WRI 1050: My Writing Process

WRI 1050 English Fundamentals for me was a turning point in finding out more of myself as a writer as well as the do’s and don’ts of college writing. This writing course has contributed and enhanced my writing process. It gave me new tools to add in my arsenal, and helped me get rid of old bad writing beliefs as well as habits that I’ve picked up from other students. In high school, students would try to impress their teacher with unnecessary complex words and sentences, which could sometimes take away the message that they were trying to convey. Our mentality was that the bigger and the more complex the words are, the better. It was not so when I got to WRI 1050. I soon learned that using big words and complex sentences meant nothing if the essay lacked a strong content. I remember when I would get an essay assignment in high school. My writing process consisted of only one draft, and no audience to read my essay to give any feedbacks. It would take me a really long time to get
started and write anything down. I would stare at the blank paper with pain not knowing what to write. It was because of my approach, which was to create a masterpiece right off that bat. This hindered me from generating any ideas thus obstructing my writing because I was thinking too much about the perfect idea and words to say. I soon realized that over thinking was counter productive. I treated my first draft as my final draft. I spent a lot of time thinking of anything that might sound brilliant in order impress my teacher. That is why thesaurus was my best friend when it came to writing in high school. I drenched the first draft with big words making my essay sound a bit awkward and concentrated more on developing complex ideas and words hoping that it would make up for my lack of content. I actually thought that I was a pretty good writer back then. This kind of thinking always gave me writer’s block, and I thought it would never disappear. I needed to unlearn all of these bad habits and program the right ones. That is what WRI 1050 did for me, and is why I’m very thankful for that class. It taught me a brand new and effective process of writing, and I was blown away at how effective these techniques were. A complete enhancement towards my writing. It helped me beat writer’s block by getting rid of my old belief about needing to make my first draft the best draft that I could possibly write.
WRI 1050 helped me get rid of my writer’s block by teaching me how to free-write. I think of it as a word vomit, writing anything that comes to mind about the topic. Basically a way for me to get my ideas down on paper no matter how messy and unorganized it may look and sound at first. This is how I beat writer’s block because I wasn’t spending my time thinking and judging what I had to write. As a result, streams of words and ideas came rushing, and there were words flowing continuously on my paper. Free-write enabled me to free myself from any expectations. I remember my first free-write. Words continually kept coming and I was no longer worried about not being able to reach the page requirement. Nothing mattered as long as words are being typed, which comforted me a lot and gave me fluidity in my
writing. Another aspect that WRI 1050 helped me was the belief that bigger words equate a better paper. I was stuck with this type of approach ever since and it was hard for me to let go of this approach. My professor basically told the class that there’s no need for us to fill the paper with big words and strings of complex sentences, which she saw with high school students. She said it’s okay to have them here and there, but not to pepper our whole entire essay with them. I was reassured by her words, and I slowly got rid of my belief that I should have a lot of big words on my paper in order to make it look nice and pleasing to the reader. In the beginning I relied solely on big words, but now I’m a much complete writer than I was in my high school days.
- “You don’t have to know what you think before you’re ready to write.”
- “My development as a writer initially had more to do with unlearning some of what I already knew than it did with discovering new ways to write.”
- “Practice is the key to a writer’s development.”