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Becoming A Writer

When I first started thinking about this essay I was hard-pressed to come up with some
beautiful, never-before heard, awesome evolutionary story. At the same time, I cannot just create
this story in a blank space. Sure, I have changed over the past five years. Sure, I think this
change is significant, and I think that I am a better person because of it. I will try my best to
pump the breaks on the glamour shots though, and maybe by the end of the paper we will find
out exactly how much I have changed, and what it says about me and my writing.
High school is when I first realized I had a love for writing, a love that I fought against
for a couple years. I openly denied to my English teacher that I liked writing. Reading was
maybe the best thing in the world, but writing? No, writing was the thing I had to do sometimes
for class, or in a card, or to keep track of things I needed to do. Sure, I had been applauded for
writing an actual paragraph in elementary school, and I could spell a lot of words, but this related
more to the love of reading than the writing aspect in my mind at least. At some forgotten
moment during my sophomore year of high school though, sure enough, I realized that I liked to
write. I think it came in the form of an assignment wherein I tried to mimic George Orwell. I
created my own version of Animal Farm. For the first time I actually realized what I could do in
the written space. I could try to tell people something, something that I thought was true, and at
the very least try and defend that statement with a story. From there I started to take my writing
assignments more seriously.
Oddly enough (more to do with time restraints I think) it was around the time that writing
picked up that reading started to drop off. I had always read a lot of books. One of my proudest
memories is the fact that I learned how to read at four years old. My mom read to me every day,
and over time she taught me how to read, and eventually I read to her. As I grew up I moved on

to bigger books. The Harry Potter series is a cornerstone. And I read a good deal of the Halo
novels (story behind the games) as well. But once I made it into high school, my teacher
introduced us to literature. While I loved the stories written in novels, I could tell that there was
more to the literature. And after my first Orwell book I was hooked. I moved from 1984 to
Animal Farm to Brave New World and wrote about them all in reading journals and book reports.
My teacher was impressed with my analytical skills and desire to read higher level books, and I
liked being impressive. While this is started in high school, it eventually came through in college
as well.
If not for Mrs. Fassbender, my English teacher of four years, I may not even be in this
minor right now. She more than anyone else opened my eyes to literature and the merits of it.
But, eventually I had to pick up the torch for myself. My first year of study at the University of
Michigan saw two classes that involved literary writing. These were arguably my best two
classes that year. I had a complit seminar during the fall term, and I did my first year writing
requirement in the winter. The first class asked me to read a lot of books, which I didnt quite
make it through, and make comparisons across these different stories. Additionally, the class
involved analysis of art. Somehow, I bullshitted my way to an A- in the class. I think this had to
do purely with an innate preference for writing. At the very least, the complit class the only class
on my schedule that I even remotely liked. I found out that semester that I really didnt want to
be a doctor, whether out of laziness or idealism, I knew by Christmas that medical school would
not be for me. I was put on academic probation after that semester, and had I not received the Ain the complit seminar, perhaps I wouldnt have even made it to the winter term. When writing
basically saved my academic career is when I really felt like it was something I wanted to do. I
had been there before, but that was the moment that I realized just how important the art is to me.

I also learned that I was actually somewhat good at it. Mrs. Fassbender, as great as she is, was
my English teacher all four years of high school. I had no reference outside of her for how good
my writing really was especially coming from a school that didnt have very high standards for
most of the students (although, I always felt like she held me to a different standard than other
kids anyways maybe not for grades, but definitely content, which feeds into better grades).
That following semester I was much more motivated. I had let my academics fall to shit,
gone from a 4.0 student to a 1.826. Ill just say it, I had a lot of fun my freshman year. I made
some good friends and fed some bad habits. Yet, I somehow made it through. The winter
semester was better, but not great. I had a bad grade in econ, and pretty average grades for
everything else, save for an A- in a one-credit environmental class (countered by a C+ in a
different class of the same type), and a B in my first year writing class. Looking back I always
have the feeling of doing better in that class. I was truly engaged, it was a class all about literary
analysis which was the beginning of writing for me in high school. I actually used a paper from
that class to get into the minor in writing (Nielsen, 2012). Again, I remembered the level of
thought that could be provoked in reading, and then expanded while writing. While the grade
wasnt what I think it should have been, the involvement in class was more than any other class
that entire year. I think by the end of that class I knew for sure that I would be writing in some
capacity for the rest of my life. Looking back at it I should have maybe thought about changing
my major.
Before, and through, my college career I have always thought about the possibility of an
English degree. Most adults in my life shot that pathway down upon hearing it, but it still found a
closet in my mind to sit in. Psychology seemed more practical, and it was also interesting, and
adults seemed to approve of it, even at the demand of going to grad school to actually make

