The document is a reflection on the author's journey as a writer, detailing their struggles with writing in high school and their gradual improvement through various strategies and insights from other writers. The author emphasizes the need to connect with their material and notes their strengths and weaknesses in writing, including organization, vocabulary, and punctuation. They also highlight the importance of seeking continuous growth and learning in their writing capabilities.

1. Me as a Writer
As a writer, I think that I am not as good as I thought I was back in high school. I see myself as a
student who tries their best, but makes "B" average work. I have never really taken the time to
relate to my papers. I always just wrote what the teacher wanted and handed it in. In my mind, I
never really liked trying to explain in full detail what something meant. Back in high school, my
teachers always wanted me to explain my writing in such depth that a kindergartener would
understand why Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy. Trying to explain my writing was always very
tiring. I often would get bored trying to explain and just stop writing and do something else for a
while. Most of the time in high school I didn't like writing. Mainly...show more content...
One way to calm my inner critic is a quote from Allegra Goodman's article called Calming the
Inner Critic and Getting to Work on page 309. "Love your material. Nothing frightens the inner
critic more than the writer who loves her work. The writer who is enamored of her material
forgets all about censoring herself. She doesn't stop to wonder if her book is any good, or who
will publish it, or what people will think. She writes in a trance, losing track of time, hearing only
her characters in her head." What this means to me is that if I truly let my mind go and only
focus on the material, I will be able to write the paper without having my inner critic confuse me.
In an article called The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers by Sondra Pearl on
page 201, there is a strategy that I used to help with writing a paper. "Given any topic, the first
operation he performed was to focus in and narrow down the topic. He did this by rephrasing the
topic until either a word or an idea in the topic linked up with something in his own experience (an
attitude, an opinion, an event). In this way he established a connection between the field of
discourse and himself and at this point he felt ready to write." The strategy that he uses to organize
his thoughts is the same way I start my papers. I start with just words that relate to the topic and
figure out how to put them in my writing so they make sense to the
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2. Writer's Memo Examples
Writer's Memo
While writing this paper, I attempted to follow the forms and models put forth in the research
papers we read in class during this unit. It was helpful to have something to follow while writing
this report because I focused more on the "how" and "why" instead of the "what" of the research
report structure. Overall, I found that this paper was much more organized than my last and I hope
that this also improved the quality of my writing. I understand that this paper is longer than the
assignment stated, but for good reason. The literary analysis follows the examples given in class
and, therefore, takes up a considerable amount of room, considering that I cite three works in my
paper from our textbook. Additonally, the findings...show more content...
Instead of discussing the song list for the week or the order of service, this email discusses the
potential days for performance and a final decision agreed upon by all members. Additionally, the
voice here is much different than the first sample cited prior. Not only do the individuals use
familiar words and phrases like "Hey guys" and "as long as it works for Jenna," one of the members
uses a musical allusion to a famous Coldplay song titled "Viva La Vida" when she says "Viva la
Frio Trio." Granted, this email is a conversation among familiar friends, but it does show another
side to the worship team email genre. As seen in this example, this genre can take on many forms
both in its voice and in its content.
Concluding with the last email sample studied, supplementary genre features can be found. With the
return of a long absent member, this last email takes a semi–familiar tone, while retaining the
consistent structure and vocabulary recognized by all members. Schmitke states:
Hello Praise Team Week 3! We will have a special guest joining us this weekН
ѕ Patrick is coming
home for a visit and will be playing the piano with us for most of the songs. You will notice that I
have only listed 5 songs. The closing song is undergoing some last minute changes and as soon as
we've figured it out, I will let you know. Here is the rest of the list for you to prep. See you Sunday
at 8:00am. Heather
1. God Almighty 2. You
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3. I Am A Great Writer
I'm a great writer. Writing is something that comes naturally to me. I don't even have to think
about it most of the time. Being able to communicate through writing is important with any
career, especially management. I am very creative as well. Ever since I was a kid, I've always been
into drawing, music, and coming up with new ideas. I am very motivated and I know how to lead
teams. For example, in my Business Ethics class I took it upon myself led a semi–dysfunctional
team and we achieved a good grade in the class. I am also a perfectionist, which is good but can
easily backfire on me. Where I See My Management Weaknesses One of my weaknesses might be
that I'm an introvert. To address the introvert/extravert issue; I'd say I'm more of an introvert.
