You may have also written papers or documents for other classes, and these assignments can also be used for this posting. Consider, for example, a paper for a biology class, something you wrote for a history or humanities class, and reflect on similarities and contrasts for your process in this other assignment's context compared to your process for papers you have written in ENC 1101.
Be very detailed in your approach. Responses that are overly general will not earn much credit.
Think of this posting area as a jumping off point for your process essay.
The papers I have had to write for ENC 1101 are some of the most different and difficult that I have encountered in my academic writing career. I was taught in high school English classes to only write one way. I was supposed to have an introductory paragraph, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. I was always taught to start with a hook, have a three-part thesis sentence, and make sure all of my paragraphs were seven to eleven sentences. I really liked this format because I always knew where I was going and what I needed to do. I did not find it constricting, but rather, helpful. All of my papers involved either doing research or citing specific literary stories within the paper. I would either have research papers, argumentative essays, or reflections on literary reading. I never wrote anything with personal pronouns or reflections on my own experiences.
ReplyDeleteTransitioning to writing about my own personal literary experiences for ENC 1101 has been a challenge. I do not have very many guidelines to help me decide which direction to go in. I usually do not like writing about myself, so this is difficult. I think it is very easy to do research and summarize that information or make an argument about that information, but having to be creative and come up with my own information is difficult. No matter what I am doing, I like to have a very specific set of rules to follow. I do not like any disorganization or surprises. I like to know exactly what I am doing, so that is why my high school essay-writing format fit me so well. Writing for ENC 1101 has taught me that not all writing has to fit into a box. Instead of having a specific format for something, I just have to go off of the prompt I am given. There is no word limit, paragraph format, or research to do.
Even though my papers for ENC 1101 have been more different than my English papers in the past, they are not all the same. I have had to reflect on my past literacy experiences through the literacy narrative, analyze the reasons for a company to put on a writing contest, and write a personal essay based on a writing contest. The literacy narrative was probably the most challenging paper I have written so far. I had to think back to the time when I first started reading, which I had never really reflected about before. Sifting through all of my literary memories was challenging because I had never done it before, and I needed to decide which were the best ones to include in the paper. Writing the essay for the contest was slightly easier because I had written essays similar to it in the past. Whenever I was applying to colleges or scholarships I had to write about my career aspirations. I thought back to the beginning of last year in order to help me compose that essay. The analysis of the essay contest was the easiest paper for me to write because it was an analysis instead of a personal reflection. I had all of the information in front of me, I just had to analyze it and draw conclusions about it. That is what I am best at, so that was the easiest paper for me to write.
All of the papers I had to write presented their own challenges. I had to allow myself to think outside the box. Instead of sticking to a specific format, I had to adapt to a format based on what the prompt was asking. Even though I do not enjoy writing personal essays, I know this will help me become a better writer. I have mastered writing argumentative essays and research papers, so I can learn to be a better reflective writer.
In high school I wrote many essays but very few required me to do any research. This past summer, when I took summer classes I was required to write my first research paper. I felt like I was the only student in the class who was never taught how to write a research paper. I was familiar with citations but not very comfortable citing anything other than another book or author. The last assignment in ENC 1101 required us to do a rhetorical analysis on an essay contest prompt. In order for me to do this I had to do some background research on the website and people in charge of the contest. This reminded me very much of a research paper especially since I had to cite some information. I started off this essay by reading through all the questions on the rubric in order to get a better idea of what is expected from me. Next I looked through the website to find as much information about the sponsors as I could. Since the information on them was limited to none, I focused more on questions that had to do with what the contest was looking for and what the website was like and the audience it gravitated towards.
ReplyDeleteThe literacy narrative, I thought, was enjoyable to write. To me, writing in first person comes much more naturally and because the essay was more personal it was easy to think about my own experiences and write about them. For this essay I picked three of my most influential moments with reading and writing and chose those as my starting point. What was difficult for me was tying all these memories together to create an overall point. When I revised my essay I added some detail in order go more in depth with the impact of these memories. I also revised my conclusion to make the overall point more apparent.
