Rozie Khashmanian
MY THINKING.
I believe that after any written piece, a writer grows. He or she grows either from failure or from achieving something. Most people think people only grow when they achieve or win, but they are very wrong. We blossom and grow from even our worst failures because we gain experience and experience provides wisdom. Each of the pieces in my portfolio displays my growth throughout the last semester whether it is from a piece that was the worst I produced or one of the best writing pieces I came up with. Drafting, revising, and comments from others all went into the development of my writing and helped me become a better writer.
In this point in time, I am a writer who has much to learn, much to experience, and much to say. Writers evolve every day of their lives and they are constantly thinking, whether it is about absolute nonsense or something incredible. My writing and revision process has changed with the way I begin. It differs really on what mood I am in because there are some assignments that I would just write and leave to sit for a day to revise later and there are assignments that I revise and finish within one day. The way I view writing has not necessarily changed, but my thoughts about it have grown because of the different pieces we have read from various talented authors. I feel as if my knowledge has grown about writing because I can look at it from so many more perspectives due to the different writings I have read through.
The challenges I faced in this class were the challenges on my imagination and my thoughts and incorporating that into my writing. I had to write a few pieces on personal thoughts, which is challenging for anyone because who isn’t afraid of pouring a piece of their mind onto paper for someone else to read? I was challenged when I had to put my creativity to the test and come up with a piece of writing so creative that it described something so real in such an exaggerated language. I guess I overcame them by just doing it. I was afraid of explaining my thoughts, but in the end I did it. I was worried about arguing and discussing an issue that means a lot to me, but in the end I wrote over two thousand words about it. In my opinion, that’s just the way you have to overcome certain things. Sit down and just get the writing done. That’s what I did at least.
At the beginning of the semester, I expected to grow as a writer and to be challenged. And that’s exactly what I got out of this course. This course taught me things about writing that I had not learned about before. I read great pieces of writing from my peers and from that I gained more knowledge on writing. I learned about the point of views from different writers who see writing as so much more than it is, which helped me understand writing even more. I was challenged with the different types of assignments I had to do and the level of creativity I had to reach. But in the end, this course helped shape me as a writer and for that I am grateful.
Reading the works of different authors was one of the most important aspects of this class for me. Teachers constantly tell students to read ten pages of writing for homework and no one ever wants to do it. But the writing we had to read in this class was not only interesting, but also relevant and useful. It was not a drag to have to read ten pages for homework because the pieces were so interesting to read about. King and Vonnegut were only a couple of the great writers we read and it helped me with my own writing. The first blog post about good writing really helped me grow as a writer because I had not been really asked to write about what I thought was good writing. I was challenged to find one of my favorite writings and discuss why I believed it to be good writing. It helped me grow as a writer because it had me talk about writing itself and my thoughts on it. It was one of my favorite assignments because of the freedom it gave and the creativity and thought I had to put into it.
For the peer review process, I enjoyed reading other people’s work because it was interesting to read other people’s take on different topics and assignments. For the most part, I think people were too polite to actually critique my writing because no one wanted to say something offensive to someone they hardly know about a writing they created. I think the process helped me because I got feedback from my classmates and I also got to see how other people write.
Honestly, I feel like the right ideas were emphasized the right amount in this class. I don’t think there was a topic or idea that was emphasized to little or too much. I would have only added more writings from different authors such as King and Vonnegut. I would have liked to explore the writing of other writers because it is interesting to see how actual writers perceive writing and the ways they write.
My opinion has stayed the same since our first assignment. I feel like good writing does not exist because all writing is good writing. Writing comes from the mind, the soul, and the heart. It comes from within and to say that someone’s writing is not “good writing” is like telling them their mind is wrong. Everyone has their own story and they will tell it how they see fit, which should be considered good writing right there. Rhetoric is important with writing in some cases because if you are trying to get a point across to your reader, you should know who the audience is and connect with them and try to get emotions out of them through your words. But if someone is writing for he or herself, rhetoric does not have much to do with it.
English 1102 was like a wave that would start up real quick just to crash into a beautiful calm sea. There were assignments that would start off calm, pick up in the middle just to finish off with a relief of being done and submitting it. Ideas tossed and turned and some got left out and a lot got added, but in the end it was a piece of work that came from your own mind. It felt great finishing each assignment because they were all so different, like no two waves are the exact same. Writing constantly changed and developed and it got frustrating at times, but in the end it was work to be proud of.
Three connections I have made during the semester have been with King’s writing, to college life in general, and to my professor’s view on writing. I have always loved King’s writing, but in a college class it was interesting re-reading some of his work and connecting it to the course. It connected to me because King has such a unique view on writing that it made me want to become a better writer. I made a connection to college life because after leaving the classroom, I would often find myself thinking about how things connected to the real world. How people rely on reading and writing all the time in college and how vital it is to our lives. Finally, I made a connection to my professor’s view on writing because I have only had a few professors who allowed me such freedom with writing and that was one of the best ways that helped me grow as a writer. The way a professor presents information in the class can either benefit students with their development as a writer or it can do nothing. In this course, I benefitted from learning from my professor’s take on writing and what she thinks good writing means.
But besides those three connections, one of the main assignments I connected with was watching the Randy Pausch video because it brought everything together. It made me think about life, college in general, and writing. It truly touched me and is something I don't think I will forget for quite some time.