Some of my favorite authors including Zig Ziglar and Grant Cardone identify themselves as
introverts although they come across as strong extraverts. Mr. Ziglar said something that made
me want to get into sales. He said that introverts make better salespeople because they can relate
to the customer better, research what the customer wants, and adopt characteristics that an
extravert has. On my spare time I read books like "Sell or be sold" by Grant Cardone, "See you at
the top" by Zig Ziglar, "Live your dreams" by Les Brown, and of course "The War of Art" by Steven
Pressfield. All of which motivate me and make me a better person. I view success as my obligation,
duty, and responsibility and I believe it is dangerous to be
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4. My Writing
Writing has always been a passion of mine. I always have loved writing. A few years ago I found
my true knack for writing, I wanted be an author. My favorite type of writing is writing stories of
magic, love stories, and adventure. Being a YA Fantasy author is my dream job and I hope it is my
job someday, but until then I have jump the many obstacles to get there. One of those obstacles is
writing this portfolio. Obviously none of these essays have magic, love stories, or adventure in it
so I had to write something out of my comfort zone. I had to dig deeper and truly test my writing
skills. These essays don't have magic, love stories, or adventure, but they show who I am and what
type of writer I am.
The first essay is a research...show more content...
It is a narrative about a journey I have had. A journey I had was when my high school senior cross
country team qualified for sectionals. It was a journey for me in so many ways and was a perfect
to end my high school cross country career. Writing narrative papers are a strength for me. I have
always loved writing narratives and it's easier for me than writing a research paper. For this
narrative, I worked very hard on it and tried to make its best like I did with all my papers, but to
me, I think this paper is the best of the three. I truly enjoyed writing this paper and did not take me
as long to write as it took me with the others because I knew exactly what I wanted to write. This is
my favorite paper out of the
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5. A Writer's Reflection Essay
English is a hard language to learn, for there are numerous elements of effective usage and writing.
Many people, including me, struggle in writing because of a lack of knowledge. Since middle
school, English was not a strong suit of mine. I struggled with the simplest of tasks often taking a
considerably longer time to complete a task than the other students. Unmotivated teachers and a lack
of interest resulted in remedial writing skills. To put it simply, I had little confidence in my writing
and I dreaded taking the class because of the writing involved. In spite of my fears, I took the course
and I was able to perfect and challenge my mediocre writing skills.
With the professors' assistance, I was able to identify the meager...show more content...
An aspect that I often struggle with is proper punctuation. Truthfully, I do not know how to correctly
use punctuation. When writing, I place punctuation by mimicking authors' formats or by placing
them where it feels right. This is present in all of my writing, but I am attempting to improve.
Punctuation also plays a part in another weakness of mine, one that is most likely present within this
essay. Since middle school, it was engrained in my mind that a good essay is a long essay, so I
have a tendency for wordiness. To elongate an essay, I tend to add needless words and sentences.
For example, in the rough draft of the Whole Process Essay, I added several unrelated occurrences
to elongate the paragraphs. Although my essays were long and wordy, the professor commented
on vagueness and unclearness within the whole process and practice essay. Sometimes, I disregard
the fact that the reader might not know what it is I am writing about or the sentence makes perfect
sense to me. The latter is the most common, I quickly read the sentence and it appears fine to me.
Within the Whole Process Essay, another weakness was brought to my attention. I lack structure, a
key element in effective writing. Within the same essay and a few others, I simply added what felt
right, sometimes the result would be acceptable but in other instances, it was a long, jumbled mess.
Once these weaknesses were revealed, I worked on improving my current works. There were several
elements I had
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6. Theory of Writing
Writing varies from a text message to a novel. Writers often have a difficult task in creating a piece
of work that truly identifies the meaning of good writing. Every good writer usually starts with the
basics such as genre, audience, rhetorical situation, and reflection of the piece. Throughout this
semester, we have gone through all of these key terms in great detail with each new assignment that
has come our way. In doing this, not only as students but also as writers, we have come to create
our own theory of writing. Every writer has a different theory of writing though most are very
similar. Now, at this point in the semester after doing countless journals, in–class exercises, and final
assignments, I think I have figured out my own...show more content...