The essay contest, so far, has been my favorite assignment. The contest I chose required me to think back on a “eureka moment,” a special moment that impacted me greatly. I wrote about something my grandfather told me when I was little that I still remind myself of every day. Much like the literacy narrative I had to write about myself and an influential moment in my life. For the structure of this essay I simply told about the memory and then after went more in depth about how I felt in the moment and how it has impacted me now. Writing in college is very different than in high school and I feel it allows me to be more creative in my writing, overall making writing more enjoyable.
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ReplyDeleteAs I progressed through my academic years, the ways of writing and literature has changed. What have changed are the types of assignments given to the students. From writing a research paper to now writing literacy narratives and essay contests, the format has completely shifted. My junior year of high school, which is known to be the hardiest year for various reasons, my English class required a research paper. Not only was this research paper required it also counted for 40% of my final second semester grade. The pressure was on; when I was first assigned the book I was told to write my research paper on. The difficulties that I had while completing this difficult and stressful task included: analyzing the book, thinking critically about that topic and following the guidelines given to me. As I took on this task I was able to learn from my many mistakes once my teacher revised it, figure out ways to analyze reading in a way that I was able to easily understand and put together a paper that interested the reader, or my teacher at the time.
ReplyDeleteOnce high school came to an end, I decided to take ENC 1011 where I was assigned many different writing tasks that are polar opposites of each other. My first big assignment given was the literacy narrative. When I was given the directions to the literacy narrative I was unsure on how I would tackle the essay. Thinking back to my past experiences took time, focus and caused writers block for a short period. This prompt being simple and vague was challenging to me compared to the research paper given in high school because I was given less direction and just told to write about past experiences that shaped the writer and reader I am today. The next assignment given to the class in ENC1011 was to find an essay contest that interested you and to act as if you were going to submit your work. When I was first told I had to write for an essay contest I was very unsure on the whole idea. As I started to research the many essay contests available to me there were many options that prized the winner with money or a scholarship. Being that there are many contests available there is almost every topic, catering to all types of people. As a traveler, the essay contest that stood out to me was a traveler’s contest that made the writer discuss the experiences that changed them during their travels. Since I have had many experiences that shaped who I am today for traveling the contest was not as challenging for me to write.
While writing these essays I never came to terms with how different each task was. Being ingrained in the writing process and completing the tasks given, I wasn’t able to determine whether or not I enjoyed the process until after I was done writing. Now as I write this discussion board, I am able to see the change in writing assignments over the years and determine that I enjoy writing that allows creativity, deals with experiences and gives brief direction.
In high school, I never really learned how to write on my own. I was always instructed to write about a person, a novel, or something specific. All of my writing throughout high school would consist of the typical introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion because that was what I was taught was the correct way to organize my writing. When I started here at The University of Central Florida, my whole writing process changed. I no longer had to write the same way as I did in high school. There were no guidelines given on how little to write, how many paragraphs to compose, and what I had to include in my thesis. At the beginning of ENC 1101, it was a little bit tough for me to do the assignments I was given. I was not used to writing about my own experiences or thinking deeply into my thoughts and writing about them. When the literacy narrative was assigned, I knew from the second I read the instructions I was going to have a hard time expressing my thoughts and experiences into my writing. After a few days of writing my essay and gaining more confidence into my piece of writing, I realized that putting my thoughts and experiences into my writing was not as complicated as I thought.
ReplyDeleteBetween the literacy narrative and the essay contest, I found that writing the essay contest was much easier for me to do. The literacy narrative dealt more with personal experiences, which I had said I’m not too good at expressing. But, the essay contest was more fit for me because it was very similar to essays and assignments given to us in high school, which was what I was used to. As we do more creative writing and assignments throughout ENC 1101, I feel that each piece of my writing gets a little bit better and easier for me to express.
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ReplyDeleteIn all of the writing we have completed in this course thus far, each piece has presented its own difficulties. While I struggled with each in their respective ways, I have to say I did enjoy all three. None were quite like anything I had completed before in school, giving my mind a blank slate to work with. With all of the pieces being so different I have had quite the time comparing them.
