Please tell us what you've done particularly well this semester in terms of your writing for this course. It can be process or product related, something related to in-class discussions or nightly homework. Regardless, be honest and give praise where its due. Be sure to tell us why you're proud of this accomplishment.
For no additional credit at all, post a song (link to YouTube if possible) that somehow (loosely or maybe sort of kind of not at all) captures you as a writer. Song must be appropriate and free of profanity. Here's my song: End of the Movie by Cake.
18 comments:
This semester, I am proud of my work on my Compare Contrast essay. I had struggled on some of our other essays so it was nice to get in the groove with this particular essay. I had a lot of fun writing about my failures in the pool and using humor and jokes to write my paper. It was exciting for me to see my hardwork pay off and to get the satisfaction of writing something I was proud of. As mentioned in the upcoming essay, my favorite part was when I described my difficulty to swim and added the line "This was only the 300 warmup." Of all of the papers we have written, I am the most excited about this one because I had the most fun writing it. It was the first time that I felt like I had more than enough to say about myself in personal writing and that was a great feeling.
This semester, I have had my fair share of hardship, however I have definitely had success as well. I would have to say I am probably most proud of my Narrative Descriptive essay. Using strong descriptive language, I was able to tell a story, connecting with the reader. Out of all of the pieces I have written this semester, this piece in particular was out of my comfort zone. Straying away from a "typical" literature essay, I used expression and my voice to tell a story. The words flowed from pencil to paper, effortlessly. In addition, with this piece, I carefully selected words to my liking, using slugged to replace walked as one example. I learned so much this semester, beginning on the first day of class.
My favorite piece of writing from this semester has been my Narrative essay because, even though it was the most challenging for me, I think it had the greatest impact on my growth as a writer. Writing about my relationship with my sister was really fun because I considered many different memories from our childhood. Picking memories to talk about in my essay wasn't hard. The hardest part was displaying them in a way so that the reader could experience them just as I remembered them. Throughout numerous drafts, I experimented with dialogue, different descriptive adjectives, and staggering sentence structures. When I read over my work at the end, I remember smiling because the words on the screen in front of me mirrored the images in my head.
This semester I think I made a lot of progress with my personal essays and self-analysis because I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to be open and express myself honestly in my writing without sounding stupid and whiny. I think the final drafts of my Narrative-Descriptive piece and the “Why I Write” essay were proof enough —to me, at least— that it was worth the extra effort.
Ultimately, I became less paranoid and terrified of sharing my work with peers. This helped me make progress with learning to trust people more than it did in terms of improving my writing, but I still think that this development was valuable.
Analyzing myself in this class has helped me more deeply appreciate and accept myself for who I am —and to be at peace with that. I’m proud of this accomplishment because it has and will make me happier in life.
I think that I have also learned a lot about the way that I think through grappling with process and memory. My brain is weird but cool because I remember specific childhood events with photographic precision. These “mental pictures” are really helpful for writing vivid descriptions, and they also allow me to experience moments from my youth again but with a more-mature perspective that comes from a better and deeper understanding of the world.
David Bowie - Life on Mars? https://youtu.be/v--IqqusnNQ
This year I think I managed the most success with my "Why I write" and Argument essays. Although these were both very different pieces, with one focusing on myself and my experiences, and the other on the outside world and arguing an issue with statistics and reason, the essays both showcased the same thing; my command of structure and content. My "Why I write" essay was probably the most difficult paper I've written. Although it was short, it required me to look back at myself, at my life, and at my motivations. Through weighing my interests of both reading and writing and how I developed them, I was able to create a smooth and fun-to-read paper that perfectly summed up what drives me to write. My argument essay on the other hand was much more familiar territory. I am used to crafting compelling arguments both in papers and verbally, and this was somewhere I was able to highlight my skills. I found a variety of statistics and quotes from all manner of sources and ended up with a paper that was organized, and balanced ethos, logos, and pathos. Overall, I am extremely proud of my progression over the course of this year, and these two pieces in particular, and cannot wait to see where writing brings me next.
As a writer I’ve improved in my ability to get what I’m really thinking onto the paper in a clear and concise way, or at least that’s what I think. Before, I only wrote what I thought was the right thing to say. That is because before I only wrote analytical papers; so I was only analyzing what was in front of me and not looking at what was inside me. In terms of writing I don’t think I actually improved. I did though realize what I like to write and how I like to write. Over the course of this semester I have made a distinct style that I tend to write in when I write my first draft, which I always hope to carry over the my final draft. When it does carry over to the final draft I feel really good about what I wrote and don’t really care about what grade it receives because at that moment it feels like a piece of art. Like art, it’s truly your own and expresses an emotion. I tell myself leave it all on the paper. This is something I try to put in all my activities.
A solid example of my success as a writer is shown in my first paper of the year, titled: “Why I Write”. The paper is riddled with negative byproducts of my creative style, such as a lengthy explanation to prove the simple point that “I write to free up space in my brain”, a paragraph that is mostly composed of questions, and a lack of concrete examples. Yet it was my most highly graded essay of the semester. The essay may not have proven a very broad range of claims, but the few claims made in the essay are elaborated upon in great depth. Instead of simply saying I write to clear my mind, I add substance to the statement by explaining the complexity of my “mind” (the nature of my thoughts), and that writing itself isn’t what clears my thoughts but rather the sequencing of my thoughts that result from it. I maintained creativity by explaining things in depth, and avoided being too abstract by elaborating only on pertinent details. In a class that stresses creativity, I would consider being able to write in a creative voice a success. But being an abstract writer still poses challenges.
