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.

Where it All Began

I don't think I can honestly recount a time where I started writing. I know it must have been when I was very young, because I have always enjoyed it. I remember learning how to construct sentences and learning how to create an essay and how to write and all the spelling tests and the like, but I can't remember any particular essay or step to learning how to write until my sixth grade year. My first very serious paper was done for something my school called the Jr. Author's Fair. It was something that all the grades participated in. Basically, what happened was that everyone turned in some form of literature and everyone got to go around and comment on it. That was also when I discovered that I really did like to write and that I was at least somewhat good at it.

Later, in Jr. High, my writing abilities put me into honors classes and an honors reading class. I felt like I had learned a lot then too. But, when I got to Weber High, boy, was I in for a shock. My first teacher drilled us with our essay writing, we had a paper due every week; if not a paper, then a project. My second year English teacher was even harder. I soon realized that I had to do a lot more brainstorming and mapping out my thesis to a much more delicate degree. I didn't realize that I occasionally would get off topic or be repetitive in my essays until I had that class. All in all, I felt that it really prepared me for AP Literature the next year.

I learned so much from my lit. teacher, and I feel like I owe her a lot. She was very encouraging and had a lot of smart ideas for us to try out and use when writing our essays. She had a lot of different teaching methods, she would use imagery and lecture, have the students teach, and have us read examples constantly. One method she taught us to use for the AP Literature was something she called APE. A=assertion. P=proof. E=explanation. We ended up using this method quite a bit for our essays as a basis on how to start and where to go from there. I still sometimes use it to this day.

Since I had taken the AP Literature class I thought that college classes would be a breeze. Little did I know how much I still had to learn and am still learning. I want to become better with my writing in all aspects. I want for my essay writing to become better and I want to improve my free-hand writing that I do just for fun. Writing, for me, is a creative and constructive outlet that I want to be able to better all of my writing.

Learning

While 9th grade-12th grade still boggles my mind, as a crazy blur, one of the memories that I shall cherish forever, was that of learning how to write. For many, English comes simple to their mind and the way that their brain functions as a whole. However, for me, this was not the case. Ms. Davis, an English teacher, who had had her fill of students massacring the English language, would get angry over my attempts at writing.

“Why are you writing this way?” “Do you not pay attention in class?” These are just a few of the questions that haunted my mind, as I ventured through the path of trying to write eloquently, using the English language.

“Why?” I thought. “Why?” can I not understand these simple terms and how to write in a manner that behooved my high school knowledge. Although, I struggled with these questions every day, answers did not come easy. It wasn’t until the summer before my senior year, that my instructor insisted that I spend 2 hours once a week, working on my writing.

Just as the weeks ventured on, so did my knowledge of the English language. Each week brought a new prompt that I would have 40 minutes to write on and 2 hours to explain why I wrote, what I wrote, and where my argument lacked depth. As the weeks of summer flowed away, I began registering for my senior year.

However registration was far from what I had expected. As I closely picked my classes and went to submit them to the office, Ms. Davis stopped me and informed me that I should be her teacher's assistant, and so it was.

The first day of class brought a new insight into what it meant to be her teaching assistant. Unknowingly of the reasons behind the books I read every class period, I immersed myself into different works throughout the ages. As time grew near for me to take my A.P. Exam, she had me writing essays for her. It was only when I got to the writing section of the A.P. Exam, that I realized what all of the books were for.

Fifteen of the books I had read, for my "teaching assistant" class, were on the exam. I felt a sigh of relief as I began to write my assignment, and knew that all of my frustrations over the years, were now going to pay off.

It was at that moment that my brain began to process all of the information that my instructor had been teaching me over the years. That moment enveloped my mind, and it was only then that I fell in love with writing.

Trial and Error

I don’t think I was ever formally taught how to write until college. Writing began as “See Jane run.” From there, I learned to read which is where I think I learned to write. Sentences seemed to ‘look right’ or ‘make sense’ based upon prior knowledge. But I wasn’t really taught. I began doing academic essays probably in high school. I guess they explained what a thesis was, sort of, and I just wrote what sounded most intelligent. If the paper came back with negative comment, I would change that the next time around and keep the rest. Then in college, I finally learned the true structure of an essay. The funny thing is, I knew most of it, I just didn’t know that I knew it.
The thing I do remember about learning academic writing was the repetition. In high school, I had been able to get away with flowery words and sentences because I still proved my point. Once I got to college, I got in trouble for that! College was teaching me that academic writing was dry and boring! Then I learned that was just for the beginning to help us, and the teacher, understand the process and product. Slowly, I was able to incorporate style and voice into my writing which made me so happy.
Personally, I like to write creatively. Poetry, prose, fiction, or anything else that can break the rules is my favorite type of writing. But as I’ve done this through the years, I’ve learned that there is a correct way to break a rule and an incorrect way. The worst part is, you don’t know if you’ve done the correct way or not until you’re finished. Language is changing so much on a daily basis that something you write will be acceptable one day and total trash the next. Creativity makes me stay on my toes when it comes to writing. Even in academic papers, I try to find the most eloquent way to say something because I want the reader to experience what I am trying to tell them.
The truth of the matter is that I’m still learning. I’m learning new ways to approach the text so that when I write my analysis it isn’t the same, drab thing over and over again. I also learned that you shouldn’t use contractions in academic writing a couple weeks ago. Weird, but oh well. I think that through the trial and error I put my writing through I will one day become an expert....until all the rules change again of course.
PS I don’t think the blog needs to be up to complete academic standards, so I made sure to include lots of contractions!