ReplyDeleteIn respect to the literary narrative, I would have to say that it shocked me in how much editing I had to do. As in class, I mentioned the struggle of speaking about oneself while keeping the style as formal as possible. The error that I kept running across was speaking as though the audience knew me prior to the essay. Sharing names or references that only my friends and family would know or forgetting to give back story to my lessons was clearly shown prior to editing. This was my largest issue in composing it but was easy to edit when I read it back to myself.
The writing contest that I chose was a science fiction short story competition. I found myself speeding though the entirety of the piece, in a positive way, to find the ending. In having the freedom of choice in topic for this assignment, I enjoyed this piece the most. Seeing as I used to spend my free time writing stories such and that, I found my groove quite easily. The only struggle that I came across were the competition’s constraints. With length and style being fairly limiting, though nothing that was debilitating in my opinion.
The analysis was the most difficult piece to write. The structure of the essay seemed more like an interview of a person or company instead of an essay or creative writing. The tone and overall feel of the essay was painstakingly slow and dull, I feel, for the audience. The analysis reminded me of a research paper as we, quite literally, researched the writing contest itself. While these forms of writing have their place in the world, I personally can’t find a passion or drive behind it. The lack of inspiration leads to a boring piece which leads to an unhappy audience.
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ReplyDeleteMy writing process is pretty consistent no matter what I’m writing. Whether it’s a literacy narrative, essay contest, or rhetorical analysis, I take the same steps to get to the end product: a completed paper. I start off by reading the question or prompt given, then I break the question or prompt into parts and begin brainstorming. For each part of the question, I write my ideas out on paper. Then I work on creating an intro sentence or a few sentences just to get my mind focused on creating sentences. I often cross words out and add things on my paper. After I have a solid intro sentence or two, I bullet point the main ideas I want to hit in the order that they will flow in the piece. If I have an idea of how I want to word things later on in my piece I write that down too on paper so I don’t forget anything. Then I begin typing in a Microsoft Word document and fill everything out using my notes as a guide. I do all of my editing on the computer often going back and changing things as I write. Oftentimes that means a lot of backspacing. Once I’m happy with what I have typed, I save it and print it if need be.
ReplyDeleteI’d say almost all of the pieces I write are similar in structure; most have an introduction, body, and conclusion. The main difference isn’t in my process, but rather in the theme, tone, and vocabulary I use when writing. For example, if I’m writing an academic paper, I would use a serious tone and more complex vocabulary than if I were writing a letter to my family back home. More personal pieces of writing like letters, journals, notes, or messages to my friends and family have a casual tone where I would use the same word I would use if I were actually speaking. The writing I do for class assignments are almost always more complex. As for short stories, it depends on the theme of the story.
If I were to look at the assignments for ENC 1101 specifically, the main difference between the three pieces occurred during the brainstorming process. They were all similar in structure, but during the brainstorming process, I had to think of different time periods in order to get ideas for what to write. For the literacy narrative, I had to think of experiences from my personal past. For the rhetorical analysis, I had to think about the present essay contest and what the company was currently trying to accomplish. For the essay contest, I had to think about my future career and personal goals. However, for each piece, I still broke down the question, wrote down my main ideas on paper, began typing, edited as I went, and printed the pieces when I believed they were complete.
All types of writings have different approaches and obstacles throughout their writing processes. I did not specifically struggle with the literacy narrative or the essay writing contest, but I did perform different thinking strategies while attempting to write the essays. Also, writing the essay contest did come easier and flow better. Also, the amount of times I edited and the amount of writers block I received also vary.
ReplyDeleteWriting that consisted of more freedom and creativity, such as the essay contest, is always easier to write, personally. When I am restricted with my writing and have to write about one specific thing, then it gives me more trouble. Also, when I can have the choice to choose what to write about, I believe writing comes easier to you. A lot of people are the opposite and believe that having specific rules allows writing to be easier for them.
The writing contest gave me more of an option of what to write about. Personally, I chose a subject that I was passionate about so it did not take much thinking in order to start writing the essay. I also enjoyed writing the essay much more than writing other essays simply because I knew what I was writing about and I was more intrigued by my own thoughts.
On the contrary, the literacy narrative I had no choice as to what I focused my writing on. I had to aim my writing towards one topic and did not have the opportunity to really make my writing as unique as it could have been. I am not the type of person who enjoys or focuses better when there is a specific rubric to follow or guidelines to abide by. I did receive writers block frequently while writing the literacy narrative mainly because I did not know where to focus my writing. Also, the literacy narrative reminded me of essays I would write in High School. In high school I was also very restricted with my writing and did not receive much credit mostly because I was not able to write freely and passionately. Compared to a biology essay, I would much rather write an essay that are along the lines of a literacy narrative because it is more subjective and as I mentioned I enjoy writing more about subjective topics and issues.
Throughout the years I have progressed as a writer, and advanced in my writing skills as time went on. In ENC 1101 we have completed three writing assignments, each different and challenging in their own way. These assignments were a lot different from what I was used to doing in high school and before that. I usually completed research papers, analysis papers about books or a topic, and persuasive essays. However, I have never completed a rhetorical analysis paper, or anything regarding my past literacy.
ReplyDeleteFor our first assignment we completed the literacy narrative, which was a story of our past experiences with reading and writing. I found this to be easier to write than the other assignments because it was simply reflecting on my past experiences. I enjoy writing stories, so this assignment allowed me to relax and write everything I could remember about how reading and writing affected me from being a child to now. I did have to ask my mom a few questions about my childhood as I couldn’t remember, but other than that I was able to pick out key events and relate them to my overall theme, which also came pretty quick for me to decide on. I prefer to write in the first person than third, which is usually how formal essays are formatted, so I appreciated this assignment over the other two.
The next assignment was an essay contest; in which we could pick any essay contest about any topic. I enjoyed having this freedom as I could write something I was truly passionate about. I found an essay about the argument of pro-choice and pro-life, and since I feel strongly about women’s rights and pro-choice arguments I chose that essay, and had no problem writing a persuasive essay on it. Since I have written persuasive essays before in high school this task wasn’t that challenging, as I knew the format and key points I should include in the essay.
This final assignment was the one that I had the most trouble with. Since I didn’t know what a rhetorical analysis was before I came into this class, I had no clue how to start or what format the analysis should be in. I decided to do some research about how the essay should be written, but I was still conflicted on how to start it, and if it should be in first or third person. My end product was a pretty boring analysis, mostly due to the topic and me not having any passion to write the essay. I am not too proud of my rhetorical analysis, as I am with my other pieces in this class.
English Boot Camp
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the writing that I do in ENC 1101 is several times more difficult than writing in another class, such as a history class of some sort. I believe when you are writing in any class other than English, it is easier to just research about the topic and then explain it; just like a summary. For example, I can remember all the times where I would write because I had to. It had a great toll on me because I never learned much about writing, which is why I had been consistently receiving C’s and B’s on my essays growing up. On the other hand, in English 1101, not only do you have to explain a topic, but, you also have to analyze the author’s particular approach to the subject matters. Furthermore, in literature, the author’s true message can be hidden through the use of figurative language and other literary devices. This is what makes writing challenging for some. In other subjects, information is easily available and readily attainable. For instance, you do not have to interpret what you are researching when it comes to writing a history paper. The goal for ENC 1101 is to assist students in leaving that stage of writing where we just write about a topic and avoid getting into details. This will, in fact, help us become more in-depth with any piece of writing that comes our way.
For most of my essays I usually use the same approach. I stare at the topic for a while and re-read it a million times thinking if I do this more ideas will pop up in my head. It’s not a very good approach but it seems to work. Very rarely do I write down ideas before I write my essays. This really shows HOW lazy I am. Now, since I am in college and am facing reality I can really bullshit my essays anymore. In high school all of my English classes were a joke. Especially my senior English class. I could write an essay the period before and get a B on it with no editing or rough draft. It’s crazy how different the transition from high school to college is.
