This week has been all about writing essays. While we have not have any formal talk on how the essay should actually be written, I have learned a lot about myself as a writer personally. It has been interesting to delve into how my own mind works to patch thoughts and sentences together into a cohesive essay. The first and most important thing that I learned about myself is that, when I write, I like to do it in as few drafts as possible. For example, writing my essay on the structural aspects of short stories in literature I used only one and a half drafts, and completed it all in two days. I say one and a half because I only wrote the meat of it out once, but then went back into it and changed some things around. I am not implying that it will not change any more, but where it is at the moment is about where it is going to be when it comes time to complete the project and submit the essays. Next, I noticed that I sometimes try to put too much into what I am writing. I become so engrossed in making sure that I answer every question that was asked that I add so much jargon that it becomes no longer followable. I have to actively take steps to avoid doing this in order to ensure that I submit only my best works. Finally, the last thing that I learned about myself as an essay writer is that I am impatient. Starting off is really, really hard for me to do. I feel very overwhelmed just staring at that blank document. Once I manage to get myself going, however, I really go. I spend probably half of the whole time it takes me to write the entire essay on the first one or two paragraphs. Conclusions are hard as well, but sometimes I can get them to just flow out naturally, so I do not usually worry about them. Overall, I will be glad when this week is over. No one likes to write essays, me included. I will be happy when this is all in the past, but grateful for the chance I received to learn more about my abilities and drawbacks as an author.
0 Comments
This week we had author James Jackson come in and talk to our class about writing, revision, and staying focused on our work. I really enjoyed him and I feel like I learned a lot about how to be an effective author from his talk. One thing that really stuck with me is that a person should never, ever stop writing. James Jackson made it very clear that to get good at writing, a person must be ready to face tons and tons of their own work being ripped apart and never published. He stated that, while this can feel awful, an author should not stop writing simply because other people tell them that they do not like what they are doing. An author should write because they love it; it does not matter what other people say about your work. He also told my class that, even if you are writing a specific kind of story or book for a specific genre, only two out of ten people who read your story will actually like it or think that it is any good. This was not meant to be disheartening but honest, which I really appreciated. If you write, be prepared to get backlash. It is impossible to create something to please every single person who will stumble across it. For anyone who would like some more tips on good writing habits, here is a fantastic link to help you out. So, this was a good week for me. I feel like I was actually able to learn a lot from having James Jackson some in to speak. For me, this was the week where I really feel that I learned the most about writing. I hope that I can apply all of his fabulous advise and improve the way I write! Something that we focused a lot on this week was revising writing, and more specifically our own writing. The revision processes and critiques really stood out to me, as I had never really gotten a chance to edit my own works before in any other class I have taken. I think that a crucial part of revision is, at first, just simply going back through said piece and rereading it and leaving comments for yourself before actually making the changes themselves. This way, you will have a plan when the time comes to finally edit the piece of literature. It is also important to leave yourself some positive feedback as well. It is not healthy to be so negative towards yourself all the time, and even if you strongly dislike what you have written, leaving comments on the good aspects of it can be helpful. That way, you know how you should change the worse parts of the story to make them not only better, but fit into the rest of the writing. When it comes to the actual changes, I learned that it is good to be specific. If your comments just say that a certain section is "weak" or "boring", it can be difficult to know where to go from there. This website has good tips for revising and actually making your desired changes in order to get a final product that you are happy with. This was an interesting week for me, because so far into my senior year I haven't yet been faced with editing my own work. I learned crucial skills about self-reflection that will be quite helpful in the next few chapters of my life. |
AuthorThis is an AP Lit and Comp blog by MPHS senior Peri Sanderson Archives
November 2017
Categories |