It's not set in stone

I don’t really remember any specific class where I learned academic writing. As I look back on jr high and high school, I see my experience of academic writing as more of a collection of various classes and such where I learned and relearned the basics. Nearly every time we had an essay assignment, I would hunker down and review how to write an essay. Many times in these high school classes we students would buddy up to collaborate on what we were supposed to do. By now I feel I have a better grasp on how to write an academic essay. I’ve had the five paragraph essay outline ingrained into my brain so many times that it has finally stuck. I’m sure my high school teachers would be pleased. How to set up an outline for a paper took the longest to learn, yet has helped the most. Doing this makes the left side of my brain happy. I’ve been able to apply it to many other papers I’ve written for various classes. Unfortunately, being the way I am, I still struggled with coming up with the words I wanted to put down.

I always thought writing was a concrete thing, that once I wrote something down it was set in stone. I understood that I could edit what I wrote, but the idea that I could even revise or change completely my thoughts once they had been written didn’t sink in until I had passed some time in college. I suppose I had my own meaning for the concept of “editing.” In my English 1010 class I was able to practice a "free-er" writing style since I was allowed to write however I felt or whatever I thought on any subject or on any of the articles in our three books. On one hand, this may be considered by some to be too easy or undesirable for one reason or another. For me, I thoroughly enjoyed it! It was totally the opposite of what I was required to do in previous English classes and how I tended to write. Looking back I needed this excessive freedom to really become more comfortable with writing and start to enjoy doing it. I’m glad I was able to experience choice and open writing since it offset my obsessive worrying about words and appearance. I now need to use the best of both worlds. A nice middle ground is what I strive for.

There are times where I still struggle with trying to find just the right thing to write. These are times when I revert back my tendency of trying to write the whole essay perfectly on the first go. Hopefully, I catch and remind myself that it’s ok not to have just the right word, and that it’s ok to put down my entire ideas even if they don’t sound quite right. After all I’m going to go back it once I’m done; I don’t need to be so anxious if my paper’s not perfect the first time I write it. I am still learning and trying to improve my writing. When a new paper is assigned, the rules and structure of writing are renewed to me. Every time I put a pen to paper or fingers on a keyboard, I learn something new about myself.

My Writing Process

For me, writing started as a passion in grade school. I remember being so excited about our weekly writing assignment! This enthusiasm changed when I got to high school. This is where the rules kicked in and the writing was no longer about what I was writing about but how I was writing it, which seemed backwards to me. I started in 1010 when I got to Weber and the focus had not changed. I was being graded on form and not content. Writing went from a love to a chore real fast. I love writing again. At one point in my college experience, the writing process became natural to me so I could once again focus on my content. It seemed that when my focus changed back to content, so did my professor's focus. I still get form corrections on my papers but I have stopped taking it so personal.
Learning to write academically was a process that I did not enjoy. I always felt that the professor was giving me busy work instead of helping me improve my writing skills. Turns out, the professor was giving me the opportunity to practice so that it would eventually become a natural process for me. I don't necessarily follow the same form I was taught to begin with but I feel comfortable enough with the knowledge I have about the process to put my own spin on it without messing anything up. So now the process is simple and natural for me but I understand the frustration in the eyes of our tutees when the just don't understand why we HAVE TO HAVE a thesis in the first part of the essay.

Writing History

Claire and I are both interested in hearing/reading how you learned how to write (academic essays, mostly). Was it in a class? Did a friend teach you? Did you find the process frustrating? Simple and natural?

Consistently Learning

These first few days of tutoring have gone much more smoothly than my first week of tutoring last spring semester. I used to be so nervous. I have noticed that the nervousness is now gone. I am constantly amazed at how much I learn after every session. I just got done with a session with an English 900 student. I wish I knew a better way to explain how you know a word is missing or used the wrong way. I would ask the student if he heard that there was a word missing, and he really couldn’t hear it. I could not articulate why the words were missing. His attitude was that if I understood his meaning then it didn’t matter there were words missing—frustrating. There are many situations I am confronted with as a tutor where I don’t know how to explain why it is right or wrong. I wish I could explain things better.

I am consistently amazed at how you cannot judge which student will be a solid writer and which one will struggle. A thirty something year old came in the first day and was so pleasant and specific in what she wanted us to work on. However, her paper was muddled with incomplete sentences and words like “dumb” spelled “dum” and “enough” spelled “a nuff.” I did not know exactly how to handle the situation because she could hear how words were spelled phonetically but could not spell them correctly. She admitted she had a disability, but I didn’t know exactly how to approach it. I am waiting to talk to Claire about it more on Monday. All students have their own strengths and weaknesses. I see it every time. I just hope that my tutees can leave our sessions feeling more confident then when they came in.