Personal Narrative: The Writing Process

The article “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott is a simple article discussing how most well-written essays must come from a “shitty first draft.” Lamott simple yet effective organization, casual use of language, and style along with humor sells her concept that the scattered first draft does not have to be perfect and is necessary to create a well-written essay.

My writing experience started two years ago when I was introduced to Information technology assignments by a friend. I was introduced to basics or writing skills which I know I have sharpened till today. Also, I have grasped all the writing styles including APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard. The most important thing is that I have acquired an effective research ability a fact that is attributed to the experience I have had on different academic databases and sources such as EBSCO, Google scholar, ProQuest as well as proper use of keywords.

English class has never really been my strongest subject, in regards to fully understanding the work and criteria. The lack of confidence coming into this year was unreal but I feel as though I’ve improved significantly. Having never been taught claim, data, warrant I was a little apprehensive when it came time to writing papers. Improving my writing skills was actually a goal I had strived to meet, and after realizing the college level would be much more difficult, I found it imperative to strengthen my writing capabilities.

Which of the authors in this chapter provided you with the most useful information for improving your own writing, and why?

I hug her knowing that this will be our last. Tears are streaming uncontrollably down my cheeks, staining her shirt. I'm not ready to say goodbye. I don't understand why this is happening. Out all of the 7.28 billion people in the world, why did it have to be her?

My history as a writer has been a bit of a struggle of slow development. From a young age I had a hard time with spelling and this is still a trouble area for me, even with the help of autocorrect. As I grew in age and as a writer my problematic area became not including enough nitty gritty details. My bad experiences that I recall would always involve the start of writing because I struggle with beginning paragraphs. Also, I tend to use the ending paragraph to just repeat myself, so overall my first and last paragraphs are usually shit. I find that I usually have more success when writing about something that I truly enjoy and struggle when talking about something I do not really care about. Both my parents were minimal to no help with writing

“It’s what we think we know that keeps us from learning” This quote from Claude Bernard describes my writing development this year. At the beginning of this schoolyear, I thought that I was going to go into this year and be able to breeze through this class because I could write a good essay last year and analyze stories, but I was wrong. Lit Comp Honors has been a brand-new experience for me. In previous years, I have never had to work hard for a good grade. Now I have to put in extra time every night to go over vocab and stories or else I would get a bad grade. This class has taught me how to work harder and how to study better and that’s not even the writing aspect of it yet. My writing has gotten better because of

I 've learned that reading and writing can take me any where I want it to go. I can explore my mind to go anywhere by imagination, by reading and writing.However,My reading and writing experience since I was a kid until now I still having a difficulty.

My feelings toward writing aren 't good nor bad. Writing is something i have had difficulty with in my past.I have no problem brainstorming ideas on what topics to write my assignments on, even if i am given a prompt, but I do have difficulty with sitting down and planning my work.I always find myself getting stuck.So I almost never take the time out to plan out my ideas i come up with.My choice in words always tend to make my assignments sound unripe.I agree in my past that i have been lazy when writing and reading that was before i realized my child like writing would not get me far in ninth grade.All of This has lead me to receving grades that i knew i could do much better than.Constantly being discouraged about my grades in english, I

Having my high school at the AP program established under SCNU was always one of my luckiest things happened to me. At here, I was trained to be priorly familiar with the U.S. education system and successful after coming to the U.S. where all the students were supposed to go. In order to be prepared, I was trained to write different kinds of essays, including laboratory report, social science research paper and literature expository writing. I have started to write all these kinds of essays since grade 10, and every writing assignment has gone through the process of outlining, drafting, peer proofreading and editing.

What does writing mean to me? Writing means getting people engaged in your piece. It means people wanting to keep reading what you wrote. The biggest thing about writing to me is expressing your thoughts and letting your mind go. Using good word choice and having a strong voice in the writing is something that makes it good. Also not leaving people wondering about what is happening makes a good piece of writing. I know when I have written something well, when I feel very confident in it. As I’m reading through it, I want to keep reading it. Also when I don’t feel the need to go back and add more words or details because I already had. That is how I know when I have written my best.

Writing a paper is a long and sometimes strenuous process. In Garrison Keillor’s “How to Write a Letter”, Richard Lederer’s “The Case for the Strength and Grace of Short Words”, and David Shipley and Will Schwalbe’s “How to Write (the Perfect) Email” authors are taught how to craft a compelling piece of literature. To write an effective work, the author must go through the arduous task of planning, drafting, revising, and editing. Each one of these procedure takes time, effort, and patience. If the author seeks to create a noteworthy paper, then it is vital that they follow every step with the rigor and determination mentioned in the professional authors’ writings.

My supporting ideas would get mixed and I would lose the attention of the reader. Secondly after rereading my own writing it becomes clearer that my sentences are not making sense and the reader gives up before reading the rest of the writing. Previous teachers have told me that I am not speaking clear enough about the topic I am trying to explain and/or relate to. When writing it appears clear to me, but when someone else reads it, it does not appear clear to them. My third and final goal was to comprehend direction. When writing I stray from the topic, bring up three to four different topics and retract back to the original topic and fail the assignment. Since being in college, I have learned a new way to write without going off topic as

In my previous English 101 class that I took last semester I had to write a rhetorical analysis on a topic I am very passionate about. My paper was titled “Why Everyone Should Be Feminist.” The assignment was that we had to read an article, and analyze the components the author used. After analyzing the work, we had to write our own rhetorical analysis using what we learned from the article. The purpose was to get us used to picking out writing tools, so we could learn how to put them in our own work. This assignment taught me a lot about rhetorical techniques that can be found in a lot of authors works. I tried to target a wide audience because I wanted to reach more than a specific group of people. I did not want my paper to be gender specific

As I began the journey of returning to school, one of my biggest fears, was the writing aspect in the classes. The fear of reading and writing has never been a strong quality; however, I have never able to successfully be creative in the way I learn. I understand my weaknesses and when I need to focus on my strengths. I am constantly learning new ways, skills, and tools to utilize to continue to grow as a writer.