Writing is such a sensitive subject in the eyes of any high school student. Essays are something to be dreaded, not something to be loved. A timed piece of writing, especially for a grade, is a complete nightmare. But, as John Gardner stated,“Every nightmare hints at the secret reserves of imaginative power in the human mind.” What students need, and what they should want, is to learn how to tap into the writer within.
This year has definitely been the most influential year in my English career. I can see myself back in September, sitting at the keyboard, wondering how to make my “Letter to Ms. Self: Writing Goals for Myself” at least two pages. Then, I can see myself staring at the prompt for my first timed AP essay. I can plainly see the horror on my face and the anxiety in my stomach. The first draft of the college essay was a complete disaster. However, with each revision I could see my words becoming clearer and clearer. The first epiphany I had about my writing: sometimes I need to slow down and think about how to convey my thoughts.
If I were to analyze pieces of my own writing from previous English classes, I would be horrified. Formerly, I had a tendency to circle around whatever point I needed to make. This class has taught me to drive the point home using elevated diction and more complex syntax, with a variety of sentence structures. In addition, I can manipulate language more easily. Instead of describing the old woman screaming, I can bring her to my audience and let her scream.
C. Day Lewis said, “We do not write in order to be understood: we write in order to understand.” This year, I have come to understand more about myself and the world around me. Writing has come to be more than just an assignment for a class at school. I notice myself finding writing inspiration in everything. I hear the lyrics to a song and immediately think of how I could use it in a poem, or incorporate the idea into an essay. Where I previously dreaded any form of writing, I now understand how to appreciate the beauty of it. This leads me to my second epiphany, or rather the second part of my first epiphany…
“When we were little we had not difficulty sounding the way we felt; thus most little children speak and write with real voice.” Peter Elbow was onto something. Children are often scolded for the openness and realness in their young voices. What if we, as academic writers, never outgrew that? What if we never had to struggle with finding the right words? At the start of the year, I struggled to find the right words in almost every piece I had to write. Through the numerous readings, responses, and essays I read and wrote, I found my own writing voice. With this discovery, I now find it much easier to write.
The college essay was my first real writing struggle. However, it was a different kind of effort. It was the first time that I struggled with myself. My previous writing struggles were mostly a failure to read a novel, a lack of knowledge to respond to a prompt, a writer’s block, and other outside struggles. With the college essay, I was forced to make a reflection on myself, and then write about it. No other teacher had ever asked me to do such a thing. It was so much easier to enjoy the act of writing when the words could flow from my own head, rather than spitting out answers to specific questions from an outside source. With the freedom I found in that assignment, I became excited about writing.
Following the college essay, I struggled with timed essays. Whereas in previous essay experiences, I could revise my work and have several drafts, timed essays required me to be coherent and sensible in one draft. This is where my writing improved the most. The countless practice essays in forty minutes or less forced me to refine my writing tendencies. I can now convey my opinion on a given topic quite clearly in one draft. Working with the timed essays also motivated an improvement in vocabulary. Trying to remove “there are”, “things”, and “stuff” was quite painful, but it makes my voice much easier to understand, as well as making my writing seem a higher level.
At the beginning of the school year, I was assigned a paper in which I was to write two pages analyzing my writing strengths, weaknesses, and goals for improvement throughout my AP Language journey. First, I wrote about my struggles with length. It was too hard for me to write a “good” paper more than one page long. If the minimum length was longer, I was intimidated. Another weakness included in that first assignment was a struggle with style analysis; it was hard to find specific examples in a piece to support a given thesis. I thought I was strong with providing evidence. I felt I could pull adequate evidence to support my own thoughts. Persuasive writing seemed easy because I was able to support my own opinions with evidence from a variety of sources.
Reflecting on my year in AP Language, I can see that my weaknesses became my strengths. Through various practices with different pieces of writing, I learned to elaborate without redundancy. This allowed me to lengthen my essays, and other assignments, without “diluting my opinion” as I formerly believed. Also, with the endless practice style analyses completed, it would be near impossible for me to consider that a weakness. My rhetorical analysis and argument improved greatly as well, no doubt a result of the time spent in class reviewing and practicing. My weaknesses have changed as well. While my vocabulary has no doubt improved, there is still room for me to grow my knowledge base.
Overall, my entire view of writing has done a u-turn. No longer do I despise the words “ESSAY DUE”. I find joy in spilling my heart and brain onto the pages. I look for inspiration in places I used to avoid. I can easily express myself in an educated manner. This class has shown me the wonders that lie in classic literature, especially in pieces that I once hated. I look forward to the new concepts that I will learn in AP Literature next year. I look
forward to the pieces of writing that I will read throughout my life, that I will analyze and understand because of the ideas I learned this year.