A song that represents my writing is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AzEY6ZqkuE
I became much better at using detailed description this semester. In my "Why I Write", many of my in class writes, and my letter to Obama , I was able to use detailed description to make the reader understand exactly what I was doing, thinking, and seeing. Adding details like the scowl on my art teachers face or the reasons why Obama's presidency matter to me have made me a much more complete writer. I am also very proud of my ability to write more in less time. I think I have become much better at writing well at a faster speed. This is important for me because I have always struggled to write high quality work in a short amount of time and this semester I think I improved drastically in that regard.
I went into this semester of Creative Nonfiction with very few expectations of the kind of work we would be producing. All I’d heard about CNF was that I may have the chance to work on college essays in this class or something. While my college writing process was actually hugely aided by this class, my most important development as a writer is not apparent on applicants or even many of my CNF essays. This course gave me the confidence to approach personal writing pieces hoping my authentic voice shines through rather than just having a goal of pleasing others (my teacher). The open ended essay "prompts" were difficult in the beginning, but not I’m accustomed to and embrace the freedom that they gives me. I’m most proud of my Compare/Contrast Essay. I like it not because it was necessarily my best piece of work, but because I struggled to talk about my identity as a New Yorker/Californian, and I produced I piece of work that captures my complex and sometimes contradicting thoughts about having lived on both coasts.
Because everybody wants their writing to rule the world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtnwGXdPsDk
This semester I think I did my best work on assignments that included storytelling. I really enjoyed writing about and analyzing my past, and I think that the honesty and effort I put in to those particular assignments clearly shows through my work. The platform creative nonfiction has given me has been perfect for exploring pieces of my past that have built the person I am today. My essays "Why I write" and "Lessons of Adolescence" in particular display the growth I am talking about. This semester I have noticed what types of writing I enjoy reading and writing, and with this I have further developed my style of writing. I have found that I like personal storytelling far more than more factual writing or political arguments. I really have enjoyed this class and the writing in it, and I have no doubt that I will continue to write in my free time.
I have become a lot more attentive and tuned in to the emotion I am trying to convey in my work I think. It feels as though when I approach writing it is less broad strokes or blanket statement like saying a character was "angry" and instead I use words like "peeved" and "furious". It is a feeling of a lot more choice in my writing because I don't rely on surrounding paragraphs to act as context clues and background for a certain spin on an emotion to come through. It allows me to turn huge paragraphs into one word and I has helped me to start to become more concise in my writing even though I am still in the process of tightening up my language even more
This semester I think I've really improved on showing and not telling, which Meghann strongly pushed. She told me it was important that I write so that it doesn't sound like anybody could be writing my work, and I have remembered that in all of the writing I've done about myself. To do this, I pick the main idea I want to get across the reader, and then pick a very specific event that outlines that main idea. This helped me a lot when writing my Narr/Desc and Comp/Con essays. I think I have also improved on making my writing more concise so that it doesn't super elevated and grandiose. Overall, I think I have just gotten more in touch with how I want my writing to sound rather than what might sound good to my teacher.
I used to sit and stare at a blank document until I had mustered something up in my head I felt was worth putting on paper. In many ways this type of writing mentality has held me back and impeded me from sharing my ideas in a cohesive manner. However, throughout this semester I have developed a better sense of flow with my writing and now I rarely ever find myself staring at a blank document. My writing voice and ideas seem better connected now. I am proud at how far I have come, and I am excited to see where I will go in the future. I hope that writing becomes a habit of mine as it has become now.
As a writer, I’ve been most successful in writing in a natural and authentic way. None of the assignments this semester have felt forced or made me feel like I was overthinking — instead, I think I thrived on expanding on the first memory or first topic that came to mind. This was refreshing given my tendency for perfectionism. There was something relieving about being able to treat in-class writes and even homework as more of a stream of consciousness than a heavily structured assignment. As a result of this, I think I have grown much more comfortable writing in my own voice rather than the voice that my teachers want to read.
I think I have done really well with these weekly blog posts, as I have found them enjoyable and I looked forward to them. Seeing my blogger that I followed and her career develop with each new post was a highlight of my week. Many of my posts started out very long and as time went on they got shorter and more concise, which I think was a positive shift. I liked analyzing her moods and emotions, and connecting her words to my own experiences.
I also enjoyed my why I wrote piece from the beginning of the semester, as I think it still holds true after a few months of intense writing. Writing honestly and clearly has been fun and I think I've improved.
This semester I have grown so much as a writer. Throughout my entire high school career I have struggled with the commitment and patience the writing process takes and this semester everything changed. My biggest success this semester has been achieving my goal of appreciating the drafting process. It first began with our personal essay that I also chose to use as my personal statement for college. Maybe it was because it was really important that it was polished or that I cared a lot about what I was writing, but I finally understood how important drafting was. I loved seeing my essay evolve and become the potential I saw that it had in my first draft. Since then, I have been drafting and drafting some more and feeling more and more confident with the change that is necessary for an essay to morph into its greatest potential possible. With that goal in mind I have come to respect the patience and time that is crucial in becoming a successful writer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5rQHoaQpTw
I've begun to use a much more varied vocabulary in my writing. I'm proud of this because I believe I isolated one of the biggest problems i used to have. I can now re read my own work and not find it awkward. This skill I have developed has also helped me tremendously in public speaking and Mock Trial. I can now more effectively keep my reader and listener engaged for an extended period of time. I hope that I don't stop practicing this and throughout college and further refine my writing to be as entertaining as possible.
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