Lane
1
Vanessa Lane
Professor Padgett
ENGL 11OI 11125113
Writing: The Trials and Tribulations of a Stgdent
To me, and to most othbrs I suppose, reading aud writing go hand in hand. I've gone through my own trials and tribulalions with the two over the years and quite frankly I wish I could just avoid them all together. I'm sure many people would like to avoid reading and as well but unfortunately we pannot.
uriting
Writin& as well as reading, is sometbing that we all need
throughout our lives, no matter how painful it can be. So, throughout this essay I will
ry to
explain the things I've learned about writing, explain what good and bad writing is to me, as well as
try to analyze my very own writingr
Comment [,qPll: Cm you be more specific now so that the reader has a clearer sense of the direction this will be taking?
Let's start by talking about how impofiant writing, and reading, is in my life. Well when I was very young
I
used to lave to read and
writing wasn't too bad either. I would read all the time
and actually enjoy it, I evea won an award or two for reading back in the day; iit:s qhockirâ‚Ź
kor!.
I
Thqrl qqnlglhing happened and eyerylt{ng weq!.sou!h; ryading1qrygd inlq qfrcadaghq and
Qommsnt IAPII: why would thir be shocking?
writing was like pulling teeth. While this is still true today, they are both still very important in my life. They let me communicate with others and express myself through spsaking, on paper, and on the internet. They are so important because ultimately
I can't live without them.
Lane2 When it comes to rariting, it can be either good or bad. What makes something good
writing and what makes something bad writing all depends on the person. Everyone has their own individual opinion on what qualifies as good and bad writing. These ideas can derive from many differerrt places or people. I think I got my idea of good and bad writing from all of my
English teachers over the years by seeing what they like papers to look like and how they judge
work. For fne personally good writing is something that
has good grammar and spelling"
If
a
piece of writing has a lot of grammar and spelling issues then it gets hard to understand and makes the piece
virtually unreadabli. Another thlqg thal makes something gogd
*riti"g
!C
comment [AP3I:
True.
whether it flows or not. What'I mean by tlow is that it has good transitions from paragraph to paragraph and is easy to follow all throughout the entire pieces ofwriting. Ifwhat you're reading
doesn't flow well, or at all, then it will be hard to read and hard to gra$p what the author is try to get across. The next main thing that really sets good writing apart from the bad is whether the
whole piece is on topic. If the author goes offtopic from what the work is supposed to be written on then it just gets conlusing and hard to understand. So overall, for me, good writing is lsomething that is clear, coherent and understandable; you shouldn'I be confused while reading
somethin!. O4 lhe other hand, bad wr!t]4g is basicallythe exact opposite. If yol get confuqed by what your reading and don't know what's happening in it at all then it is for the most part bad
writing. So,
I've never been too good at analyzing my own writing. I think it's hard for anyone,
professional author or student, to really analyze their own work. When you are the writer it's hard to really pick apart what you've done. You could either be very critical about what you've
written and think it's all terrible or you could be too confident and think it's amazing. That's why
it's best to get other people to edit your work because they will give you the honest truth on
Comment [AP4I: At what point is this the write/s responsibility and at what point is this the reade/s responsibility?
Lane 3 whether it's terrible or magnificent. So for me personally, I've always been my own worst critic, especially when it comes to writing. I've never thought I was any good at it whatsoever. So when
it comes to writing there me rules that I usually follow such as: grammar rules, always have a clear thesis in the introduction, always have an intro and conclusion, stay on topic, use the correct language for your audience, etc. While I try to follow all these rules it doesn't always
work out. For instance, "While Oceania is very unique and different there are a lot of similarities that the real life dictators did as wel1."(Orwell's Oceania -Lane), this sentence from one of my past essays doesnot make much sense at all
with some grammar issues. As well
"It would the community grow together
one."(Poverfy Solution Proposal -Lane), just like the
as
as
this sentence,
previous one I mentioned, it doesn't make sense. Both ofthese sentences prove that I should
proof read better whenwer I write a papert 1 qan see that my llT iting has groryq oyq !!me, I can see
Comment [APsl: lf you had the chan.e to redo it,. what would you ds, specifically?
