This self-assessment will be on the changes I have noticed in my writing and methods since I began college. I had always believed I was a poor writer in school and never really interested in that reason. I had genuine concern that I wouldn’t be able to produce in a college format. The first few days felt slow and unclear to me but every assignment I could manage boosted my confidence. We should all strive to feel confident enough to write freely and with no limitations. Some of my earliest memories come from being in a separate room with one other kid learning how to read. I must have been in 1st grade, but the teacher would get upset with us and even yell. I was a sensitive child so I would be easily discouraged but, in this case, I just felt upset with myself. By the third grade I joined a book club because of a teacher that everyone loved and just so happened to be that I would have him the next year. This was probably the first year I enjoyed reading and writing. In the sixth grade I had my first year with good grades for the year and I was proud of myself, however this would all change. I moved schools again to a private catholic one and I found the environment very challenging. I wasn’t used to uniforms or the different manners, but I was especially not ready for the work. I had lost a lot of the motivation I had that summer and that led to lazy work and effort. The writing was more intense than I could have thought, papers, poems, grammar it all felt alien. Safe to say I failed the 7th grade because of my writing and math skills, the two most important. In the last year of middle school things took a better turn for me. I had more attention, and I also gave more effort overall this year. I still failed math this year, but I got a solid grade in English. I still wasn’t a very good reader, but I started to enjoy writing much more than before. I enjoyed science class and writing all kinds of reports or informative essays. I wasn’t great at them, but it caught my interest enough to develop the skills to write proficiently.
High school is where I finally honed my skill in literature. I continued to enjoy science by writing my papers and reports, but I now also enjoyed reading. I mostly read science fiction like Dune or fun science books like Astrophysics for people in a hurry. I’ll be honest, much of what I read I didn’t fully understand yet or knew I wouldn’t, but it was always fun trying. This curiosity for reading expanded when I read The Great Gatsby out loud for my class which led to me reading 20 pages to myself after ignoring the lesson. I found myself picturing the story in my head and watching a movie that I didn’t want to turn off. It was the first time I had felt this way and I read until I had to leave for my next class. I took my time writing my drafts for that essay and I believe it is the first time I used my current process. It was in rough form, and I have made changes to how I write an essay since, but this was the first time I really used a process and didn’t just scramble. I realized that essays were significantly easier to write if you already had all the research done beforehand. Since this realization I have never started an essay before finishing all my research first and this helps me make sure I know what I will be discussing. By my senior year of high school, I felt like I was a decent reader, and proficient writer even though my grammar always lagged. I felt confident that I could write any informative essay and or research paper.
When I finished high school, it was with a bitter taste in my mouth since I had dropped in grade points my senior year and I was hearing a lot about it. My teachers, counselors, and even parents were letting me know that I was too comfortable, and that college would wake me up. This took me from very secure in my writing to more reserved and cautious. I thought college work would be too much since I had built a habit of procrastinating. The first few weeks of college I now know are very easy since there isn’t any work due or assignment that needs urgent attention. This allowed me to collect myself and realize that there are going to be differences between college and high school and if I enjoyed the next perks I wouldn’t get burnt out. Waking up two hours later and only having 10 classes per week compared to forty is life changing. College work is more difficult, but I think we have much more time and freedom to be able to perform on this level. We are adults and make our own decisions allowing for a sense of identity that we can express through our work. As a grown up I feel like I have beliefs and opinions that should be heard and put in my work. A new perspective is only one way my writing has changed, when the author changes so does the writing. My writing set up has also changed since even high school because I don’t think we should ever stop improving our methods if possible. New adaptations and skills we pick up are crucial for coming up with an effective essay writing method. In college I have become more confident in my process since I know it can produce college level papers. I see now I used to make all my writing exaggerated with unnecessary words to reach certain word counts but this is no longer the case after writing so frequently. I feel like I always have enough to say or express to take up any word count with the right amount of research. In college I have also found my limit for writing a good essay in the sense I will produce a solid two to three words per day. I could cough up five thousand, but I know it will not be my best work. That is what a lot this semester was for me as well, experimenting and seeing where I fall in this college environment.
I know I will continue to grow as a writer and reader, but this art form really means something to me now. Everyone should be able to express themselves and writing is one of the best ways we know. You can make an entire book on one subject or event allowing for everyone to truly understand your stance and perspective. This taught me that we write for more than just completion of an assignment. We can make a difference with our work, and we can inspire others to feel a certain way and maybe allow them to create as well. My central topic this semester was about climate change and how it will impact us in the years to come. I did most of the research by the inquiry essay. I had done about 6 hours of research for these two essays. I made an outline for my inquiry essay which included all the topics I thought would be necessary for someone to fully grasp what will happen in the next 100 years. I took what I have learned about research papers and put it in a picture format for approachability. Writing should be approachable for any one on any level which I realized from reading books I didn’t understand. I read Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s book because it seemed approachable and even though I didn’t understand most of it I enjoyed the pictures he painted in my head, and I learned to envision 3D models in my head. Just because this book seemed like I would like it I picked it up and learned a new skill and enjoyed my time. When I was growing up teachers would force me to read books that never caught my interest. Writing is for everyone and should be easy to pick up and be interested in.
Writing has been a main source of communication for thousands of years now and but in principle it is still here for all the same reasons. We write for expression, for keeping track, to keep from boredom, etc. Writing is ancient and isn’t going anywhere even in our technological world. We have new tools at our disposal for more accurate expression like computers and software. These tools have allowed us to not only express ourselves but put what is in our head on the page. Writing hasn’t always been easy for me and at first was even scary, but this is an art form that we all use and will use for the rest of our lives. We all have a voice that needs to be heard and we all have feelings that need to be shared.