This year has definitely been the most influential year in my English career. I can see myself back in September, sitting at the keyboard, wondering how to make my “Letter to Ms. Self: Writing Goals for Myself” at least two pages. Then, I can see myself staring at the prompt for my first timed AP essay. I can plainly see the horror on my face and the anxiety in my stomach. The first draft of the college essay was a complete disaster. However, with each revision I could see my words becoming clearer and clearer. The first epiphany I had about my writing: sometimes I need to slow down and think about how to convey my thoughts.
If I were to analyze pieces of my own writing from previous English classes, I would be horrified. Formerly, I had a tendency to circle around whatever point I needed to make. This class has taught me to drive the point home using elevated diction and more complex syntax, with a variety of sentence structures. In addition, I can manipulate language more easily. Instead of describing the old woman screaming, I can bring her to my audience and let her scream.
C. Day Lewis said, “We do not write in order to be understood: we write in order to understand.” This year, I have come to understand more about myself and the world around me. Writing has come to be more than just an assignment for a class at school. I notice myself finding writing inspiration in everything. I hear the lyrics to a song and immediately think of how I could use it in a poem, or incorporate the idea into an essay. Where I previously dreaded any form of writing, I now understand how to appreciate the beauty of it. This leads me to my second epiphany, or rather the second part of my first epiphany…
“When we were little we had not difficulty sounding the way we felt; thus most little children speak and write with real voice.” Peter Elbow was onto something. Children are often scolded for the openness and realness in their young voices. What if we, as academic writers, never outgrew that? What if we never had to struggle with finding the right words? At the start of the year, I struggled to find the right words in almost every piece I had to write. Through the numerous readings, responses, and essays I read and wrote, I found my own writing voice. With this discovery, I now find it much easier to write.
The college essay was my first real writing struggle. However, it was a different kind of effort. It was the first time that I struggled with myself. My previous writing struggles were mostly a failure to read a novel, a lack of knowledge to respond to a prompt, a writer’s block, and other outside struggles. With the college essay, I was forced to make a reflection on myself, and then write about it. No other teacher had ever asked me to do such a thing. It was so much easier to enjoy the act of writing when the words could flow from my own head, rather than spitting out answers to specific questions from an outside source. With the freedom I found in that assignment, I became excited about writing.
Following the college essay, I struggled with timed essays. Whereas in previous essay experiences, I could revise my work and have several drafts, timed essays required me to be coherent and sensible in one draft. This is where my writing improved the most. The countless practice essays in forty minutes or less forced me to refine my writing tendencies. I can now convey my opinion on a given topic quite clearly in one draft. Working with the timed essays also motivated an improvement in vocabulary. Trying to remove “there are”, “things”, and “stuff” was quite painful, but it makes my voice much easier to understand, as well as making my writing seem a higher level.
At the beginning of the school year, I was assigned a paper in which I was to write two pages analyzing my writing strengths, weaknesses, and goals for improvement throughout my AP Language journey. First, I wrote about my struggles with length. It was too hard for me to write a “good” paper more than one page long. If the minimum length was longer, I was intimidated. Another weakness included in that first assignment was a struggle with style analysis; it was hard to find specific examples in a piece to support a given thesis. I thought I was strong with providing evidence. I felt I could pull adequate evidence to support my own thoughts. Persuasive writing seemed easy because I was able to support my own opinions with evidence from a variety of sources.
Reflecting on my year in AP Language, I can see that my weaknesses became my strengths. Through various practices with different pieces of writing, I learned to elaborate without redundancy. This allowed me to lengthen my essays, and other assignments, without “diluting my opinion” as I formerly believed. Also, with the endless practice style analyses completed, it would be near impossible for me to consider that a weakness. My rhetorical analysis and argument improved greatly as well, no doubt a result of the time spent in class reviewing and practicing. My weaknesses have changed as well. While my vocabulary has no doubt improved, there is still room for me to grow my knowledge base.
Overall, my entire view of writing has done a u-turn. No longer do I despise the words “ESSAY DUE”. I find joy in spilling my heart and brain onto the pages. I look for inspiration in places I used to avoid. I can easily express myself in an educated manner. This class has shown me the wonders that lie in classic literature, especially in pieces that I once hated. I look forward to the new concepts that I will learn in AP Literature next year. I look
forward to the pieces of writing that I will read throughout my life, that I will analyze and understand because of the ideas I learned this year.