Looking back at my Freshman year, my writing has changed and maybe improved a lot. back then, I did not really do much at all. I did not have to put much effort into the assignments that I had to do for my English class, and I had still passed the class with an A+. Last year, all I really had to do was write any random thing that came to mind, put my ideas together, and finish all of the final touches and I could turn it in and call it an essay. Due to that way of doing things, my writing had stayed the same for the last year. This year however, all of the quick writes that I have done have helped me overcome the writers block that I encounter during the stories and essays that I write. Instead of just rambling on and on n my essays and write many any redundant things just to take up space and to take up the word limit, I actually write things that make sense, flow well, and with new takes on things or new ideas so my writing doesn’t get boring redundant, or bothersome. When I started out, I had to grope around for things to say in my blogs, like this, I continued on with this idea here because I didn’t have much to write about and it was easier to continue on with this idea. It may have been the lazier thing to do, but it let me flesh out my ideas much more and it gave me a taste of how it is like when you write a bunch of stories in a series, such as a chapter book. I started out just writing random things just to fill out the quota of blog posts that I had to do. Later on though, I started writing about things that interested me.
Usually, when I write, I write in response to things that other people have written. I do this because it is much more interesting and fun for me to first look and what someone else has written, and then try to write something to agree or disagree with what they are trying to say. I am also inspired when I see, read, or hear about something that I believe in or that I feel about being talked about by others. Since it is sorta of a controversial topic for me, i have a lot more ideas and other things to write for it. For example, this was written for a topic that had really interested me. Crystal had written about a theory about alternate worlds, which is a subject that changes the idea of the way you think of the world. It also made you rethink how you made some of the choices that you have made in life, such as if they were fated to happen or if you actually have “free will” in life. Since I was actually INTERESTED in doing the work, I felt that I HAD to respond to it, I had fun doing so., and did a much better job then before. I feel that I do much better work if I am motivated to, interested in the work, and if I do not feel like I am forced into dong the work. Another example of writing for a topic that interested me would be this. This was a blog post that was written by Phuong as a response to a video that we had watched in class about video games. It was a very interesting and motivating topic to write about. I had a lot to write about for it because the video and Phuong’s Post had so many interesting things to write about and to respond to.
I feel that the open ended writing that I do for the blogs is much better than the more structured pieces of academic writing, but at the same time, I feel that it is harder to write for and more complex. For example, for this Reflection essay, there are so many things that I could write about and still be within the bounds of this assignment. This makes it much more fun and interesting BECAUSE I can write about whatever I want to and still be within the bounds of the assignment. On the other hand, it is hard to come up with ideas of what to write about for the essay, because there are so many possibilities of what I could write about. For example, for the Reflection essay, I could just ramble on and on about the things that I have done and about the things that I have accomplished for the essay and I would be within the requirements of the essay. On the other hand, I could write about the writings that I have been assigned to do in class and talk about how they have changed me, made me a better writer, etc. etc. Also, like I was talking about earlier about the blog posts, it is much harder to come up with something to write about when there are no instructions about what to write than to write about a topic that is already given to you and all you have to do is write and write within the bounds of the instructions for an essay. For example, in the first couple of blog posts that I have posted up, such as this and this, took a long time to write and I encountered writers block many many times when I tried to write for it. On the other hand when I had to write an essay about the book “Night” by Elie Weizel, it was easier and took less time to do because all I had to do was follow the instructions that were given about the essay, and when I had followed them completely, I had pretty much written up the entire essay. Since the assignments are so open ended, it is a pleasure and a challenge to write for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment