Writing Process… Work in Progress
I have always found myself to be more of a reader than a writer. I can think of countless times I found myself lost in a good book, but only a few times that I felt truly proud of a piece of writing that I had done. When I was younger I honestly thought I was a really good writer. I felt that my first draft was my best draft, that there was no getting better than what I first presented. I often found the writing process to be a daunting task, it was something that I never looked forward to. A combination of never knowing where to start, procrastinating until the final minute, and formatting woes plague my feelings towards writing. I remember working through my first semester of college and feeling lost and unequipped. Writing and completing papers gave me anxiety and it made me feel self-conscious about what I was presenting. So it was a specialty of mine to write for word count which produced some pretty unpolished work. It wasn’t until I started putting in the extra work that I began to feel more comfortable and get better results out of my writing.
Focus has always been a major issue of mine throughout the writing process. I had to really go out of my way and work at it and still have to practice. I think the most important thing was that I had to really train myself to print out my work sit down and read it aloud. This helps me out a lot and I honestly get mad thinking about how much I used to despise this part of the process. How I would be content handing in my first unedited copy. I don’t know how I was able to work that way and still make my way through school. This practice started because of Professor Sheridan at Suny Orange. During my second semester taking her class (English 2), she asked that I come visit her during her office hours. When I got there she sat down and had a couple of my papers laid out in front of me. Professor Sheridan who at this point knew me quite well asked me to read one of the papers aloud. At first, I thought my teacher was just trying to make me suffer a bit but as I was reading my papers I began to realize mistakes and how awkward they sounded in parts when read aloud. I remember her asking me point blank if between the time of completing it and turning it in if I had read it once and having to own up to the truth that it had never actually crossed my mind to do that. I was so caught up in finishing I never really cared about the quality of the product. She asked me to take the papers and revise them and turn them back in. I realized that to get the most out of my writing process I would have to start putting more energy into reviewing my work. The only people who ever saw my writing were my teachers but Professor Sheridan was the first to really motivate and challenge me to try and be a better writer. To take my time and make sure that the work I submit is something that I am proud of.
I also found that my environment really affected the quality of my writing. It took a lot of reflection and a willingness to change it in order to get better. I found myself constantly getting distracted… T.V., the car that just passed, a new tab, you name it. Maintaining focus still continues to be one of my biggest challenges. The most effective method for helping me control my focus is a pair of noise canceling lawn mower headphones. The first time I tried this was during the GRE General Test for admission to Grad school. When they walk you in you sit at a desk with a computer, a pencil, a piece of paper, and a pair of noise-canceling headphones. I think the first time I put them on it was more of a novelty than anything else but… it worked. I remember walking out of the test feeling amazing, I really thought I killed it when I left. When I got the results, I was right! I did better than I ever thought I could. After getting accepted and beginning to prepare for school the first thing in my Amazon cart was a pair of the noise canceling headphones. I realized that I needed to do anything I could to help me get the edge. Yeah, my family makes fun of me when I am doing homework, and people laugh when I bring it up but you gotta do what you gotta do… and nobody knows you, better than you. I know my strengths and I can accept my weaknesses, I’m comfortable with that.
I think that the development of my writing process will help me influence my identity as a teacher-writer and how I plan on teaching and supporting my students. Writing is a process that should be focused on helping students grow. I believe that although it may sound cliche, that perfect writing is only attainable through submission, review, acceptance, refocus and revision. It is a process that facilitates growth. I want to be able to foster an environment where I am able to support students individual needs in order to maximize their potential. To use students growth is important to me because it provides an incentive to re-engage their writing and develop their thoughts further. I want to be able to foster an environment where I am able to support students individual needs in order to maximize their potential. Pulling from my own experience with writing I would like to think that I will be there for my students like my teachers have been there for me. I hope my growth keeps me centered and understanding. I think it’s important to remember that we all have individual obstacles along the way that we have to accept and take on and it is my job as an educator to engage and support my students to try and attain their maximum potential.
This class challenged me as a writer to try out new, interesting styles of writing that I had previously not been exposed to. I learned how to create a Blog, I wrote an About Me article, I conducted an interview with a classmate and even created an Op-Ed piece on a subject that I feel passionately about. The structure and design of the class definitely helped me to feel supported as a writer. I can see myself using assignments like the ones we had throughout this course in order to create a classroom environment where students support one another in their education.
This assignment was exciting for me because of the range of topics that we could really choose from. I chose to write my piece on Privacy in America and the need to maintain it. It is something that I feel passionately about. Our basic rights to privacy are constantly under attack and the reporting on it far too silent. James read my piece and gave me good insights on direction and style. It was nice to hear from someone how this issue affected them and what I could do to improve the message. We ultimately decided that I should add more examples so upon revision I was able to find more information to back up my argument for more privacy protection. I think that with James’ help I was able to polish my final product into something I can be proud of.
I have never really conducted an interview before this assignment. This was a different type of writing than I was used to but having a good partner made it a better experience. Mark is a really cool guy, and interviewing each other turned out to be a good experience. I think we had something like 15 minutes to conduct our 3 question interview, every other group was able to accomplish this but not Mark and I. We got caught up talking about places we’d been and people we have met, favorite Nick Cage movies (in order of how ridiculous they can be), and about the personal items we had brought in to show the classroom. I learned a lot from this experience and came out of it happy for having done it. I think if I was going to do anything differently it would be to try and include more questions for Mark to answer. I think that I could have added something in there to provide more context for Marks top 5 travel destinations. All around though I thought that this activity was a good way to expose us to a different type of writing than many may be used to.
This was probably the most different of the assignments for me as I am usually not one to share a lot about myself. I don’t have any social media and had never done a blog post so this was definitely an experience. I was actually really nervous to bring in my About Me for the review but lucky for me I had a good group of people to review with. Like I said in the interview with Mark, it was great to get to know people better than I had before. Every member of the group was constructive with their criticism and enthusiastic about helping each other
Teaching, writing, and thinking are all pursuits that should be approached from a learning stance. We are imperfect beings and will always have more to learn and room to grow.