybe humming some Beethoven music would help. As I hashed out a melody—complete with dance motions—my feet splashed in the water pooling in the stinky carpet. That’s right, my feet were in water because those basement practice rooms flooded every single time it rained. Believe me, it rained a lot at that school in Seattle, but despite the water, this practice room was my sacred place for everything creative. Looking through the barred ground-level window at the water pouring into the window well, everything suddenly became clear as the musical thoughts began to flow from my mind onto the sticky note.
How exactly did I do on this essay? Well, it was certainly an accomplishment for me, and some of my most insightful work began on that sticky note. But alas, my professor felt otherwise: this, coming from the same professor whom tripped over the Steinway Grand every day and promptly said, “Oh, excuse me, sir!” But seriously, for my first shot at writing about classical music at the collegiate level, that essay was some of my finest work. And to this day, I still write my essays on sticky notes in the practice rooms, just without the rain boots here in Denver.
My confidence in writing stems about as far as my train of thought does. My strengths reside in my ideas and I excel at writing about topics that are emotionally stimulating to me. But strictly factual and research writing are the two kinds of writing that frighten me.
It has also been a couple years since AP English in high school, but one thing I remember clearly is that high school english made me loathe prose writing and five paragraph essays.
I am often too timid to take risks in my writing, but am looking to gain confidence in taking those risks this quarter, and to develop my writing skills farther than just train of thought and five paragraph essays.
The two things that I hold onto religiously when it comes to writing are firstly, the power of revising, and secondly, that writing requires the right environment to help ideas flow.
I am a biology major here at DU and am not a very creative writer. Last quarter my FSEM was on happiness and while I thought the class was interesting I quickly found that there was no real answer to the question of how to define happiness. We looked at this question from many different perspectives. I like to have a straight forward answer, and when I am writing on something without strict directions I feel like I am talking in circles. I am open to try to work more on my ability to improve my writing through developing my argument. I am not good at multi-tasking so when I am going to work on a project I generally start and finish in one sitting. I like to get on projects early so that I am able to go back and revise before I have to turn it in. I am able to stay on topic and work through a situation, but I tend to generalize in my writing. I hope that this quarter I am able to become a better writer when writing about subjects that do not have a distinct answer. I also want to avoid generalizing when I write.
ReplyDeleteI sat down to my computer with a cup of coffee and began to contemplate what to write about in my essay required for applying to the University of Denver. I was 18 years old and tried to narrow my various meaningful experiences I’ve encountered throughout my life. As my coffee finally cooled to a comfortable temperature, I began to write about a close friend of mine who passed away when I was 14. It took hours to conclude my essay in a way, which I thought would resonate with the faceless audience in the admissions office who would be reading my writing. Consequentially, by the end of my essay I had uncovered some deep realizations of my own self as well as a feeling of accomplishment.
ReplyDeleteWriting my admissions essay made me realize that the only kind writing that truly appeals to me is that in which the topic is something that I can relate to or that genuinely interests me. I enjoy the feeling of pride that overcomes to me after I finish writing something that I have put a lot of time and effort into, however, I dread the anxiety that overwhelms me when I imagine the audience that will be criticizing my work. Perhaps even worse, I never truly feel “finished” with a piece of writing and almost always feel as though my work requires revision. I think my main strength in writing is being able to condense my thoughts and feelings into concise, short writing. Grammar and spelling, on the other hand, are not my strong suit. I hope to gain a greater knowledge of writing styles as well as improve my grammar and rhetoric over the course of this quarter.
Sitting at a small table in my living room, I read the sentence. The sentence that would cause me to stay up late endless nights turning my mind over and over like a reel. I was seventeen years old. It was June. The bright sun was shining in the window of my living room as I sat at the small circular wooden table. This font stared back at me boldly. It was the topic of my essay; the essay that would determine my future. I remember so vividly the feeling I had when I read the sentence. It was so simple, yet so difficult at the same time. “What social, academic, or cultural experience has impacted you in a significant way and how?” I could think of many. I had so many ideas filling up in my head. I began to write my essay without paper, reciting the words in my head. I began with one topic and then switching to another. Abruptly the path ended. My mind was blank. I had no idea where to go next.
ReplyDeleteThis is usually how I feel whenever I begin to write a paper. This is the short narrative that I wrote for class. I enjoy writing, but often times have a hard time starting. This is one of my weaknesses that I would like to work on this quarter. I enjoy writing about experiences I have had and also writing about other people’s stories. I am not a huge fan of scientific writing. Graphs and numbers haven’t really caught my attention. I have had to write many essays that sum up material that I was supposed to learn. This was simply a way for the teachers in high school to see what we knew. Last quarter however, I was able to choose what I wanted to write about. I could put in my own perspective and articulate in ways that I thought would be beneficial to my paper. I enjoyed this type of writing much more. I would like to use this enjoyment in writing and exploring different ways of writing in my assignments this quarter. I would also like to widen my vocabulary so that I can make my work sound better and have a more intellectual flow and rhythm.
