What I have learned about myself as a writer this year

I have grown as a writer this year and have learned details about my vocabulary and sentence fluency. I've learned that my vocabulary is mediocre and is rarely complicated or fancy. I do not see the point in fancy vocabulary because in my eyes, when somebody uses those kinds of words, they are trying to seem smart. When people use that type of vocabulary, it does not necessarily mean they are smart. I have begun to mature in my sentence fluency since last year, learning that I usually do not use proper sentence structure until I go back and edit my writing. I have also learned that to me, the most important part of writing is the editing process.

I have learned that writing does not take too much time for me, but I see others struggling with writing taking them too long. For some reason, putting my thoughts onto paper or into a Word document does not require much effort from me. I have learned that I make many grammatical mistakes in my first draft. I usually finish a paper thinking I have little to no grammatical errors but when I go back to read it, it turns out that there are many mistakes. I have grown to enjoy the rough draft stage of writing because I do not need to worry about editing during this stage.

I am a writer who

I am a writer who enjoys reading his own writing because I can say "Hey, I did that." I am a writer who tries his best to use proper grammar. I am a writer who does not enjoy showing others my writing due to my insecurities about putting my feelings and beliefs out there. I am a writer who does not enjoy most academic reading but I do enjoy reading on my own time. I am a writer who is never confident in his writing and double checks his work over and over again. Finally, I am a writer who thoroughly enjoys writing for most assignments we have done.

My goals as a sophomore writer

Going into sophomore year, I would like to be much more thorough when I write. I usually try to sum up what I am writing because I don't want my writing to bore the readers. Through experience I have come to learn that doing this is not helpful at all and I should add more details to what I write in order to improve it and keep it engaging. This will be one of my main goals since I have lost plenty of points because of the inability to provide enough detail in my writing.

Another goal of mine going into sophomore year is to become a better proofreader. After I am finished with a writing assignment, I always proofread it multiple times. Even after proofreading, there are still grammatical errors in my writing. I have tried multiple strategies including reading my writing out loud and reading it in my head several times, but none have seemed to work completely. I would like to try and become a better proofreader next year by paying attention to details and checking for punctuation errors.

What I need to work on as a writer

As a writer, I need to work on sentence structure more. When I write a sentence, I feel like I use effective word choice and fluency. Then, when I proofread it, it turns out to be choppy and ineffective. I have learned to proofread my writing multiple times from trial and error. If I work to structure my sentences better, I can make my writing flow more smoothly.

I also need to re-learn how to use quotations. When I write a quote, I will put a comma in the wrong place about half of the time. I always get one or two points taken off of major writing assignments due to this, and I need to change it. I am aware that since it was taught to me in the past, I am responsible for it when I write. This is why I need to become better at quoting to improve my writing.

My strengths as a writer

I believe that I have many strengths that have grown over the school year while writing. For instance, I have learned through the personal narrative paper that I should "show," not just tell what is going on in my writing. I understand now the importance of MLA formatted citations, formatting after working with my research paper, and attempting to properly cite all of my sources. I have learned and become confident in the use of in text citations, which I did not know existed before this year.

As we went over different forms of plagiarism and how not to plagiarize, I learned how to be careful while using paraphrasing. Through my own experience as a writer, when I am unsure if something needs to be cited, I always cite it anyway. I also learned that I can plagiarize my own work, although I do not quite understand that. Overall, the explanations in class about how to avoid plagiarism have helped me write without questioning myself and have made me a better writer.

My second semester writing

As the year has gone by, I have yet to visit the writing center for my second semester requirement.  I feel like I completed my research paper to the fullest of my capabilities and I believe that my writing has drastically changed for the better throughout the school year. I am planning to visit the writing center as I am finalizing my portfolio project. They writing fellows were extremely helpful when I visited them for the "Lord of the Flies" writing assignment. I believe that the writing fellows will also be helpful while I revise my personal narrative with them.