money. But if I could go back and talk to my nineteen year old self, just finishing up my
freshman year of college, among many things, I think I would have told myself to seriously
consider an English degree. Screw what people say about income possibility! At this point I have
an apathetic mind about my career anyways. Not that I dont care, but I want to build a life that is
more valuable outside of work, and while I want to do something I enjoy, as long as it feeds my
family and we can live a comfortable life, I dont need the excess that is promised from advanced
degrees and fancy titles. So I would have said go for it kid, we both know how much you love it,
if there is something you could nail down as a passion, thats what it would be, right? And maybe
I would have already written this essay, earlier, in a different cohort, perhaps with more
eloquence and style.
Perhaps I would have more work to draw from, and more to say about growing as a
writer. I honestly havent grown leaps and bounds as a writer I dont think. I think I have grown a
lot as a human, as a person, a being in this world. I have developed and nurtured opinions and
beliefs that help to define who I am. I have learned the script of writing in college all too well. In
my fourth year at the University I wrote around 80-90% of my papers in the two days before they
were due. I didnt really edit, I didnt really revise, and I didnt particularly care as long as they
were turned in on time. And you know what, I didnt get less than a B on anything. The only time
I dipped into C range is when I actually missed the deadline and had that letter grade taken off.
So, what does that teach me about my writing? I am either a pretty good writer at a baseline. Or,
the grader isnt looking for more than the base components of a paper, not necessarily
excellence. Or, I have learned the script of writing to a prompt and to a grader so well that I can
get away with just about everything. There is probably some of each reason above, and maybe

some unaccounted things as well that contribute to my ability and reported grades. But I really
havent learned much from that writing.
I learned about my inadequacy more in my upper level writing class. I figured out for the
first time just how important revision is, and actually giving a shit about what goes into the
paper. Sure, I had some really good ideas in my essays for that class (Nielsen, 2013, English
325). Sure, I even got good remarks from the teacher about my ideas and insights during
discussion and drafts. And sure enough, when I turned in final papers with little to no revision I
got average grades. I wonder if this had anything to do with the subject matter of the class. The
writing that I thrived at had always dealt with analysis, or comprehensive report of research. I
had written some papers more akin to creative writing as well, but they were usually easier to do
well on than analysis. The class I wrote this essay for was English 325: Creative non-fiction.
This was a class unlike any other that I had ever taken. Creative non-fiction seemed like an
oxymoron on my first day, but I soon realized that things can still be creative and interesting
even if they are true. But I struggled. I didnt have solid answers to pull out of the literature to
talk about. Instead I had to create compelling work related to my own personal experience, and
without many prompt options I was limited. But, I ultimately didnt put enough work into the
class. I knew there was another level I could reach, but for whatever reason I didnt put forth the
whole effort required.
I learned how much more goes into good writing than simply sitting down at a laptop for
seven hours and hammering out an essay (Nielsen, 2015, Personal Paradox). This fact was
compounded after I saw my dads writing. A couple years ago he started writing books, and
while I think he can weave a good story, it is clear that he doesnt revise like he should. What is
even more painful about this fact is how easily I can see it in his work, but not my own. He and I

both suffer from an idealistic mindset that when we write something down, we say what we
mean, and to change it is a setback or a loss. After reading my dads books I had a lust to go back
and rewrite them. There is some great potential in what he has, but it needs a rewrite, and
perhaps another rewrite after that. It needs development, and someone who wants to pay the
attention to detail to bring out all of the theme and all of the rhetoric in a smart way. My dad
reads literature and writes stories. It kills me inside because I know he could write the literature
too. My dad is fifty-three years old, I am twenty-two. I have realized my problem at least thirtyone years in advance of him. I have offered to help him do massive edits and revision, and even
blatantly told him he should rewrite his last book, but to no avail. When he goes back to do a
final edit of his first draft he spends about a week or two on 300+ pages of writing. This is just
like me spending little to no time revising a few pages.
I have had a bumpy ride with writing. I have felt many times that just because I pick up
the pen means gold will come out of it. I have realized though that this isnt true. I know that it
can work in some writing. I know that I can do this and write something that is maybe good
enough for the fridge, but not close to good enough for the library. I think I could write
something good enough for publishing though. But I know it will take about three times as much
work as I am accustomed to putting into my writing. Will this make me like writing even more?
Will this kill my passion? I dont know. All I know is that I have gotten in the way of my good
writing for a long time. I have flashes of beautiful brush strokes, and metaphors that turn on
lights, but it has never truly come together completely. I think I am still growing as a writer, and I
just want to see what I can do when I give it a mindful try, instead of that old college one.