I lay in a hospital bed, sixteen years old ready to give up. The nurses encouraged me to journal in order to express my frustration and pain. I was skeptical of the idea that writing my thoughts down could help me in the slightest. Then, putting my stubbornness aside, I sat up, grabbed the small journal and pen that had been at my bedside for days, and I began to write. I wrote down my thought at that exact moment, empowered by the ability to release burdens that I was unable to speak of. As the pen moved swiftly back and forth across page after page, and my eyes began to flood with tears, I felt a weight lifted from my shoulders. Nothing could physically remove me from the white washed walls of my tiny room in the hospital and the surrounding smell of sick people, but writing could let my mind escape its frustration.
ReplyDeleteSince my first experience of journaling, I have very much become addicted. It holds a significant place in my life and, to some extent, keeps me sane. I enjoy both writing and reading emotional, revealing writing, because I feel a connection to it. I have a hard time writing analytical pieces or opinionated papers. I fear that my opinion will be wrong (silly, I know) or I don’t have enough evidence to support my initial thought.
Going forward, I would like to learn how to take my skill of personal writing and apply it to other works such as research or opinionated articles. This course is definitely going to be a challenge for me. I hope to not only learn how to write all kinds of pieces, but also gain confidence in my writing ability as a whole.
It was Monday November 8th 2010 and I sat down to write one of the more important letters of my academic life. I was in the midst of applying to the Daniels School of Business and a cover letter was the only thing standing between me and a polished well-rounded application. Studying at the School of hospitality management was my dream since my senior year of high school. It had been three years since then and this application would decide my fate. I was asked to describe why I would be a perfect candidate for the school of hospitality management. I find that when writing cover letters there is always an interesting balance between presenting yourself favorably and sounding obnoxiously self-absorbed. I began writing, stating my case for why I thought I would be great for the school of hospitality management. Having spent the better part of my adult life working in the culinary world and transferring to the University of Denver with the sole purpose of studying hospitality management, I began writing with an indescribable ease that was rather new for me. A mere 45 minutes later I had a concise eloquent cover letter that 2 months later got me admitted into the program of my dreams.
ReplyDeleteI would describe myself as a writer in need restraint. I am a fairly elaborate oral communicator and have no trouble formulating ideas, but once I sit down to write a piece my mind moves faster than my fingers. This is not to say that I have no focus in my writing, but that I constantly have to think about slowing down and staying organized. That being said I do enjoy writing and even have a blog with various friends where I comment on topics from film, music, and sports.
Sunday November 7th 2010
ReplyDeleteI had finally accumulated all of my resources necessary to write my research paper for Intro to International Politics. The paper was due tomorrow and I had nothing in actual concrete work done and it was worth 40% of my grade, the topic of my paper was “Why American’s Love War”. I reprimand myself mentally for once again procrastinating till the last minute on writing a paper. I stopped at a gas station before going to the library and meeting with my buddy Clay, to stock up on snacks and red bull because I knew tonight was going to be a very late night. After the initial 20 minutes or so of checking email, my fantasy basketball team, and organizing my sources, I opened up Microsoft word turned on some classical music just loud enough for ambient noise and to keep me focused. I had a bag of sunflower seeds and I threw some in my mouth and went to work. After 7 hours of work and a detour back to my apartment I sat back and read through a paper I was actually very proud of for having nothing 24 hours earlier.
I find that me procrastinating on a paper is an entirely to frequent of an occurrence. It’s not so much that I don’t like writing it is just hard for me to sit down and solely focus on producing a coherent piece of work I am proud of. If the writing assignment is on a topic of interest to me it tends to be a little easier to formulate a thesis and outline because I will have more of my own ideas that I can contribute too what I am writing on. I would say I am a stronger writer when it comes to a research paper or an analytical paper than writing a poem or something along those lines. If I am organized enough to produce an outline and a draft or two for the paper I tend to see a much cleaner and well written piece. I would say an outline is the most important thing for me to have. It allows me to have the skeleton of my paper and what each section will be about and order of the information presented. An outline also allows for me to think of my paper outside of when I am actually writing it because it is an easy thing to remember so I can play with what I would want to put into it. My writing back-round has been mostly school related until recent years when having to assemble resumes or cover letters. These required me to shift through all the “fluff” and present the most important information in a very small amount of space, and yet make me seem like an appealing candidate for the job/admission. I am interested in the assignment where will go into the community and report on an event we experience firsthand because
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ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to writing I get uncomfortable. The only time I am comfortable writing is when I do research papers. I don’t like people reading the things that I write. I am not confident in my writing. A lot of my writings do not make sense. I feel like I have great ideas when it’s in my head and it makes sense when it’s in my head but it does not turn out the same.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of this class I would like to be more confident in my writing. It takes me a long time to write a paper. It is hard for me to be creative. I would like to learn how to be more creative in my writing. I also have a habit of going off topic or put to much information that was not needed. I do not remember ever taking a writing class. I know I didn’t take a writing class in high school. I didn’t have to write many papers while in high school, but when I did I would stress out about it. I would try so hard to get a good grad. My wife is an excellent writer. When she went to college she had a 20-page paper to write every week. She would get better and better each. Week. She has been helping me with my writing skills. She pushes me to do better and be more creative. Even with her help I still do not feel confident in my writing. I have gotten better in my creativity.