ReplyDeleteIn ENC 1101, we’ve written a literacy narrative, an essay contest, and a rhetorical analysis. The hardest one out of these was the analysis. I had never done one of these so I had no idea where to start. I kind of took my own take on it because I wasn’t sure on what was needed or how to set it up. For the literacy narrative I dedicated a whole day to writing the essay. Since this was my first college essay I wanted to make sure I did well. I typed up a bunch of ideas I could incorporate into my essay. This essay was a special case because I usually never do that, I just think it takes up too much time. The literacy narrative was a little more difficult to write because it had certain limitations. Also, I had not written an essay since April or May. The essay contest was way easier to write because you chose a topic that interested you and most of them were laid back on what they asked for in the essay.
Reflecting back to high school, I had to write an essay for my chemistry and one for my AP biology class. I was really confused because these were not English classes. I had to take a different approach on these because I had to gather up more facts than opinions. Also, we weren’t really telling a story it was more of a long thesis. Which I think Is way harder to do. In ENC 1101 I think I’ve learned how to write a well-developed paper better than all of the years I’ve been taught English.
Direction has always thrown me off. I have found that direction leads to writer’s block because creative freedom is not given to students. Early in my years of writing, I was given boring prompts that put me to sleep. These persuasive essays for which no one was persuasive about dulled my feelings towards writing. The essay contest for ENC 1011 reminded me perfectly of these essays. Simple so a child could write it, but complex enough that it required a substantial amount of work. I ended up treating this like any other boring prompt. However, later papers in high school and college remedied it through changing organizational structure, improving my attitude.
ReplyDeleteHigh school presented as many challenges as solutions. Here, I transitioned to argumentative essays in debate class and English. The argumentative format collided with everything I had been taught prior, almost no planning and fast writing. It required me to take several days and weeks to think about the paper and find out what I want to say. However, this was also the infancy of my writing process today. All of my processes today contain the same general format, but tweaked to the assignment. I learned to research the subject before writing after earning that fifty on many assignments. This gives me a comprehensive background on the material to write about. Soon after researching, I bullet like no tomorrow on my paper with ideas whether it was nonsense or not; this is the bullshitting stage. The carving stage is what follows. It consists of organizing those bullets into a coherent structure which gives way to a central theme. Once I have my story, I get to work pumping out words and thoughts for several hours. Finally, revising and editing is my life until the draft it is perfect in my eyes.
Each assignment for ENC 1011 has followed my general writing format. Specifically, for the literary narrative and most blog posts, they required no prior research because all the research was confined to my memory. As equally important was the structure Mr. Longhany gave to the assignment. Actual coherent structure built upon efficiency rather than standardization helped start the paper. The words seemed to flow down a river of thought with no end. Though finding an overall idea I liked was hard, because there were so many. I have never had a plethora of ideas to drive me. This probably came from having no restrictions. I felt as if the world was at my fingertips. This is where the rhetorical analysis differs greatly and is almost identical to research papers from high school. One of the hardest papers I have ever done, it almost drove me to the edge. Finding an essay contest that I preferred was impossible. This frustration reminded me of those unimaginative prompts. Also, analysis requires researching the subject material of the paper, however, there was no paper to analyze. All we had at our disposal was a website and three sentences. This collided with my principle of writing all the material down before writing the essay. I could not get two to three pages worth of material in though. My roommate looked on in astonishment as I whirled my chair around the room like an ape. He will probably see more of this, because the paper isn’t done yet. I still have editing and revising in my process to do. All I did was amp up my madman phase and soon the material was there. However, I digress. The point is each paper is separated by its requirements which give it its challenges. Giving several eclectic assignments with different restrictions forces students to think creatively about how to adapt their writing process. My writing process has changed tremendously my early years and my attitude about writing changes even larger with each piece.
For as long as I’ve been writing, it’s always been short and simple paragraphs of me following the essay prompt down to a T. I’ve never been creative with my writing because writing was just something that I wasn’t passionate about and if it wasn’t something that was going to immediately grab my attention then I had no interest in it. When writing something has to really reach out to me, I don’t like to look for stuff or research stuff because I fell as though I’m always repeating myself when I do these things.
