Who Am I As A Writer: Parts One and Two

Students on the First Day of Class 1

On the first Friday after the semester began, I assigned a one-page paper entitled, “Who Am I as a Writer.” This paper served two purposes. One, it gave me a chance to be introduced to my students, give me a little insight into who they are, and the issues they face as writers. Second, it gave them a baseline of how they feel about writing and where they felt confident as well as where they wanted more instruction. I gave them a basic outline of how to structure the paper.

Handwritten One Page Entitled “Who Am I as a Writer?” This is just a quick overview to tell me what type of writer you are. This will help you identify your strengths and point you in the direction of an area or two where myself or the Writing Center can assist. A few things to consider: What are your goals for writing in this semester? Do you want to be a professional writer? Do you enjoy writing? What do you excel in? Do you want to learn more about punctuation and grammar?

Even though it was not a typical exam, my mid-term consisted of part two of this assignment. The title for this one was “How My Writing Has Improved,” and it too was a one to two page reflection of what has been learned so far in the semester, and how the student now feels about their writing. It is the second measurement on the yardstick of where they see themselves evolving.

Write at least one page entitled “How My Writing has Improved.” You may use the essay from the beginning of the term, “Who Am I as a Writer?” to compare your writing from then to today. Some questions to consider when writing: Do you feel more comfortable with punctuation? Have you learned about sentence and paragraph flow? Can you easily find resources to assist you in your writing issues?

It is my hope that during the semester as they write their homework assignments, discussion posts, low stakes pieces, and their major assignments, they can look back over the papers and gauge their own progress. This is to give them the knowledge that yes, they are improving and gaining understanding of the mechanics. I want them to gain confidence in themselves and their abilities and talents. It is my belief that if students can see for themselves how they are improving, they will enjoy the class more.

It is our goal as college instructors to ensure that our students graduate and prepared for their future. Most freshman do not realize how important writing will be to this end. In the first paper, most of my students said they are taking this class because it is a prerequisite, necessary for graduation. They did not like writing and had no plans to continue with writing in the future.

35

1. Writing has never been my strong suit. I have always wanted to be in a math class rather than an english class. Each paper I have submitted was only for the grade that I would receive.
2. Writing remains as one of my least favorite tasks. I continue to push my papers back until the deadline because I do not find any joy in writing. Recently, I have seen myself writing more and being able to complete my papers efficiently

1. I see myself as a writer who only writes when required to. Whether it be for school, work,etc. I have no desires to become a professional writer nor want to major in writing.
2. . After we learned about rhetorical analysis and practicing with the different types such as ethos, pathos, and logos, I’ve realized that I was able to implement I into my writing without even knowing it. This gives me some hope that maybe I am able to do this with future writing styles that we learn about, and improve even more as a writer.

45

1. I would not exactly say I have a writing style, or at least I have not discovered it yet and/or understand what it is. In high school I was just the average writer who barely got by. I did not get outstanding grades, or most of the time really even understand the topics much after the assignment was completed
2. When I came into this class I didn’t really understand a lot about English and writing concepts and such. But already now I know different forms of writing techniques that have helped me out a lot. Now when I am writing, I just feel a little more confident than before because I feel like I have a little more knowledge to back up my work with.
3. As a writer, I see myself as someone who has gotten the grasp of writing, but still needs more work. I am the type of writer who follows the basic guideline when I write, and I feel as if this makes my writing kind of boring. Even though writing is not my favorite thing to do, I feel as if this class will definitely help improve my writing skills
4. Overall, I would say that writing still is not my favorite thing to do. Even though it has become much easier, I would still prefer if I did not have to them. At first, I did not really have a lot of confidence in my writing. I always felt as if my writing was really bad. Now, I have a lot more confidence in my writing.