growth in it from just ayear ago to now. Here is a sample of something fiom about a year
ago:
uMany people think it is wrong to use ths cells ftom an ombryo to help s&ve someone's
life. They find it wong and immoral. A lot of people think it is killing so{neone and as end one person's
see
it
life to save another. But in all reality it isjustthe opposite.r (Ethical
Issues and Stem Cell Research -Lane)
This is a small excerpt from a paper I wrote my senior year ofhigh school on stem cell research. To me this paper just seems so young and narve rlike
a
middle schooler wrote it. It also seems like
I wrote it really quick in five minutes. which I honestly might have. Now, here is a more recent
Coftment [AP6]: what, speciflcally, you this impression?
example of something I've written:
gives
Lane 4
*Along with oppo*unities and hard worh Gladwell gives us his thoughts on intelligence as
well. He talks a lot about IQ's and being intelligent, he also tells us about some
intelligent people who were very successful and some who weren't so successful. Gladwell ultimately says that intelligence isn't everything. Just because someone is incredibly smar! doesn't mean they'll tre a huge success or if they're not so smart then they won't be successful. rGnk+pe*ivelgLglplgliyg Essay -Lane)
To me, this excerpt lrom this semester is a lot better than the first excerpt. I think it sounds more mature like I actually put some thought into it. Compared to the bil from thg senior year essay,
this one is written befter and I am more proud of it. With my writing I always
fy
to make
it
[AP[: How, specifically, did you infer {or imply since you are the writer) maturity, as you say? Comment
coherent and on topic. With that said you would think that I would qualifu my own writing as good u,riting, but that's the exact opposite, I never have mrd probable never will see my writing as good no matter
how many people like it and tell me it's good. I've always been somewhat
insecure about my writing. This is because it's has never really been my strong poiat or ever came easy to me. So when Stephen
out of a bad writer."(King
I
King says, "...it is impossible to make
a competent
wdter
a2), ]maybe he's not totally wron$. But in thq gnd, I always slick wiltr
my rules and take the corrections I'm given in order to make my wdting as good as I can make
it. So in conclusion,
writing, reading
as
well, is a big part of my life. It's never been my
sffong suit or my favorite thing to do but it's is still a pretty big deal. I can't live without it and I
can't avoid it as much as I would really like to avoid it all together. Also, good and bad writing are both based on personal opinions where as good
writing to me is coherent and on topic while
it could be something totally different to someone else. Additionally, although analyzing one's own work is quite difficult, I was abls to do so as well as compare my past work to my more
Comment [AP8l: what do you think? And
why do you think this? I feel like you're leaving the reader hanging here a little.
Lane 5
recent work. Doing so has helped me to really ctitique myself without being too harsh. This analysis will definitely make me grow as awriter and make my work stronger. Maybe one day in the future
witing
a
paper won't be all that difficult for me.
Vanessa,
You have an interesting paper here, and I reallv like the personal narrative vou include here' The
narrative reallv allows the reader the insight into who you are as a writer. I am a little lost with respect to what your central thesis is. The paper seems to be drifting betureen vaguelv similar topics with no particular direction or unified meaning or sense of purpose. You should be savlng something here. ldo think vou make terrific use ol textual evidence to have a conversation about vour views on writins and how vour personal writing has evolved. Like I said. vour abilitv to connect with your reader thoush vour narrative voice is a great asset, but I need that sense of purpose, a stronq unifvinq thesis.
Lane 6
WorkCitpd
l.
King, Stephen. Anfirttittg-Nax Yorlc $oribn*r,2000. Frint
2.
Lane, Vrressa..&'r&fo4l Istte,s onStemCell Research
3.
Lane, Vanessa lrterpretive Essay
4.
L,ane, Vanessa
5.
Larrc, Vmessa Powrry Solatton Proposal
Orwell's Oceania