ReplyDeleteIn Enc 1101, I started off my Literacy Narrative being bland and boring as always. I was so cookie cutter and unoriginal that when I got my peer review back I knew that I had to make a lot of changed which untimely led to me changing up my whole essay. To me this was the hardest assignment I’ve had yet in this class and in college period and I’m a nursing major so my courses are pretty hard to begin with. The hardest part to me was gathering all my past literacy experiences and putting them all in one. I didn’t want to say too much and it be too much information or say too less and it be a lack of information so I was basically at a crossroad.
The next assignment was the Essay Contest/ Rhetorical Analysis. To begin with I didn’t even know what a Rhetorical Analysis was and even after reading the book and looking up more information on Google I was still confused. My confused basically turned my analysis to me talking about my company to probably me just repeating myself over and over again because I was just stuck on what to write. When it came down to the Essay Contest itself I did okay, I found a contest that I was really interested in and I wrote about it. When writing I could feel my brain just bundled with ideas on things to say and it was like I was nonstop typing and I loved the feeling. The topic had been on google doing research and everything and it was like I unlocked the key to what it takes for me to do a solid good and creative essay, I just have to have general interest. I hope down the line that we get more essays like this where I have the freedom to look for something that I’m interested in so that I can passionately write about it.
When writing I often take into consideration the type of paper I am crafting and the subject I am dealing with in order to conform my writing style to the demands of the prompt. Thus, my writing style in sense is constantly changing because of the vast amount of papers I am required to write. Which in turn has allowed me to develop my own methods for each an every writing format I encounter.
ReplyDeleteFor example, when writing a research piece like my most recent philosophy essay, I often refrain from interjecting my own opinions or personal beliefs in order to eliminate possible bias. When I am researching, I usually devise my pieces by first introducing a claim, and then supporting my claim with evidence. I pretty much continue this sequence throughout the entirety of the paper, until I arrive to my conclusion where I restate my claims while introducing counter claims to take into consideration, followed by evidence to verify my original point. In my philosophy paper I centralized my writing around the introduction and support of new claims that linked back to original hypothesis. Unlike personal and opinion pieces, my research expositions stick to a strict format that I have created based on advice and corrections from past professors and teachers.
Another style of writing that I approach differently than most others, is personal experience/opinion pieces. Although both styles do in a way differ from each other, I follow the same "plan" when writing one that I would the other. When writing these pieces I usually begin by introducing a backstory about myself that either acts as initial support for my opinion or provides information about myself pertaining to the prompt. For example, when I was writing my literacy narrative, I began by introducing my earliest experiences with literature in order to create a backstory from which the rest of my piece could build off. From there I just continued to write about events that happened in my life and how they affected my literacy journey, which I found profoundly easy. However, one difference between how write pieces about myself and pieces reflecting my opinion, is when I am writing about my own experiences I tend to follow a chronological order, listing events in my life as they happened.
Additionally, out of most writing styles, including the ones listed above, I tend to prefer prompts that require me to write about my opinion, and my own experiences. Thus by this I generally mean pieces that don’t require me to conduct any research, or reference any particular article or book. The reason I prefer writing in this manner is because it allows for me to explore the limits of my creativity by having to generate ideas from my own mind. This is invaluable to me because I believe that it is this writing style that allowed for me to truly blossom and become the flexible writer I am today. When I write pieces like this I usually feel totally in control, meaning that I can approach the prompt knowing that I will adequately answer the question at hand while still making the essay or article seem interesting and fluid.
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ReplyDeleteWithin each writing assignment there is an untold story buried beneath the surface. This is of course the process in which how the paper was written, a creation story if you will. So far in ENC 1101 each assignment asks something different of us, therefore their creations stories differ. The literacy narrative required a large amount of reflection into our personal past, while an in-depth examination was required for the writing contest analysis. Lastly, the easiest of all, in my opinion, was the essay contest itself, with very simple limitation on our writing. Regardless, the accomplishments and challenges when crafting these assignments differ greatly.
