The Writing Quest

Academic writing has been an interesting quest for me over the years. I have learned many different techniques from different teachers and mentors. The five paragraph essay was the first thing I really remember learning in academic writing. I remember doing several of these in Mr. Fay’s seventh grade English class. He taught us about the intro, thesis, topic sentences, and conclusion. I felt confident writing this way. I remember persuasive and research essays addressed in my high school writing classes. My tenth grade English teacher reinforced MLA, and I have been utilizing it ever since. I felt confident about my writing in high school. I earned good scores. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that I was able to research and back up all of my points evenly throughout my writing. With this confident attitude, I entered college writing.

Once I entered the academic writing arena at Brigham Young University, my view on my writing shifted. I found out that I had some messy syntax, confusing grammar, and comma splices. Luckily, I was persuasive with my arguments in my writing because I knew how to organize, write a good thesis, and back up my argument with supporting points. I would thoroughly research my papers so I knew what I was talking about. However, the technicality of my writing problems affected my scores and some of my clarity.

For three years I received many of the same comments on my papers, yet I did not know how to fix some of my problems. I would get many B+ and A- because of the technical problems, but I didn’t know how to get the A. Comments such as “enlightening argument, good support, publishable point, messy grammar, and wordiness” portray the majority of my papers.

Finally, when I decided to apply to graduate schools, I knew I needed to figure out how to fix my writing. I paid a grammar teacher at the university for private writing tutoring sessions. I gave her 10 samples of different papers I had written, and she assessed my needs. When she realized I could not explain where a comma went, she knew I needed Grammar 101. We spent weeks working on grammar exercises and rehearsing rules. Afterwards, we went through my current writing, and fixed the consistent problems. This was the turning point for me. I finally realized that my writing could change.

Even today, I am still working on my writing. It has not been natural for me. The content has been but not the grammar. I am still learning to incorporate all of the grammar rules I am constantly learning. As a tutor, I realize there are things I still do not know but I am learning. Hopefully one day this grammar and wordiness thing will not be an issue for me. Until then, I know the only way it will get better is through practice.