Wow.
Looking back on this past year, I’m actually in shock.
I began the school year thinking I was an amazing writer and that I knew everything I needed to know.
Boy, was I wrong. Really wrong.
Turns out, there were so many things I didn’t understand such as conjunctions, rhetorical devices… the list goes on and on. Of course, I knew what they were but I’d never thought they’d be important. I used to think that if you didn’t misspell anything, kept the spacing even and used sophisticated words that meant you were a good writer. I’d never put effort into giving a sense of mood or tone, I’d throw characters in randomly without giving a proper introduction, give no thought to the exposition...
I was so naive. When Mr. Butler introduced us to NoRedInk, I realized how much I needed to work on. And it’s actually quite embarrassing because at the time I was actually still having problems remembering what the difference between an adverb and an adjective was but just shoved those facts away. I hadn’t seen them as anything important. They had no significance in my journey as a writer. News flash old me, those kinds of things are significant in every writer’s journey. Whether you like it or not.
Now I’ll reread my works from a year ago and cringe so hard. It’s funny to think that I thought they were good, the best works ever. Good enough to match J.K. Rowling or E.B. White. There was even a period of time where I was so proud of myself that I wondered ‘what if I published this?’ I’m glad I didn’t.
That cocky phase of mine was embarrassing. I honestly want my old ‘books’ to be burnt but I’ve kept them because it’s refreshing to see how much different my writing is now and I can rewrite them and revise. I won’t allow myself to get so ahead of myself again, even if I think the writing is good. The most important lesson that was brought to light for me as the year progressed was the fact that there’s always going to be room for improvement.
I also didn’t understand the concept of in-text citations at first. I honestly just wanted ‘Works Cited’ to stay the way I already knew it, which was copying and pasting the website link and BAM - done! But that’s not the proper way to do it and well, now I know! It’s still difficult to get the hang of but I’m glad I got to know what it was.
I’d say that overall this year I made the most improvements with motifs and themes. I didn’t even know what they were. Even now I struggle to differentiate the two from each other but they’ve helped me so much with analyzing stories and building my story structures.
To sum this up, I think this year made the largest impact on my writing (and reading comprehension). I was taught really well. I know that I will continue to improve and someday in the future I’ll see my current works and cringe at those but that’ll be an exciting event to look forwards to, won’t it? :)
Looking back on this past year, I’m actually in shock.
I began the school year thinking I was an amazing writer and that I knew everything I needed to know.
Boy, was I wrong. Really wrong.
Turns out, there were so many things I didn’t understand such as conjunctions, rhetorical devices… the list goes on and on. Of course, I knew what they were but I’d never thought they’d be important. I used to think that if you didn’t misspell anything, kept the spacing even and used sophisticated words that meant you were a good writer. I’d never put effort into giving a sense of mood or tone, I’d throw characters in randomly without giving a proper introduction, give no thought to the exposition...
I was so naive. When Mr. Butler introduced us to NoRedInk, I realized how much I needed to work on. And it’s actually quite embarrassing because at the time I was actually still having problems remembering what the difference between an adverb and an adjective was but just shoved those facts away. I hadn’t seen them as anything important. They had no significance in my journey as a writer. News flash old me, those kinds of things are significant in every writer’s journey. Whether you like it or not.
Now I’ll reread my works from a year ago and cringe so hard. It’s funny to think that I thought they were good, the best works ever. Good enough to match J.K. Rowling or E.B. White. There was even a period of time where I was so proud of myself that I wondered ‘what if I published this?’ I’m glad I didn’t.
That cocky phase of mine was embarrassing. I honestly want my old ‘books’ to be burnt but I’ve kept them because it’s refreshing to see how much different my writing is now and I can rewrite them and revise. I won’t allow myself to get so ahead of myself again, even if I think the writing is good. The most important lesson that was brought to light for me as the year progressed was the fact that there’s always going to be room for improvement.
I also didn’t understand the concept of in-text citations at first. I honestly just wanted ‘Works Cited’ to stay the way I already knew it, which was copying and pasting the website link and BAM - done! But that’s not the proper way to do it and well, now I know! It’s still difficult to get the hang of but I’m glad I got to know what it was.
I’d say that overall this year I made the most improvements with motifs and themes. I didn’t even know what they were. Even now I struggle to differentiate the two from each other but they’ve helped me so much with analyzing stories and building my story structures.
To sum this up, I think this year made the largest impact on my writing (and reading comprehension). I was taught really well. I know that I will continue to improve and someday in the future I’ll see my current works and cringe at those but that’ll be an exciting event to look forwards to, won’t it? :)