Final Draft: My Writing History

Throughout my academic career I believe that my writing skills have improved in correlation with my thinking skills and overall knowledge. A lot of my teachers who involve writing as a part of their curriculum say that writing is similar to the way you talk and think. I agree with that statement 100%. Personally I believe that I am a critical thinker and can delve deep into any topic because of my thinking process. My mother always told me that my writing has strong concepts but I lack in the grammar department.

            I always thought that I was a decent writer because of the good grades that I got on most of my essays. A decent writer to me is someone who can answer the question while including their own way of thinking into the essay in some way, while also including some type of proofreading. It wasn’t until my 11^th grade year that I actually thought that my writing is a strong skill of mine. In the 11^th grade I took an AP U.S History and every month or so we would write papers about important topics that related to what piece of history we were discussing. I didn’t get A’s on all of my papers in that class but I began to see that writing is much harder than I ever thought and that I had to step up my analytical skills. On particular paper showed growth in my writing skills. In A.P US History we had to write a paper about the Vietnam War while using the information that the Pentagon Papers released about the horrific things the U.S were doing to the Vietnamese people who were not a part of the resistance. In my paper I related the things that we did in Vietnam to what the Nazis did during the Holocaust and how ironic it was that we would use the same tactics that we once deemed as inhumane and sick. I believe that a great writer not only explains a certain topic but shows how much he knows about that topic and can prove his argument throughout the entire paper.  So in my writing I try to teach the reader and certain topics that I may feel passionate about I want the reader to also feel how passionate I am about that particular topic. In my opinion to teach with your writing requires the writer to include facts and analyze them in order to bring together those ideas under one thesis or topic. Also the essay or article will have some type of bias to it because you are supporting one side of an event or topic while including some information that will serve as the “but” to your thesis. I never was taught what I could writer is outside of having a well diverse vocabulary and proofreading effectively. My idea of a decent writer came from the mistakes I have made, and the articles that I have read that stand out to me by how that article has opened my mind to new ideas.

            Now as far as writing techniques such as metaphors, repetition, and other writing tools, I didn’t really start to use them effectively until my 10^th grade year. In my 10^th grade year we were actually required to write about how other writers use those techniques. By doing so I began to understand how to use them myself and better my writing skills overall. These techniques may be things that writers do without even knowing it. However by learning about these techniques not only does it allow you to point them out but gives you some ideas on new techniques that you may have not known about. For example  Even though I use writing techniques I would like to take a course to potentially learn or review all writing techniques because I feel as if I would be more effective with my writing if I knew more techniques instead of just using them without knowing.

            A bright spot in my writing history was my Neighborhood project. This project was my first research assignment in which I chose my own topic and really used a variety of sources to learn all I can about that topic. Throughout this assignment I started to find an interest in doing research simply to answer a question. As far as my writing goes I want the reader to see that my writing was both a learning process for me as well as a way for me to educate the reader. In my Neighborhood Project I learned about the cycle of gentrification that is in constant affect in my neighborhood. This assignment was so amazing to me because I learned that my neighborhood started off as a economically stable predominantly white town. I actually think that my writing expressed how shocked I was to learn this because growing up in that same neighborhood which was the total opposite of what it used to be, I found it quite difficult to believe that prosperity and a strong economic flow use to exist here.

            During my time in high school quite a few of my teachers affected me both as a student and as a person. I couldnt really distinguish which one had the greatest impact on my life but I can think of one example that really stuck with me. My Algebra 3 teacher Mr. Council, on certain days he would dedicate a class not to math but as to bettering all of us as black people. He would bring in some reading that would talk about how well African Americans tested in certain subjects as compared to our white counterparts. Throughout the class not only did I become a better math student but I really made it an effort to go an extra mile to learn all that I can.