When I write, I find myself realizing how much I actually do know. As Murray would say "I write to educate myself." I don't tend to write to myself in my spare time, so up to this point in my life most of my writings have been done for a grade in a class. Therefore, that has always been my main goal, but while doing so I have actually found out a lot more about myself. When I begin to put my words on paper, I notice that it isn't as painful as I always anticipate it being. I notice that I’m not as horrible of a writer that I think I am. Also, another reason I write sometimes is to keep my life organized and make sure I don't forget anything. Whenever I travel, I always take a journal and try to write in it everyday so I can remember all the things that I did.
The advice from Murray that I found most helpful were his two sections about the lead and the closing of an essay. Those two parts of my essays are never as strong as I would like them to be. Murray talks about how important it is to have a central tension that is addressed immediately in the lead of the essay. I will hopefully be able to use his advice of having a strong lead that mentions all the points that will be discussed later and a concise closing that doesn’t simply summarize my paper, but rather encourages readers to further explore the topic.
I feel the same as you when it comes to the thought of writing a paper. Before actually writing anything I assume I'm a terrible writer and the paper is going to take me hours to complete it. Also like you, when I'm actually writing the paper, the words actually start to flow and my confidence is boosted.
ReplyDeleteI wrote about the same quote and completely agree with you. I didn't write about keeping myself organized but it does apply to me for sure. When I forget to write down my schedule I usually forget to do something. Also intros and conclusions are a problem for me as well. Sometimes I feel like they aren't necessary because they repeat exactly what i just said, but I need to work on intriguing the reader.
ReplyDelete