In my years of academic writing, I don't think I am a bad writer. I actually enjoy doing all of the research and typing something as long as it interests me. One of my biggest problems with writing for school is putting my personality into the paper. I would call myself a tunnel visioned writer.The way I write is the way the teachers taught me to write when I was young. I don't know how to go away from the boring writing papers and put more of a spice to it...if you know what I'm trying to say. When I get a major writing assignment, I don't fool around. I try to get as much information as I can before I start writing so that it is easy to put my words together. I wouldn't say I am very confident in my writing, but I know it's better than my ten year old nephew's writing.
I also have a lot of apprehensions when I write. Sometimes I feel like I am simply rambling along and not making any sense. Other times I get so bored, I just want to stop caring about it and wrap things up quickly. But I usually find a way to fight through it and finish up without it sounding like I lost interest. I try to write about things that interest me to forget that I am actually writing for school. I am not so lucky sometimes, though. Those are the times where I usually lose interest and slack off.
I am excited about the portfolio idea, but I'm not sure I completely understand it. I don't know exactly how much we will be writing, but I am one of the people that strives to get the best grade. My only worry is that I won't have enough pieces of writing to choose from. I want to make sure I can pick on,y my best pieces and not have to put in one of my not so good papers to make sure I have enough, if you understand what I'm trying to say. I don't really have any problems with it. I think it's a nice change rather than the usual final tests. I am really excited to see what is in store for this class. I am already very excited to see what we will do and how this class canbedifferent
I understand your approach to writing. You get a topic, and you just dive right in. It's hard to put a bit of flare and personality into your papers. It's something that comes with practice. We'll try and discuss different ways to grab the reader's attention as the year progresses and we get some writing under our belts.
ReplyDeleteHopefully our emphasis on multi-draft writing will be a good deterrent for rambling and rushing through the work. I agree that interest is important. Not all of the writing that you'll be assigned here and in college will be of interest to you, but there are moments where you'll be able to at least tie things back into your own personal ideas and thoughts.
Don't worry about the number of writing assignments to choose from. I'll be sure to set up the course with enough for you to choose from. I'll do my best to keep it proportional. As far as choosing your best, I'm still toying with how I want to handle submissions for your portfolio. I may actually ask that you choose a weaker piece of writing and then DISCUSS in a reflection why you had trouble with it and what you could have done to improve upon it.
I think the class will hold a lot of differences from some past English classes. I'm still developing the curriculum, and I'm sure it'll be a challenge not only for you all but for myself.