ReplyDeleteThe initial literacy narrative seemed extraordinarily tough to begin, due to the abundance of material to work with. It’s difficult to categorize life shaping events that create who you are as a writer, mainly because some of the most impactful events affect you passively, and occur on a subconscious level. It takes a large sense of self-awareness to even realize the difference between what you remember most, verses what had the most influence in your literary life. After you finally nail a few suspects, the connections to how the events affected you seems to flow naturally, and begin building off each other until you have a finished product about why you write the way you write.
When the prompt of a writing essay, it is essential that a fair amount of research is done. Once you are fully aware of the who’s presenting the prompt and how they are supported, you gain a clear understanding of their intensions. Without this information, it quickly become very difficult to determine the exigence of the prompt. You must know who the person or organization is to determine their purposes, and with their purpose you can easily tell who they’re target audience is. It’s almost as if these elements cannot be determined without the one before. I say “almost” because the last thing to analyze is the constraints placed within the prompt are pretty straight forward, and allow the writer to display their creativity by writing the best out of what they’re given. It’s important to understand when writing the essay for the contest, a good analysis of the prompt allows you to understand precisely what the judges are looking for, giving you a massive advantage toward potentially writing the winning essay
Writing papers always felt like a similar process whenever I had to write papers for school. I would always use the same process whenever I wrote a paper. I would try to isolate myself and work in a quiet room. I would begin by picking apart the question and I would try to mold my response into the typical five paragraph essay. The process always felt robotic as the majority of my papers were research papers.
ReplyDeleteHowever, this process was challenged when I wrote the literacy narrative essay. There was no research to be done, and no citations required. The process felt more fluid as I had to simply explain my literacy life. I enjoyed writing this paper more than the majority of my other papers as it felt more creative. I liked that there was no limitations on the paper and I could write as much as I could. I wrote and then I went back to try to explain the significance of the events I chose.
When I wrote the contest essay, it didn't feel as enjoyable as the literacy narrative. It felt a bit similar to the old papers I was forced to write, searching high and low for information on my topic. When I began to write the analysis portion, it felt a bit dull. I used the questions given to guide the paper and then tried to tie all the points together. When I got to the actual contest, it felt very limiting as it restricted the word count. It also forced the author to through in the use of coffee in the essay. I felt like I had too much that I could write about but it had to be under 500 words. I kept some processes of going about the essay similar to old research papers I had written. I would eventually feel fatigued from the dullness and take a break doing a random activity. I also change the kind of music I listen to whenever I write papers like this. I try to listen to more classical songs and stay away from songs with lyrics.
Whenever I write a paper I tend to replicate the same process of where and how I write my papers. I prefer being isolated in a quiet environment as it helps me be less distracted. I play music very softly through my headphones and the songs vary depending on the paper. I try to listen to classical music for papers that need to sound more educated and more upbeat songs for papers that need to be more creative. I enjoyed the literacy narrative more as it felt more liberating. There were no limitations and I didn't have to follow the same guidelines that I was taught for previous essays. It felt like I could be more creative. In comparison to the other research papers I wrote previously for other classes that would feel monotone.
Writing papers always felt like a similar process whenever I had to write papers for school. I would always use the same process whenever I wrote a paper. I would try to isolate myself and work in a quiet room. I would begin by picking apart the question and I would try to mold my response into the typical five paragraph essay. The process always felt robotic as the majority of my papers were research papers.
ReplyDeleteHowever, this process was challenged when I wrote the literacy narrative essay. There was no research to be done, and no citations required. The process felt more fluid as I had to simply explain my literacy life. I enjoyed writing this paper more than the majority of my other papers as it felt more creative. I liked that there was no limitations on the paper and I could write as much as I could. I wrote and then I went back to try to explain the significance of the events I chose.
When I wrote the contest essay, it didn't feel as enjoyable as the literacy narrative. It felt a bit similar to the old papers I was forced to write, searching high and low for information on my topic. When I began to write the analysis portion, it felt a bit dull. I used the questions given to guide the paper and then tried to tie all the points together. When I got to the actual contest, it felt very limiting as it restricted the word count. It also forced the author to through in the use of coffee in the essay. I felt like I had too much that I could write about but it had to be under 500 words. I kept some processes of going about the essay similar to old research papers I had written. I would eventually feel fatigued from the dullness and take a break doing a random activity. I also change the kind of music I listen to whenever I write papers like this. I try to listen to more classical songs and stay away from songs with lyrics.
