The process of My Development as a Writer

One of the most pressing problems confronting the scholarly community around the world is the craft of writing. There is a lot that goes into writing a letter, and it can be difficult to master anything. I used to take writing seriously in high school and didn't think of it as a versatile workout. This preconceived notion of what constitutes decent writing stems from the strictness with which I was taught writing in high school. However, thanks to the assistance I received from my professor at the start of my first semester of college, I changed my perspective and understanding of what a good composition is. The first essay I wrote in college was marked below the average by the professor and corrections showed that I took the text with a lot of strictness and denied myself the needed room for flexibility and creativity. The professor organized a meeting that was to change my writing forever. During the lesson, he taught me that quality does not mean quantity and made it clear that I need to work on my redundant statements. The advice of the professor was to be able to write concisely showing the development of ideas. It was recommended that I read different stories and passages. In particular, the professor requested me to write about one topic in three different ways. I could deliver an essay in the concise form, in the exaggerated form, and in the academic form. Then I understood the ways of incorporating such element as humor in my essays. This event allowed me to have a flexible writing technique where I was able to develop ideas and express them in detail. For example, reading someone's work and writing a critique about it requires one to clearly understand what the writer intends to say. The critic should then proceed to write in an objective manner based on the way the writer expounds on his or her ideas. Reading different essays and books as recommended by the professor has helped me to develop my imagination and manipulate the ideas I have.

The occasion also enabled me to deal with my weakness in writing, which is the failure to set a strong thesis claim that introduces the reader to what I am going to write about. Before the meeting, I did not understand the importance of the thesis in establishing the tone for the rest of the paper. The continuous practice has allowed me to develop prowess in writing strong thesis statements and removing the redundancies in my sentences. It was also due to the event that I was able to understand the different types of essays such as descriptive and persuasive ones. I had the misconception that all topics should be approached the same but the professor made it clear that each of them had a specific way to construct and express ideas. The teacher recommended that I learn and understand how to develop clear thesis ideas that put authority to my pieces of work.

Writing on a specific topic requires a person to follow a certain procedure in order to come up with a good paper. I was able to understand that pre-writing is as important as any other step in the writing process. It is through the pre-writing stage where I develop the ideas I will expound on during the drafting period. However, one thing that remains constant is the issue of revision and editing. The professor encouraged me to make sure that I read, reread, polish, and revise my papers before I turn them in. I had not developed the habit of rereading my work to make use of the grammatical errors I could have made but the educational meeting made me understand the importance of proofreading in impressing the reader. The professor taught me the importance of reading the essay aloud to catch the mistakes that I might have made in the process of writing since some of them remain unnoticed. Thus, the concepts of prewriting, drafting, and proofreading were well emphasized by the professor. Currently I have effectively adopted them.

I feel I am in a better position as a writer today although there is a lot that I still have to do and achieve. A great number of essays I have written since the time of professor's tutorial are an indication that I am a better writer than I was before I have joined a college. Now I am able to organize my ideas in a concise manner that the reader can find easy to comprehend. I take creating essays as a flexible venture and the one that entails originality in the creation and expansion of ideas. However, writing is a process and there is still a lot that one needs to learn before becoming an effective writer. Despite this, I feel I have sufficient knowledge and skills to push my writing skills to a higher level.