My Relationship With Writing
I have never liked to write. I get nervous, my brain never
seem to work when I write, and I get extremely frustrated. It is not surprising
that I have lost hope of being a good writer, or even just an average writer,
long ago. But things started to change since I failed the MTTC basic writing
test…three times; I realized that I must get better in writing in order to move
to the next level in this world, which led me to take on a Writing class at
university of Michigan. Although it only has been three weeks in to the
semester, I already have discovered that I need to work on my writings
organization, present my thoughts with better details, and improve my
vocabulary in order to improve my writing.
My thoughts on any topic are often flying all over the place
in my head when I write, and it shows in my essays. Reading my essays is like
trying to understand a person that’s just saying bunch of random thoughts. It
would be a lot easier for readers, including myself, to understand if I
organize my thoughts before I write it down. The way I used to write is
brainstorm about the topic, and just type away. It was a great way to come up
with an outline or a rough draft, but not as the final product. Another problem
with this was I usually have so many thoughts and ideas that I would attempt to
write them all down. These are the reasons my writing feels like its going
everywhere, and yet nowhere. I now have adept a few good methods to fix these
problems. I still brainstorm about the topic, but now instead of typing away, I
write it down as an outline: I first decide how I feel about the topic, and
what am I trying to answer with my writing. Then I filter down my thoughts and
ideas that support my answer into three to four categories. I then come up with
a brief introduction that’s short but has sufficient background information in
it. Now, the next step is typing away with the outline. Once the introduction
and the supporting paragraphs are done, I can then sum it up in the conclusion,
which is like a recap for the essay, some personal feelings perhaps, and final
thoughts. By doing these steps, I was able to organize my thoughts for this “my
relationship to writing” essay by constructing an outline. The flow of my
writing was a lot better because I had a clear direction to where I was going
with the essay. This was the first big step I took toward being a better
writer.
Now that my thoughts are nice and organized, I can move on
to elaborating them. As I mentioned before, reading my essay is like trying to
understand a person that’s just saying random thoughts, and those thoughts are
brief and sometimes incomplete. It is not surprising that my writing is hard to
follow, and does not fully express my thinking. It is not enough to just write
down some thoughts without giving it some background, evidence, or a detailed
explanation, and expect the essay to be complete. You have to consider your
audience when you write in order to give your thoughts the right background,
the right evidences, and the right details. I actually constructed my outline
with this in mind, and it helps me filter my thoughts and ideas down to the
most important ones, so it would be easier to elaborate. It is also important
to have someone else to read it to see if you really put enough details in your
writing. For me, personally, I spent a lot of time on thinking about the topic,
and since I think about it so much, my mind get numb with little details. For
example, I went on an awesome vacation this past summer; I went to Bahamas,
Florida, Las Vegas, and Arizona, and I went snorkeling, skydiving, parasailing,
and many others cool stuff. I was telling my friend about my vacation after I
got back, and I focus so hard on what I did such as snorkeling, skydiving, I
forgot to mention where I was when I doing those things (Bahamas, and Vegas).
This is the prime example of being numb to little details, and the importance
of peer review. For this essay, I had a friend of mine read review it to see if
my thoughts are clear and going the right direction. He was quite impressed
with the improvement I have made with my writing.
However, my friend that review my essay pointed out the
problems I still have with my writing which is my awkward sentence structure
and my lack of vocabulary. Unfortunately, there isn’t any template for me to
follow to fix this problem. Since English is my second language, my sentences
just do not flow right sometimes. It gets the points across, but the awkward
feeling really ruins the essay. My vocabulary set is good enough to speak, but
not enough to write. I often feel like I sound stupid, or childish using
certain words. The only way out is to read more. When I first came to America,
I use to carry a dictionary with me at all times. I had a book one, and a mini
computer one. Every time I encounter a new word, I would look it up in my
dictionary, then write it down in my vocab notepad. That was how I learn so
fast, but ever since I was able to speak pretty well, and I can guess the
meaning of a word when I read, I have stopped using my dictionary. I need to
read more, and start a new vocab notepad again.
My biggest enemy in writing is procrastination. My
procrastination definitely prevents me from being a better writer because it
makes writing even more nerve wrecking than it already is since I often start
writing not long before it’s due. I find many excuses to not write; when, for
example, I suddenly have to do laundry. The truth is I get stuck between
thinking and writing. I spent a lot of time thinking what I am going to write,
and from many different point of views, but for some reason I would just sit
there and wait until the essay is almost due to do it. I have a bad habit of
trying come up with a perfect thing to say/write just in my head, which doesn’t
happen often. I just simply have got to make a goal for every day to
accomplish. The daily goals could be the outline, one paragraph, or the
conclusion. As long as I start early, and leave myself enough time to actually
compose a complete essay following the steps I mentioned previously in this
essay. I still procrastinated with this essay, but not as bad. What I do is to
stop by the language lab across the sweet waters writing center in north quad
daily to complete my goals, and it is working out pretty good so far. I believe
that I make this a routine for me, and it will become a good habit.
My relationship has improved a great amount since this
semester started. I used to hate writing because I get so frustrated. I always
felt that I could not express myself completely, and my writing flows so
awkwardly even when I do get my point across. I avoid writing as much as I can,
and it really got me nowhere. And it took me failing the same writing test
three times for me to realize that I really need to get better. Since then, I
have paid more attention on why I do not express myself fully in essays, and I
found that I lack organization in my thoughts when I attempt to write. I often
to have too many random thoughts on the topic, and they need to be filtered. I
filter my thoughts by considering my audience, and choose my thoughts of the
body paragraph carefully, and then I construct a outline which consist of an
introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. I also found the reason I do
not express myself fully because I do not elaborate my thoughts enough. I cannot
expect people to know exactly what I was thinking, so it is a good idea to
explain my thoughts with more details. I have made some good steps towards
being a better writer, but there are still a lot that I need to work on. For
example, I really need to improve my sentencing structure and my vocabulary by
reading more and using a dictionary when needed. I also still have to work on
not procrastinate by establishing going to the language lab daily to even just
read the class material as a routine, and make it a good habit. In the process
of writing this essay, my relationship with writing has gotten better, and I am
excited to continue getting better. [DJ1]
[DJ1]Ok,
great reflection and discussion here… nice work…
Think about the conclusion as a place to reflect and
synthesize, instead of repeating/summarizing what you have said. The reader
will have followed you to this point, so use the space to leave the reader with
something to think about.