Writing Experience
My Writing Experience: A Living Torture
I have hated writing ever since the 7th grade when I had an absolute horror of an English teacher. Instead of making writing enjoyable she turned it into a torture that became unbearable. Things did not improve all through high school. This has left me with a fear of writing that has been very had to overcome. Now that I have started school again, I am trying to learn to enjoy writing or at the very least become an acceptable writer. In the first part of my essay I will discuss the event in 7th grade that turned me off of writing. In the second part of my paper I will describe my experience with Microsoft Word, my experience using MLA formatting style, and my experience using documentation in research papers.
When I entered middle school there were two English classes you had to take. One was a reading class and the other was a regular English class. If you passed reading in the 6th grade you did not have to take it again and if you tested high in the class you were put into an Advanced English class the following year. Now while I tested extremely high in my reading class, I scored just under average for English. Even though I was below average in my English class, the school still decided to put me into the advanced English class for the 7th grade. In this class there were many writing assignments that the teacher would make us read aloud to the whole class. This terrified me so much that even as I write this essay 20 years later, I can’t stop shaking from the memory of it. Cameron writes “Writing is a challenge for most writers, but for novices it is particularly challenging because they have limited experience of the writing process. They have not yet developed a more experienced writer’s understanding of writing or ability to deal with the emotional pitfalls of writing. As a result writing can fill novices with feelings of dread and self-doubt”(Cameron par.6). I feel this quote related well to my fears of formal
I have hated writing ever since the 7th grade when I had an absolute horror of an English teacher. Instead of making writing enjoyable she turned it into a torture that became unbearable. Things did not improve all through high school. This has left me with a fear of writing that has been very had to overcome. Now that I have started school again, I am trying to learn to enjoy writing or at the very least become an acceptable writer. In the first part of my essay I will discuss the event in 7th grade that turned me off of writing. In the second part of my paper I will describe my experience with Microsoft Word, my experience using MLA formatting style, and my experience using documentation in research papers.
When I entered middle school there were two English classes you had to take. One was a reading class and the other was a regular English class. If you passed reading in the 6th grade you did not have to take it again and if you tested high in the class you were put into an Advanced English class the following year. Now while I tested extremely high in my reading class, I scored just under average for English. Even though I was below average in my English class, the school still decided to put me into the advanced English class for the 7th grade. In this class there were many writing assignments that the teacher would make us read aloud to the whole class. This terrified me so much that even as I write this essay 20 years later, I can’t stop shaking from the memory of it. Cameron writes “Writing is a challenge for most writers, but for novices it is particularly challenging because they have limited experience of the writing process. They have not yet developed a more experienced writer’s understanding of writing or ability to deal with the emotional pitfalls of writing. As a result writing can fill novices with feelings of dread and self-doubt”(Cameron par.6). I feel this quote related well to my fears of formal
Cited: Cameron, Jenny, Karen Nairn, and Jane Higgins. "Demystifying Academic Writing: Reflections On Emotions, Know-How And Academic Identity." Journal Of Geography In Higher Education 33.2 (2009): 269-284. Academic Search Premier. Web. 14 May 2012.