Whenever I write a paper I tend to replicate the same process of where and how I write my papers. I prefer being isolated in a quiet environment as it helps me be less distracted. I play music very softly through my headphones and the songs vary depending on the paper. I try to listen to classical music for papers that need to sound more educated and more upbeat songs for papers that need to be more creative. I enjoyed the literacy narrative more as it felt more liberating. There were no limitations and I didn't have to follow the same guidelines that I was taught for previous essays. It felt like I could be more creative. In comparison to the other research papers I wrote previously for other classes that would feel monotone.
If I remember correctly, in high school, I was not assigned essays that required me to do background research. The one and only assignment that I was required to do research on was the essay contest from last week. It was very challenging for me because I have not had much experience with research papers, but as I got into the swing of it, I noticed I prefer research papers rather than a personal essay. I was taught how to cite evidence in the 10th grade but was never very comfortable with it. The last assignment in ENC 1101 require a rhetorical analysis on an essay contest prompt. In order for me to accomplish this task, I had to do research on essay contests available for college students. At first I thought this was impossible. All of them cost money or were way too easy. But the moment I found THE one, I knew it was going to be good. I read through the rubric so I was able to get a better idea of what is expected. Next I searched through the website to find out what some background information on the actual contest itself. I was able to find information on why the contest was brought up and who had created it to begin with. I found that the research essay was more enjoyable because what I needed to know for my essay was directly in front of me.
ReplyDeleteThe literacy narrative to me was a bit challenging. To me, writing about myself is a struggle because I tend to have more “writers block.” It was hard for me to come up with an overall point because I could not remember a specific past experience with reading or writing. I felt like my literacy narrative was not college ready. Now that the literacy narrative is graded with side notes, I am looking forward to revising my essay in order to get a better grade!
The essay contest, so far, has been my favorite assignment. The contest I chose required me to think back on a time that I had volunteered. The moment I found this contest, I knew I wanted to tell my story. I wrote about the time I was a volunteer at a Jewish summer camp. I grew a relationship with this one little boy named Henry who I came to find out was diagnosed with autism. It was an experience that impacted me greatly. Writing essays in college are way more mature and in depth than writing essays in high school. That is still a challenge I am struggling to overcome, but with practice I know I can change that.
When I started my application to the University of Central Florida, I was introduced to something called Gordon Rule classes that have a mandatory writing amount of 6000 words, meaning that the class is primarily writing and prompt writing. When I heard this, I felt like I was not going to enjoy myself because I have always felt that writing was a tedious chore instead of something that I should find enjoyable. Writing is something that should be something that expresses the art of the mind through words, not a chore that is forced upon someone and make them express unwanted emotions. Now in ENC 1101, I have to write about my life and I have to write for contests and the process of writing. What is weirder than writing about writing itself? Now, writing for ENC 1101 opened my eyes to my process of writing and I found that there are different processes for different types of writing.
ReplyDeleteWhen I started writing for the literacy narrative, I actually had to go back to the past and thought about my whole life. Thinking about my life was actually very difficult because I had to go to when I was a child and most of my childhood memories that are not important were actually in a recycling bin in my brain. After finding all of the recycled information, I started to write some of my memories down to help me write my narrative. Once I had enough notes, I began to listen to 90’s and 2000’s music to help me get in the mood to write it. I started writing the narrative piece by piece, taking only 3 accumulative hours of my life to sum up 3 years of my memories. Every single paragraph was actually tying in to the final message or moral of the narrative. Every sentence brought the paragraph together, making the literacy narrative a narrative that made my life exist in words (literally).
When writing for the essay contest, however, my process was simple. All I had to do was open my imagination and allow the words to spill out. Since I actually chose my prompt and I actually enjoyed what I was writing about, it was super simple. In 2 hours, I described the rhetoric of the prompt and contest, I answered my prompt and I finished it all while laying on my bathroom floor. It’s funny how I can finish something fast if I actually put my mind to it.