Skills To Be Learned


      I believe English 1010 will help me improve in multiple skills. I am a decent writer. However I sometimes have trouble meeting the length requirements. I usually have shorter, straight to the point essays.  I also seem to get stuck when trying to add some length to my work! I would love to improve not only these skills but to also understand and use the appropriate voice, tone, and level of formality. Anyone can write an essay but I have always wanted to be the student that wrote the nice, well-structured essay, full of descriptive writing!

     I can remember receiving my first journal in the fourth grade. We were required to write a creative story every week! I was so excited to express my creativity. Every story was turned in with great confidence. I can still remember how proud I was to show my parents the teachers positive comments, topped with a "good job" sticker of course. I thought I was going to be a legendary writer, no doubt!

     This thought only lasted until about the sixth grade. I was assigned an essay on photosynthesis. I remember thinking how easy this essay was going to be. In my mind, all I had to do was write what photosynthesis was, and how it took place and why. I was wrong! I wrote my three little paragraphs including everything there was to know about photosynthesis. I turned it in the next day with the same confidence I had always had only to receive a sixty-five. I was astonished! I wrote a whole three paragraphs about something that can be explained in one sentence. What was the problem?

     "You are a great student, the content was good, but it did not meet the length requirement," said Ms. Oliver. I was so upset that I had received such a low grade because I lacked a half a page or two. I have struggled with this problem all the way through high school. Sure, I figured a way to make better then boarder line passing, but I still was never satisfied in my work. I suppose I do better when I am given the opportunity to do some creative writing rather then being told what to write about.  However I would like to be strong at all the different types of writing! I want to be proud and not bothered by writing an essay rather than dread writing it then despise it!

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