Annotated Bibliography
Nielsen, A. (2011). Directed Self Placement Essay. University of Michigan.
Writing this short essay was required for entry into the University of Michigan. In
a way it was the first college writing I ever completed. At the same time it was relatively
low stakes since it is meant to be a gauge of where I was at as a writer coming into
college. The essay was a response to an article in The Atlantic online magazine. The
article was called Mind vs. Machine, which focused on the Turing Test and what it
means to be human. So, as a high school senior trying to prove his worth as a writer I was
tasked with writing a short essay, about a subject I had just been introduced to, and write
it with style and skill. I didnt do a very good job. There are many errors on the sentence
level as well as word choice. Many sentences turn into confusion as noun-verb
agreements get crisscrossed and confusing. Moreover, there are sentences that arent even
sentences. Looking back at the essay I am surprised that I sent it in. My ideas were good
enough for the occasion, but the writing was unsuccessful when put into practice. This
writing didnt do a whole lot to impact my writing development since I just wrote the
essay and sent it innever really knowing how well I did or not. But, I think it did help
me try to take writing more seriously, at least as far as responding with good ideas and
intent. If I remember correctly, I was scrambling to get the application done and turned in
on time for an early response, so I dont think I looked the essay over much at all before
sending it in. If I was cognizant of it, I would have realized at this time that I was
developing a revision problem and that I was overconfident in my own writingto the
point that I am disappointed in past Anthony for even thinking that the essay was good.
Because of the situation (being in a rush) and the nature of the assignment I wasnt able
to put the necessary time into the paper to write something good. Also, having to respond
to an article narrowed the options for creativity and brought me out of my element for the
writing occasion.
Nielsen, A. (2012). Uhuru. English 124. University of Michigan.
This is one of my favorite pieces I have ever written actually. I use this piece in
the essay to show my affinity for literary analysis, and also because it reignited my
passion for writing (at least that class did, but by extension this essay did as well). The
occasion of this piece was a comparative analysis of language. I wrote this during my
first-year writing requirement course. The whole idea of the essay was to show the power
of language. I had read The Tempest by Shakespeare, and A Tempest by Aim Csaire and
looked specifically at the way they used language to establish power hierarchies within
their stories. The point of it all was to show that even though A Tempest is a retelling of
the original Shakespeare play, it also changed the reality of it. In Shakespeares version
the character Caliban his a woeful slave who always falls back to his master Prospero,
while in Csaires version Caliban becomes enlightened, and knows that he should have
freedom, and that he can have it. I showed the way that both writers wrote with
essentially the same language, but through word choice the two stories end up having
different results and implications. This was a piece that allowed me to really shine

because of my prior experience and love for literary analysis. I was able to read the lines
between the lines of a story, to search for a deeper meaning and thought process that isnt
obvious on the surface. Because of this I think it helped me to develop more skills for
breaking down literature. It did not allow me to be very creative, but that was fine given
the assignment. Besides, in the moments where I wasnt directly talking about the two
pieces I was able to flex my writing muscle to make it sound good. I think the ideas I had
in this piece were very good. I think I had made the correct analysis of the language, and
wrote about it in a thoughtful way. However, as is the case with a fair amount of my
writing, there is a lack of revision that is obvious. It wasnt as bad as the DSP essay, but
there were misspelled words and confusing sentences because of mistakenly typing
wrong names or words. But it is things like that which resulted in my shortcomings in the
class as a whole. I think the fact that I had good ideas and was able to articulate them well
is what got me the decent grade, but some of the more fundamental errors countered to
deprive me of excellent work.
Nielsen, A. (2013). Bar Scene. English 223. University of Michigan.
This piece is somewhere in-between a poem and a short story. I wrote it for my
creative writing class, which happened to be a poetry class. The class was designed in
such a way that we had to produce a poem every week, and it could be on any topic we
wanted. So one of those weeks I decided to write about a bar which happened to be the
home of a couple mass murders, committed by the devil himself. The idea is that the
devil walks around here and there searching for souls so far gone that they have no
chance at redemption. Once he finds these people, he kills them, and sucks their souls
into his magic watch. It also hints that the devil could be anybody, a fellow bar-goer, the
bartender, or even a random guy on the street. But this was really more of a fun excursion
into horror writing. A piece of writing that was low stakes and could be written about
anything. I was given a lot of freedom for the subject of my writing in that class, and as
such I experimented in many different styles and settings. I think the writing was pretty
good actually. Little or no mistakes were made, and I think that even if the story was
fairly shallow with no deep meaning, it was fun. For my own writing development I think
this writing (and more so in the class in general) showed me that writing can really be
about anything, and it doesnt have to be filled with intellectual gold or even have much
of a point. Writing can be about whatever you want and for whatever you wantif you
want to write a long poem about the devil killing drunks with a hook, go for it. I think
that it really started to open my eyes for the first time to the types of writing I could do if
I chose to. This writing occasion did however fall short in some regards. While I was free
to pick any topic I wanted to, I still had to fit the writing into enough of a poetry style for
the class. And in reality I failed that in a way. It reads much more like a story than it does
a poem, but I think there are some elements of poetry in the piece. All the same though, a
story that could have lasted for a few pages at least was forced into a one-page work of
writing.
Nielsen, A. (2013). Family Complications. English 325. University of Michigan.
I use this in the essay to support my claim that while I have good ideas,
sometimes my execution of those ideas is less than it could be because of revision (or
lack thereof). I wrote this essay for my class The Art of the Essay which was a creative

