Part I: Strengths and Struggles When it comes to writing, I have more struggles than strengths. I have a hard time coming up with ideas to write about. I am not good at gathering my thoughts and ideas together to put on paper. Another struggle I have is getting started on papers. I have a difficult time beginning a paper. Even if I have notes written out before I compose the paper, I struggle with which idea to begin with. I also have trouble wording things throughout a paper. When I am writing, I feel like it makes sense, but once it is edited, I can see that some of my sentences either do not make sense or is a sentence fragment. Another thing I struggle with when it comes to writing are transitions. I have trouble coming up with transitions to make my writing flow. I feel like my writing is choppy without nice transitions. I would like to get better at using transitions, so my writing would be more enjoyable to read. I also have a hard time writing about myself or free writing, which is why this assignment is difficult for me. I find that writing about facts comes easier to me. It is
Transcript
Part I: Strengths and Struggles
When it comes to writing, I have more struggles than strengths. I have a hard
time coming up with ideas to write about. I am not good at gathering my thoughts and
ideas together to put on paper. Another struggle I have is getting started on papers. I
have a difficult time beginning a paper. Even if I have notes written out before I
compose the paper, I struggle with which idea to begin with. I also have trouble wording
things throughout a paper. When I am writing, I feel like it makes sense, but once it is
edited, I can see that some of my sentences either do not make sense or is a sentence
fragment.
Another thing I struggle with when it comes to writing are transitions. I have
trouble coming up with transitions to make my writing flow. I feel like my writing is
choppy without nice transitions. I would like to get better at using transitions, so my
writing would be more enjoyable to read. I also have a hard time writing about myself or
free writing, which is why this assignment is difficult for me. I find that writing about
facts comes easier to me. It is easier to look up facts and cite ideas than coming up with a
topic or ideas to write about.
I would say the hardest thing about writing for me would be composing
introductions and concluding paragraphs. I never know how to start a paper without
writing all my ideas down in the introduction. This causes me to not know what to write
about for the rest of the paper. The concluding paragraph is very difficult to write. I feel
like I repeat myself when writing the conclusion. I always feel like I complete my
thoughts in the previous paragraph, so I am basically copying and pasting that material in
a new paragraph, which becomes my conclusion. I would like to be able to write a
concluding paragraph without any struggle. Finally, I struggle with being repetitive in
my writing. I feel like I repeat myself several times throughout a paper. I believe that the
repetition can get my audience disinterested in my writing and the paper drags on. When
reviewing my work, I try to correct this repetitive behavior, but I either do not notice it as
much or cannot think of anything else to say in its place.
However, there are several things I think are my strengths when it comes to
writing. First, I believe that I can give thorough descriptions when writing about events
that have happened. Another strength I feel I have, which relates to descriptions, is
journal writing. When I was completing my Practicum II, I had to write daily journals.
The journals required me to write about each day and give descriptions and details about
what happened. I think that by reading my journals, you could feel like you experienced
my day with me.
I also feel like I am a good editor. I always read over my writing before turning it
in. I feel like I am good at catching unneeded punctuation or words to make my writing
more fluid. My final strength is word choice. I have learned to utilize a thesaurus to help
improve my writing. The thesaurus has opened my eyes to different words I can use in
my writing instead of repeating the same words.
Part II: Learning from Experience
Dear Mrs. Jones,
When I was in your ninth grade English class, I feel like I did not learn much
about writing. We read several interesting books, such as The Lord of the Flies and
Freedom Writers and watched the corresponding movies, but never wrote about the
books we read. When we were finished reading the books, we were tested on the
material. However, I feel like I was at a disadvantage by being in your class. When I
tried to be in an Advanced Placement English class in tenth grade, I was lost. The state
changed the requirements of the class, so it was based heavily on writing. I ended up
having to transition into a different class because I did not have much experience with
writing. The class assumed I knew how to write, but I struggled with it.
It would have been better if we read the books and reflected about them in your
class. The tests that we took did not require us to write about events or summaries about
the books. It would have been beneficial to use the books and expand on them using
writing. We could have done more writing to prepare us for the rest of our high school
career. Since this class was the first English class I attended in high school, I feel like I
was behind the other students who had a different class. I feel like this experience made
me struggle with writing and be discouraged about writing in general.
Sincerely,
Mary Kidd
Part III: Interests
Self- Improvement
I have always been interested in self-improvement. I love to shop and keep up with the
latest fashion. I also like to exercise and eat healthy. I enjoy reading fashion magazines to