While doing this, I am also learning how to write better as a young adult going into the mature
world where writing is key component in everyday life. Lastly, reflection is usually conceived as an
after thought. Reflection is known to be more personal to the writer. This is good for a writer to link
personal experiences into the writing. Not only is the author reflecting but also the audience too by
creating a mental image in their head. Everyone will not have the same reflection because each
individual thinks differently about various topics. For instance in the magazine article "Is Google
Making us Stoopid?" by Nicholas Carr. Carr explains that Google is something you are researching
rather than learning. In the article, Carr explains his reasoning like "When the Net absorbs a
medium, that medium is recreated in the Net's image. It injects the medium's content with
hyperlinks, blinking ads, and other digital gewgaws, and it surrounds the content with the content of
all the other media it has absorbed. A new e–mail message, for instance, may announce its arrival as
we're glancing over the latest headlines at a newspaper's site. The result is to scatter our attention
and diffuse our concentration." This quote makes me as a reader imagine someone clicking off the
screen to another window where the email site is. It also makes me reflect on when I may have
done this sort of action. I actually just minimized this paper because I just
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7. Freedom Writers Essay
Freedom Writers Essay
In the movie, The Freedom Writers Mrs. Erin Gruwell (Hillary Swank) plays a role of a dedicated
teacher who did all she could, to help her students learn to respect themselves and each other. She
has little idea of what she's getting into when she volunteers to be an English teacher at a newly
integrated high school in Long Beach, California. Her students were divided along racial lines and
had few aspirations beyond basic survival. Mrs. Gruwell was faced with a big challenge when a
group of freshmen students showed her nothing but disrespect which made it hard for her to
communicate, teach and understand them. However, Erin Gruwell was determined that no matter the
cost she would teach her students not only...show more content...
They were stories of broken and dysfunctional homes, being kicked out of the house for being part
of a gang, to being beaten up just because they were different. Reading these journals Mrs. "G"
realized how similar each student's stories were no matter the race, ethnicity or gender. Even though
the students did not see eye to eye, they all had many things in common: they were all in gangs; they
each had their own stories to tell; each student has dealt with the shooting of a friend, each student
want to communicate to others, and each student wanted to be respected.
Upon realizing all of the similarities between each student, Mrs. "G" then began to strive for her
students to realize this too, so she comes up with a "line game" for the students. She places a line
on the floor with tape and the students walk to the line when the question that Mrs. "G" asks applies
to them. At first she asks silly questions like "How many of you have the new Snoop Dogg album?"
or "How many of you have seen Boyz n the hood?" but as the game goes on she begins to ask
more serious questions like "How many of you have lost a friend to gang violence?" when every
single student steps up to the line for each question they begin to realize that beneath their race their
ethnicity and affiliation to a gang, that as teenagers they are a lot alike, with many of the same
experiences.
As the year goes on the students realize more and more how similar
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8. Growing As A Writer
Growing as a Writer
From writing thoughtful poems to research papers, I have experienced composing a diverse
portfolio of literary analysis and criticisms throughout the school year. I started out the year
writing minimally. By the end of the year, I noticed I was able to express my ideas and thoughts in a
more clear and concise way on paper. Ultimately, each composition allowed me to widen my
horizons as a writer and see how I could improve as a writer.
After analyzing many of my written works, I highlighted my writing weaknesses along with notable
strengths. Evident in my earlier works, my vocabulary was more basic and was not as powerful
unlike my more recent essays. Seeking to improve, I started utilizing words I learned during the year
...show more content...
I began writing with basic vocabulary and barely any sentence variety. As the year progressed, I
learned to advance my vocabulary and word choice in addition to incorporating a diversity of
sentence structure. Nearing the end of the school year, I acknowledge that I have grown and
learned more about writing. I anticipate that I will receive even more arduous writing
assignments that require more research and time. Although it will be challenging, I feel confident
that I will do well because I feel well prepared from all I've done this year. As I grow older, I will
have to continue to write. I know I can take the knowledge I've learned this year and apply it to
future papers for years to
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