Reflective Essay: My Role As A Writer

Writing is definitely not my favorite task, but I don’t hate it either. I would say that I am indifferent towards writing. However, writing is a skill that needs to be honed and mastered, because it plays such a key role in almost any career. So when I started working in the lab I was a little apprehensive, because I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. But through my work in the lab I have observed so many different levels of students and how that plays a role in their writing and style; I have even learned some facts about the way I write that I was not aware of. I have learned that I am not very confident in my own writing skills, and I need to work on my writer’s voice. The key topic I have learned that plays a huge role in the writing process is confidence. When writers are confident about their piece and they really love the way it has turned out, then it shows through the entire paper. I always tell my dance students that if they show the audience how much they love dancing, then more people will want to watch them. And I think the same goes for
writing. If someone puts a lot of time and effort into a paper and they show how much they care about it, then people are going to be more drawn to it. There have been a few times in the lab were a student was so proud of their paper, and that made me love it too, because I could sense their enthusiasm right from the very beginning. But getting that confidence in writing is difficult. One of the only ways to achieve confidence in writing is to practice it every day, and through that practice writing will come more naturally than it has before. I have definitely learned that I do not possess any sort of writing confidence; I still second guess a lot of my papers and I rarely write for pleasure. I believe that if I were to write more for myself, and less academically then I would be more comfortable with my own writing and my writing style. Also, when a writer is confident not only in themselves, but the work they have done, then it is much easier to hear their voice through the piece. A writer’s voice is something that can always be worked on in writing.
One can master commas or transitions, but showing a voice through a piece of writing is not so easy. I find that I still need to work on finding my own voice in my papers. The way I explain ideas verbally is much different than how I write papers, but if I were to put more of my personality into a piece of writing then it would be much more enjoyable and easy to read. Much like finding confidence in writing, having a specific voice in a paper takes time and practice, but I think that the two ideas are very much connected. When an author is confident in themselves and their writing, then it is easier for them to add their own style and show their personal voice through the piece. I had one student in the lab who had such a clear presence in her paper, and that made it more enjoyable as the reader, because I could imagine her actually saying
it. Obviously, I have learned more about myself and writing in general other than just confidence and voice, but I think those are the two most important. We are always told to help students work on the global ideas rather than local, and voice and confidence are about as global as it gets. Confidence and voice should be a part of every piece of writing and are not specific to one paper or even one type of writing. If confidence is established within the paper, then it is easier to hear the writer’s voice and those two in conjunction already improve the paper immensely.