Activity One

As a young child, I sometimes wrote silly books that I also illustrated. When I reached school age, I distinctly remember one activity that my teachers had us do. We used to write stories in which we included our week's vocabulary words. Other than that I do not remember writing extensively. I of course wrote on worksheets in class and for homework, but it was never anything lengthy. In sixth grade, I did a project for which I had to write a research paper about a future career I would consider. This was the first research writing paper I had ever written. In junior high school I never wrote anything really important. Ninth grade was when I actually started writing work that taught me what I know about writing. From ninth through eleventh grades, although I did learn more about writing, I did not practice it very much. It was not until AP English in my senior year of high school that I practiced over and over the fundamentals of writing. My teacher taught us well. Although the class was stressful and I wrote an analysis on a piece of literature almost every week, it all paid off in the end. I passed the AP test, which gave me college credit for English 121. Most of the writing I did for that class was analyses of pieces of literature, however we did write one extensive research paper. I took English 101 last year, which was pretty easy. We watched several movies and wrote analyses about them and that was about it. We also kept a journal in which we wrote reflections about current events or other topics. I did write some lesson plans last semester since I am an education major. Growing up I sometimes wrote poems for fun. I always wrote rhyming ones that were humorous. I once wrote and illustrated a children's book for my junior high health class. It was pretty fun.

For the most part, I find writing easy. I have a hard time writing conclusions and sometimes I write too much and have a hard time pairing things down. I guess I just have a lot to say. I sometimes have trouble writing analyses; I end up summarizing. I am getting better at that though. It has been awhile since I have written an analysis so I'm a little rusty. I think good writing takes a lot of practice and quite frankly I haven't had to practice it very much since my senior year in high school. Hopefully taking this class will get me back into the swing of things.

I have always enjoyed reading novels. When I was really young my parents used to read to me a lot. I read Dr. Seuss books and other elementary books when I was learning to read. When I got older I read Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary books. I then got into the Harry Potter books. I read a lot of junior high level books for my seventh grade reading class. In high school I liked to read the same kind of books I do now; classic literature, Mary Higgins Clark's suspense novels, and some other contemporary novels like The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. I hope to begin reading Jared Diamond books pretty soon, which aren't exactly novels but I've heard they're really interesting. I hate to read textbooks!

I have attempted to write short stories and novels but they always end up being terrible. Like I said, I used to dabble here and there with poetry but it was only for my own amusement. I have never kept a diary.

I regularly write emails and I text all the time (except when I'm in class of course). I email my advisor all the time because I always have questions. I don't very often write formal emails or letters, but I did have a section on how to write them in a class I took last semester. I really haven't had to write reports or minutes for anything either. I was once the treasurer for Spanish Club in high school but I hardly did anything. I kept track of the money and that was it.

When I was a little kid, my brother (who is almost eight years older than me) and his friends would always make fun of me in a clever way. They would always call me names or say things about me in my presence, but I was too young to know what anything they said about me meant. They would laugh, and I knew they were making fun of me so I would laugh along with them even though I had no idea what they were talking about. Other than that people spoke to me normally, in words I could understand.

I don't speak a foreign language fluently (although sometimes I like to think I do) but I did study Spanish for five years in high school. Sometimes my boyfriend, who also studied Spanish for several years, and I like to set our phones in Spanish and text that way. It's pretty funny. Since I'm not fluent in Spanish I find it easier to say everything in English.

I think essay and assignment writing is similar to other writings in that they give us opportunities to learn different writing styles, new words, and they give us the opportunity to learn and write about a variety of different subjects. I think essay and assignment writings are directed more toward teaching us the nuts and bolts of writing itself. Of course, it depends on what type of essay or assignment writing you're doing. I think other writings leave more room for thought and creativity.

Most of the time I only write because I have to for some class. Usually my only audience is the teacher or professor who reads it, and my mom who proofreads it. I usually write about books I've read or I write research papers. Occasionally I write papers in which I get to express my opinion the entire time. However, most of the time I write opinion-based papers it's after I've read an article or something for which I have to write an opinion-based paper. I like to write papers for which I get to freely rant and rave. But I don't get those opportunities very often.