Blog #10

My writing style

I really think my writing style has been complacent the entire semester. What I did realize is that my style really doesn't have a name to it. I kind of recieve the topic and write what comes to my mind. Although some of the topics are not to my interest, I find subtopics of the title and write things that I find interesting.

I can say the assignment I enjoyed the most was the Personal Narratives, the snap shots.  I liked it because I knew what I was going to talk about and which was things I absolutely loved to talk about and had no issue sharing them. 

Blog #10

I think my writing style depends more on the piece of work that I'm doing. But overall, my writing style is more formal. I like to try and use bigger words in in my writing to sound more formal in my writing as well. I think because of the way I've been brought up with schooling, my writing has always been formal. I've always submitted stuff in to a teacher for a grade, so a formal piece of writing was always built into the rubric of my writing.

The first assignment was snapshots. I can not even remember the last time I was able to freely write with no grammar rules. I also haven't written personally about my life in the last few years of school. To meet the word count and criteria, I focused heavily on details within my snapshots.

The second assignment was the news article. I think it was extremely lengthy. However, I am happy that I was able to choose my topic. I found writing about something I enjoyed much easier than a research paper that I would hate to write about.

The last assignment was a story that I made up on my own. It was extremely difficult to write my own story because I usually write a research paper with a set rubric for a grade. Being able to use my imagination was awesome. I like this type of creating writing. I like how I was able to control the outcome of the story.

Blog #10 - Alexander Wohlert

My writing style has always been more formal. I've grown used to writing research papers and analysis assignments throughout high school while having to follow specific requirements. The format for each assignment was different for each teacher, but overall my writing style had to be formal. This class allowed me to explore other styles of writing that were more open to creativity. The writing assignments in this class encouraged originality and helped me to find the kind of writing style that fit me best. Since the beginning of the course, I've noticed that my writing style has become less formal and academic and more descriptive and original.

The Snapshots assignment helped me find my own writing style the most because there was no clear beginning, middle, and end. Instead of using summaries, which became a habit of mine, I wrote details about specific moments and allowed the reader to create a summary for themselves in their minds. My ideas, emotions, and thoughts flowed more smoothly than it would if I wrote formally.

Looking back at my first blog post, I had written about having the struggle of focusing too much on the word count and page length of my assignments. Would my writing meet the standards of my teacher? But now, as this class draws to a close, my focus has shifted to the content of my writing and how well I'm communicating my ideas effectively.

Blog #10 - Allison Clarke-Hall

            I would say my writing style is more informal. Before this class, I was always taught the more formal-style writing. In high school, I was mainly focused on research papers and other formal essays. I never found these fun to write and therefore did not like writing. Throughout this class, however, I have learned that formal writing is not always necessary to write and informal writing is actually enjoyable. I think each major assignment has taught me something new and different. 

            The snapshots essay was the first paper I have written since elementary school that focused on first person story telling. I was so shocked to learn that we were also able to use fragments and grammatical mistakes without there being a penalty. I also learned how important using the most vivid details is when describing a scene. 

            The second major assignment, the article, was by far the longest paper I have ever written. At 8 to 10 pages I never thought I would be able to accomplish that. Now that I think about it, if it had been a more formal essay, I probably would have struggled more but since it was less formal and I was able to choose the topic, writing the article wasn’t that bad at all. 

            The final major assignment, the short story, was different than any writing assignment I have ever done. I cannot remember a time in my academic career when I had to write a narrative that included dialogue. While I was familiar with how to write dialogue from reading, I have never had to write it myself and therefore did not know all of the rules for it. I definitely liked the experience of being able to create characters and control their actions and speech. 

Blog #10

I'm not sure if my writing style has changed or rather has it just been given the opportunity to actually come alive.  In high school I spent all of my time writing the assignments given to me, essays, research papers, homework's, none of which were ever intriguing to me.  In this class I was presented the chance to actually express myself through writing.  The major assignments we've worked on this year have helped me get an understanding of my writing persona.  I was able to actually decipher who I am in the literary world.  The Snapshots we began the semester with helped me enable my creativity in writing.  The feature article helped me realize I could work out problems in my own life by writing about them.  The short story allowed me to reveal my imagination.  I never had the chance to really explore who I was as a writer until this class. I liked all the workshops we did and all the feedback I received from my peers.  I enjoyed being able to edit other peoples work and give them advice on their piece as well as I enjoyed in turn receiving that same advice.  In high school I always felt so time limited when it came to having to do peer editing and the pieces we wrote were always so boring to me I never actually cared to try.  This year I was actually interested in the work I was reading so I came to know how much I actually enjoyed peer editing and revising.  I think that aspect itself is going to help me a lot with my writing in the future because there's so much more I notice now when I read things and I've realized how much my paper can improve by utilizing those tools.  This class has come to teach me a lot about not only who I am as an author but who I can become if I continue my writing and allow myself to be open to all the opportunities my college experience will present me.

Blog #10

Throughout the course of this semester, I have begun to realize more things about my writing than I have before. Thinking all the way back from our very first blog post, I often fall short to the “Inspired Writer” that Sarah Allen referred to, but that’s okay. I began to realize that my writing won’t be as perfect as I truly want it to be, but that’s okay. As I wrote more and more this semester, my vision of a “perfect” piece of writing has changed; it’s the imperfections that make it your own. Although my writing isn’t perfect (and nowhere near that), it is still my writing, and I take pride in that.

I soon realized that my writing style isn’t so much as to what my writing is, but rather what the reader makes of it. My writing style is more focused towards persuasive and imaginative writing, as I like to tap into the reader’s perspective of things and influence the way that they think. I write to invoke emotion and persuasion. I often compared music to creative writing, and that thought hasn’t changed much from my first blog posts, since I create a strong emotional connection to music. But it is my realization that I can create a strong emotional connection to writing that changed throughout the semester.

I feel that I often fall short when it comes to personal writing. The most helpful assignment for me was most likely the assignment where we had to “explode the moment.” Through that assignment, I have realized that I can put so much thought and detail into even the simplest things, and I feel like that concept could be applied towards various applications in writing. 

Blog #10

I have learned so much about writing through this class and my writing style has changed a lot. Through this class I've become a better writer and a even a better reader. When thinking of the main ways my writing style has changed over this semester, dialogue is the first thing that comes to mind. Before college I really never wrote things were I would implement a lot of dialogue between the characters but now I have no trouble and enjoy doing it in my writing. I also never knew how important details and a lot of description is in writing until I saw how much it was emphasized in certain assignments in this class.  The most helpful exercises that lead me to become a better writer were certainly the countless revision workshops we did in our groups. Those workshops were always helpful and always made the revision process easier for me. The things I learned in this class that made me a better writer is the groundwork I needed so that I can continue to succeed in English courses as they get harder each semester. Without this class I would not be on a good track for ENC 1102.  In the beginning of the year the aspects of writing such as coming up with a good start to your paper and mastering grammar were two things that concerned me the most about my writing. However, through being in ENC 1101 those fears have totally gone away. I no longer worry about starting a paper because I've become very good at brainstorming and coming up with outlines in my head. As for grammar, I've learned that if you're careful and througho in your writing there is no reason to fear grammatical errors, especially when you have peers reading over your work double checking.