Homework 4.m

Writing has never come easy for me.  I struggle to get all the thoughts I want to write about, down in the right order.  When I hear I have to write a paper it takes me so much time just to get started.  You could say that I have a "fear" of writing papers.  My English teacher last semester tore my essays apart, even though I thought they were really decent, so now since I have been at college I seem to take more preparation time before writing my paper.  The first thing I try and do is write out an outline.  I try to include every thought that I possibly could think of that would work well in my paper. In my outline, my thesis is created, but it never is that strong because I never know the exact direction that my paper is going to go in.  I always tell my self to just start writing, which sounds cliche, but it really does help me.  As long as I get started writing, I usually can go for a while.  All my writing occurs at my desk.  If I was anywhere else, say my bed, I would get too distracted.  What I find strange, is the fact that I listen to music when I am writing.  You would think that it is distracting, but when I can't hear anything in my room or my room mate is talking, I get a lot more accomplished.  

When I was younger I remember when I used to have to write out my entire rough draft.  Now that I think about it, that sounds like a great idea, but honestly do we have enough time to hand write our papers?  To replace the handwriting process I will write my rough draft on my computer, print it out without reading over it and then take my pink pen and mark it up.  Also I read the entire paper out loud, which helps me hear my mistakes.  I usually find tons of mistakes when proofreading my paper, so I go back into the computer and fix them.  When I take my paper to class to get it revised by my peers, I feel confident about the product, but I know that there has to be changes made because it has much better potential.

All the revising sessions that I have attended seem pointless.  Don't get me wrong, there are some kids whoare  actually there to help you, but for the most part students see this workshopping day as a day off to do whatever they want. It is frustrating because I actually want my peer's response to see what they think I should do to make it better.  Every once in a while you will get someone who will mark up your paper and give you good suggestions, but those chances are slim.  What I tend to do is look for someone who seems like they care just as much as I do and give my paper to them, hoping they will help me out.  After the revising session ends I take my paper back to my room and review their marks.  For the most part they are right about a lot of things in my paper, but there are times when I just keep what I originally had.  After the revising process I realized that the key to have a good paper is to work on it a little every day.  I found if you try to cram all your editing into one day, your bound to miss something.  Every day I usually read my paper once looking for mistakes and things to change, and you will be surprised that I find things every time I read it over.  It doesn't bother me that I have to read my paper so many times because I know it is just making it better.  

My writing has improved so much over the past years, and I hope that it continues to.  The writing process that I do, seems pretty straight forward, so a lot of people might be able to follow what I do if they ever needed help getting started.  A way I could improve my writing would be to look more carefully at my paper as a whole because my biggest problem would be staying on topic.  I know that is what my outline is for, but no matter how much I try to stay on topic, it never really works. By taking this class I hope to learn better workshopping skills that will be extremely beneficial.  I know that my writing is nowhere near perfect, but to be successful in college I know that my writing is going to have to keep improving.  I plan to sharpen my outlining and organization skills, along with asking for opinions and help throughout the writing process.  Hopefully, by the end of this second Freshman English course, my writing will be good enough to get me through college.