Is It Possible To Become A Better Writer Within An Eight Week Period?

Is it possible for one to become a better writer within an eight week period? In my opinion it is. For the past eight weeks I have been in an intensive writing course that has challenged my writing skills, mind, and creativity. In the beginning of the course I didn’t believe that by the end of the course I would become a better writer to a certain degree, but I have. I still have a little ways to go to become the best writer I can be but by taking this intensive writing course I have been able to grow and learn as a writer, editor, and analyzer of my work, peers work, and scholarly work. I have learned from others as others have learned from me. I have tried to improve particular aspects of my writing but continue to struggle with other aspects. I have learned writing skills and techniques from scholarly work and applied them to my writings. I have found new strategies and breakthroughs that have allowed me to slow my writing procrastination. However, I am still learning how to write and believe that I always will be.

Learning how to write from a teacher is a commonplace of mine. It is a comfort zone and I never thought of the possibility of learning how to write from peers. I have always thought that my peers just like me are still learning how to write from teachers. Like from “The Banking Concept of Education” by Paulo Freire; one of our readings from the intensive writing course, I became a student of the “banking concept of education.” I allowed the teacher to have all of the authority while I sat back passively receiving the information, not actually learning anything because of my lack of challenging the teachers information. That is until I read Paulo Freire’s essay where I broke out of the “banking concept of education’s” habits and was able to work simultaneously with not only the teacher but with my peers. For example, during the class a peer advised to change one of my paragraph in an essay of mine because it was too wordy. She then proceeded to show me her essay and I noticed how she was able to say everything that she needed to say but in a concise way. I was inspired by her writing techniques and encouraged myself to apply concise writing techniques to my writings.

Not only did I learn from my peers but my peers have also learned from me. For example, during class a different peer was asked to read my essay just like I was asked to read theirs. The peer noticed that I was very detailed in my paragraphs and commented that the details helped her visualize the image I was trying to convey. She stated that her essay isn’t as detailed as mine and she was going to start writing using a lot of detail that way her reader will understand the image she is trying to get across. This shows that she learned from my writings and possibly improved her writing using a writing skill I use often.

During the intensive writing course to improve my writing I tried different aspects which in my opinion have improved my writing. For example, I have learned to use descriptive details in my writing to clearly get my point across. I have also learned how to find a central idea and supporting examples to focus on when writing a essay. However, even though I have learned those different aspects and have applied them to improve my writing, I still struggle with other aspects of writing. For example, I still have troubles with transitioning between each paragraph and writing my essay that way it all flows together. Writing is a process and I am fully aware that need to work on the areas that I struggle with to improve my writing as a whole.

Everything from short to extreme long essays were read for assignments in this intensive course. Reading after reading I was not sure as to why we were reading certain essays. I would always ask myself as to how the essay relates to the class itself and how the essay is going to help me become a better writer. Surprisingly enough after reading each essay, analyzing it, taking notes on it, and writing multiple outlines, responses, and essays on it I slowly found out the connection between the class and the essays. Each essay talked about or related to learning how to write and the “proper” way of writing. Analyzing each essay really helped me improve in my writing because many of them wrote in different techniques that pulled their essay together very nicely, which inspired me to apply some of those techniques to my writing.

The proudest essay I have ever written for the intensive course is an essay about what literacy means to me. The essay was a narrative; a style of writing I was not used to writing, which made the assignment two times as hard since I didn’t know what literacy meant to me. After finding my definition of literacy and what it meant to me I was able to start but then another roadblock interfered with my writing path. I did not know how to start and how I was going to transition between each paragraph. However, I remembered the tips and techniques used in the essays. I applied the techniques to my literacy essay and was able to get my story out. It was my proudest essay because between each paragraph the transition was well written and I responded to the assignment appropriately with the help of the scholarly techniques. For example, two techniques I used to help me coherently write my essay are two techniques I found in an essay called “Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie. In his essay he used short choppy sentences to put emphasis on a certain meaning, vivid details, and repetition of words in the beginning of sentences to show importance of a particular matter. I incorporated all of these techniques into my paper and the use of the techniques really allowed me to put thoughts together to write an essay that flowed nicely.

The constant requirement to read essays about writing and write multiple essays, reponses, and outlines has been a real struggle for me because when it comes to writing I love to procrastinate. This is often because I never have a clear idea as to what I am writing about and how I should begin to write it but luckily throughout the intensive course I learned a few techniques to diminish my procrastination. One technique is to sit down for 20 mins and write non-stop about the topic I am focusing on. Not to focus on grammar or sentence structure and to not censor my thoughts in anyway. The second technique is write my essay without going back to revise it when I haven’t even gotten a paragraph down and the third technique is to go into detail about everything. These three techniques have really helped me procrastinate less. In the beginning of the course it would take me hours to write a 2 page paper but by using those techniques I am able to write a two page paper in more than an hour. I encourage these techniques to any student who is having procrastination problems with writing.

Overall, I do believe that one can become a better writer within an eight week period. I was able to accomplish it by taking this intensive writing course and learning all types of ideas, skills, and techniques from my teacher, peers, and essay, which has help me not only become a better writer but has allowed me to expand on my creativity and ability to think on a deeper level. Am I done learning how to write? Absolutely not. I believe that I will forever be learning how to write. Writing is a learning process and some of the greatest writers are still learning how to write to this day. I don’t believe there is any perfect way of writing, which is why everyone is still learning how to write. I fully appreciate taking the intensive writing class for it has taught me new techniques that I will apply in the future. However, this isn’t the end of my how to learn how to write education. I have much more to learn and it is an experience I cannot wait for.