Personal Narrative: My First College

Writing my first college Paper
Writing my first paper for college was not easy. I was in English 050. It had been several years since I had been in high school. I was scared and I wanted to do a good job on my first paper. I wanted to show myself that I could do this whole college thing. I was trying to prove to myself that I did not wait too late to come back to school. When I turned in my rough draft to him, I remember telling him “I hope this is what you want”.
The next time we met in class my professor came to me and said ”this is an excellent paper, but this is a paper you can either re-write as a narrative or you may save this for our third paper that will be due later”. I decided that I was going to rewrite this paper and turn it in. I was completely unsure of what he was
wanting. A narrative is what I thought I had written. I wrote a paper in my own words and told the story the best that I knew how. I asked my professor “can you please explain to me what you want or show me an example. I just do not understand what it is that you are wanting”. He went back to his desk and brought back a copy of an article. He said “read this, if you still do not understand what I want. I will try to explain it to you in a different way”.
I read the article and said to myself “ok I can do this, it’s not that hard I just have to add a few things and change some things around”. I thought I understood exactly what he was wanting. He wanted a paper that not only made you feel as though you were part of it but also made you feel as though you were in the room while it was going on. As if you were in the story yourself. I rewrote my story and turned it in again. This time I was a little more confidant that I knew what I was doing and that is was the kind of paper he was wanting.
When he handed me my paper back all I could see was red.
I saw red lines and circles and slashes. I was very disappointed. I really thought I knew what he wanted. Well I did do what he wanted I just can’t spell very well and I do not always use correct punctuation. Even with spell check on my computer I still made more mistakes than what I thought I had. There and their seemed to be my biggest mistakes. I also needed to learn how to quote people correctly. It was very hard in the being to know which one to use where. It finally sank in my hard head after a couple of times of turning in rough drafts.
I received my third rough draft back and it still had red lines and slashed all over it. I asked my professor “what is it that I am doing wrong”? He said “well you seem to be getting a little frustrated and not paying attention to the small things. Its ok you still have two more class days to turn in rough draft before the final draft is due. If you can correct these mistakes and get it turned back into me today then you can have it back next class period and I can recheck it then. This way you still have another chance to get it turn again before the finial is
due”.
When my professor handed back my rough draft again he said “you have improved so much and I think that you have your finial paper write here”. I was so excited finally I did not see very many red lines or circles. I said “it is about time. I finally have a paper without red lines or circles all over it”. I changed a few things that needed correcting and turned it in as my finial draft.
I only received a B on my essay but after all it was my first essay I had ever written for college. It also was the first essay I had written in about 9 years. I learned how to quote people correctly and even though I still do not use punctuation correctly I am learning every time I turn in a paper and receive red mark corrections on it. Writing is not my strong point but it is something I try to do with enthusiasm. I do my best not to look stupid sometimes I do a good job and sometimes I make stupid mistakes.