Personal Narrative: The Harsh Nature Of The Mentor

Writing is hard work and a skill one had to constantly practice. : Zinsser’s writing demonstrates that writing is difficult, he gives clear solutions to issues that plague writers, he also makes a compelling argument for why clutter is an issue that needs to be resolved. Zinsser with his various achievement has proved that he is a competent writer. Zinsser was educated at the esteemed, Princeton University. He worked as the New

As I was reading Melissa Duffy’s “Inspiration, and Craig Vetter’s “Bonehead Writing,” I found myself connecting with Vetter’s paper more than Duffy’s. I found that the presentation in “Bonehead Writing” to capture my attention, and that Vetter’s feelings about writing was similar to my opinion on writing. Through his wording and humor, I think Craig Vetter wrote the best essay. I find that the wording and presentation of an article or essay influences my opinion of the writer, and it affects how I receive the idea they are trying to present to me. Craig Vetter uses a blunt approach to convey his idea that writing is nearly impossible to teach, and describes writing as “A blood sport, a walk in the garden of agony every time out.”

The article by Donald Murray entitled, “The Maker’s Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts” provides readers a better understanding of the writing process and argues that writers learn to write, by writing and rewriting. Murray also contends that writers must learn to be their own best enemy. Well, I believe I have this trait covered! I will confess, that I purposely saved this course for last, due to the number of years between my last structured learning experience and returning to school to complete a BSN degree.

Through the many struggles in life, I have been able to distinguish the more challenging struggles, from the lesser challenging. Out of the many obstacles in life, I find writing to be one of the more treacherous ones. Although many works of writing appear to be easily forged by the artist, creating the first draft for any writer has proven to be a very treacherous journey. In Anne Lamott’s excerpt from her book “Bird by Bird”, she describes her own personal struggle with writing first drafts when she worked for the “California Magazine”.

On Monday, both Mr. Levine and our paralegal were gone, so it was just my on-site mentor, her husband (who was recruited to help out), and me in the office. For a large portion of the day, I was on the computer and answering phone calls. The phones weren 't too crazy, thankfully. My main purpose for being there was to help my on-site mentor as much as possible. I don 't know how to do even half of what the paralegal does, but I knew enough to help with standard office stuff, like scanning papers and drafting subpoenas to be sent out (mostly for personal injury cases, but for family law cases as well).

At first when I was told I would be able to speak my mind as to what my thoughts would be on the effects of what happened and what Mr. Wilson should receive as a time to serve I knew exactly what to say, but when you begin putting pen to paper you get lost and all the fears and anxiety continue at a high level. Below are what continue to haunt me and my children on a daily basis. I still recall the time you woke up and looked over at me with this crazed look in your eyes. You kicked me so hard in my right jaw and right upper arm. I fell into the night stand, then onto the floor next to the bed.

The style of writing has changed drastically in excess of the past years; each person has their own writing modus operandi that helps to get their point from corner to corner or refer to all that jazz that they are trying to portray. Every author seems to have their own unique way of getting their message to their audience, for instance, they might share personal experiences related to their topic or analysis. Some authors might write about something affected them emotionally and influenced them to act a certain way.

reflecting on my progress thus far in this course, I have not only become cognizant of my writing skills and habits, but improvements I need to make to become a better writer. Although writing has never been one of my strong suits, I have learned valuable writing skills and strategies that are applicable to both the professional and academic field. Transitioning from the way I have been taught to write as a high school student has been the most challenging and influential change I have witnessed in my writing. To elaborate, in high school, we were taught the basis for writing any essay regardless of the audience or topic was the rigid five-paragraph essay structure.

It was the last inning in our all-star game, and we were losing 10 to 8. Our team had 2 outs and we couldn’t get the third. Our pitcher was doing bad, throwing all balls, while all of us in the field were tired, ready to fall asleep at any moment. There goes another walk. They score again.

Though Baker is passionate about writing his writing assignments always fell short because he found English assignments “dull and baffling” (Baker, 1982). He describes writing that when writing an English assignment he “went at them like heavy labor, turning out leaden, lackluster paragraphs that were agonies for teachers to read...” (Baker, 1982). But when Baker chose to ignore the rules of writing an essay and wrote about an experience he was passionate about it reflected in his writing. This can be true about many things in life, whether it is writing a paper or cleaning your car.

Baron claims that, “...not everyone should write because not everyone has something to say”(Baron 707). Not everyone’s material is worth to reading so why create pieces that will be neglected to readers. If profound literature is created, readers will gain excitement and therefore writers will also gain success. When writing is overdone, the meaning of literature and its logic minimizes. Baron’s purpose is to clear up the issue of why not everyone should write and the public can easily gain an insight into why

I am now able to see the areas in which I lack in but I also recognize my strengths as well. To become a precise writer, you have to take the initiatives that will help you do so. These initiatives consist of working on different academic genres, planning and organizing material, identifying purpose and audience and for revising intentionally. It is also includes reading different types of texts and learning how to understand a writer’s argument and respond to the ideas of others.

I learned the little mistakes that could easily mess up my writing and paying close attention to each sentence mattered. The book is small, but as I read through the pages, the content became a treasure to me. After a few days of preparing myself, I sought after work on the internet as a writer.

Writing essays and other types of posts has always been difficult for me. But, throughout this composition class, I have learned many interesting and new things about the different types of writing styles. When starting this class, I considered myself to be an average writer with run-of-the-mill vocabulary, ordinary sentence structure and typical finished products. This class has helped me greatly improve my writing skills in a variety of ways. I have learned multiple things by taking this class, such as new ways to approach writing and that there is much that I still need to learn about composition.

But bear in mind that its not just about writing in a fancy way to entertain. It’s also a conscientious way of differentiating yourself from thousands of similar writers/thinkers in the same