Reflections on Writing Challenges and Progress in ENG 102

Writer’s Statement Writing, where do I even start? Writing sucks. When you write, you must re-read and rewrite everything over, and over, and over again in hope that maybe you will end up with something that’s okay. Perfection will never happen for anyone when they write, that’s right no one, not even J.K. Rowling. As a perfectionist I struggle so much with this very ideal. Throughout the first part of my semester in W131 I have struggled with my perfectionism, but I have seen a lot of progression in my writing from my first OPW to the last. Throughout the first part of the semester I wrote four one-page writes and found that my biggest writing challenge was battling my perfectionism. I have struggled with being a perfectionist all my life. I’ve learned that I can’t always be a perfectionist. When it comes to writing, failure is inevitable. You can always improve your writing in one way or another. Before this semester had started, I had never done a free write before. It just so happens that free writing is where my best writing comes from. When I free write I don’t care about perfection and just write whatever, and however my heart desires. After I free write about the topic that I must write a paper on, I find myself less stressed about perfection and more connected to the topic I have to write about. For the midterm portfolio I selected the OPW that shows this progression the most. The OPW that I chose for the midterm portfolio is the fourth and last one that I wrote. This one-page write was over a video narrated by Neal DeGrasse Tyson. The video was over how people view topics in science today. I have a very close relation to this video because I’m a science major. I chose this OPW because I felt it shows how far I have come as a writer, and I knew it would be a paper that would enjoy writing further on and making it a better piece. I also chose this one-page write because it is a good example of how I have learned to “discover, explore, and analyze ideas in order to write with a strong sense of ownership”, to which is one of the course goals in W131. Not only did I learn about myself and my writing while completing OPWs, but I also learned about myself as a writer while putting together my midterm portfolio as well. While putting together my midterm portfolio. I learned that I am not the best at revising my work. While revising a paper, I have a tendency to get distracted. I also find my inner perfectionist surfacing while I revised my works for the portfolio, making me feel that my paper is never going to be ready in time for the deadline. I had to keep looking back at the feedback given to me, so I would remember that only some things need to be changed. Once I got over this hump of perfectionism I was able to realize how much I liked my image analysis and one-page write. I ended up liking my one-page write more than my image analysis. I really like my onepage write because I relate to it so much. I feel that the paper has a piece of me in it, to which is what I hoped for. I’m aware the paper isn’t perfect and it never will be, but I am very happy with how it turned out. While writing all the pieces that I had to write over the span of the first portion of the semester, I found all the instruction comments equally helpful. Each time I read the instructor comments, I would notice something I never realized within my writing. The feedback helped me a lot. Not only did it help me realize what I was doing wrong, but also what I was doing write, to which is very important. The comments on what I was doing wrong let me know what I shouldn’t do and the comments on what I was excelling in let me know what I should continue to do within my writing. Due to the feedback I received I tried to add in more person examples into my work and just revise the work as a whole in order to bring the ideas together in a more put together way. My writing has not only improved throughout the begging of this semester but has also become more personable. With the help of instructor feedback I have learned what I need to change within my writing and what I should continue to do. I have also learned how to become less of a perfectionist when it comes to my writing by free writing about my topic before I start to a paper on that topic. I hope to continue this growth throughout next semester, and I hope I learn more ways to improve my writing and the writing process as well.