non-fiction class. The idea of this essay was to go into my family history to explain an
event where I broke down and cried about the fact that my parents werent together. For
this essay I took a family photo and talked about what it meant to me. So I used a photo
of my mom, myself, and my dadI think the last one that was taken of us alland
talked about what that photo meant to me. I talk about the deficits that developed in my
relationship with my father because my parents split up when I was young. I talk about
the hard times that eventually came between my stepdad and me. I also talk about the fact
that through it all my mother had always been there to support me. The whole idea is that
I have a complicated family, and that instead of hiding behind the fact that things arent
perfect, or normal, I should embrace the gift of having three parents who all love and care
about me. This was the first time my college writing took me to this level of personal
strife. I had never been comfortable sharing this kind of experience and feeling in my
writing before. I didnt want people to know that I had a messed up family, and I certainly
didnt want to write about it. But, when I did I was happy. This was another essay that I
expected a higher grade than I received, but I was also just happy to have gained the
confidence and the comfort to take on this tough subject and to do it justice. I didnt pull
punches, and I wasnt mean or vindictive. I looked at writing this piece as a way to set the
record straight with myself, and to really explore how I felt about it all. So, it helped me
find my voice in some regards. Not that I didnt have a writing voice before, but this
essay was all me. There was no writers fluff that an author might force into his work to
sound a certain way, just pure writing from the heart. Within this essay and these
annotations you might notice a certain candor, of stating the good, the bad, and the ugly
as if they were all the same thing, well it comes from this essay. I think the writing here is
pretty good. However, I noticed especially that I missed a lot of commas that I should
have inserted. I could have also utilized section breaks to make the important sections
stand out even more. But, given the fact that it was a non-fiction class I think it was very
good. With a maturing voice and a true story I think I took care of that aspect of the essay
perfectly. Because I was locked into preset prompts in this class I wasnt able to write
about any subject that I wanted.
Nielsen, A. (2014). A Guide to Psychology Blogging. [Website] https://asniel.wordpress.com/ .
English 229. University of Michigan
This is kind of a fun piece of writing, one that lives low on the totem pole for me.
It is my first website that I ever made. In my professional writing class we learned a lot
about blogging and social media. One of the projects was to create a how-to blog for our
field, thus I created a guide to psychology blogging. I did some research into some other
psychology blogs and with their design elements in mind created a site. After that, I made
a post to the site regarding the style of writing a blogand what psychology blogs did in
particular. The point of the project was to show that I could analyze, understand, and
effectively create a blogspace. This project expanded my writing to include an online
space as opposed to purely print. I dont think it was a very significant because Im not a
blogger. I think it was useful because it helped me learn about how to blog, and how to be
a self-publishing author online. I learned the skills necessary to be able to have a space
where I could write my own work and put it out into the world even if nobody else could
or would publish it. For this reason it is very significant. I gave me skills to be able to
continue my craft, furthermore within the broader scope of the class I learned how to

engage with social media in a way that I could bring an audience to my website. I think
the writing was pretty good for a blog. The tone was correct, I used multiple headings,
links, pictures, and bolded words to make the page more interesting and engaging for
readers. I think if I was more accustomed to or interested in blogging I would have gotten
more out of the assignment. But, much like a lot of the writing in this list, I was limited
by the definitions of the assignment and was forced to do a very specific type of website,
instead of something that I would have probably made on my own.
Nielsen, A. (2014). The Explorer. Writing 220. University of Michigan.
This was my Why I Write essay for my gateway course in the minor. The idea
of the assignment was to write an essay that searches for and articulates my motivation
for writing. The angle I took was that of an archeologist searching for my reason and
purpose to write, and more importantly the story that I am meant to tell. I describe in the
essay the way that I grew from a reader to a writer, and have since struggled to find
consistent success in the writing process. But also that the inconsistency doesnt scare me
or dishearten my desire to write, but simply forces me to keep searching. I think this
essay helped me develop as a writer because it was the first time anybody asked me to
think hard about why I was, and wanted to be a writer. It allowed me to actually figure
out for myself where I stood as a writer, and to establish goals for where that writer
should be heading. I think the writing was pretty good, especially with the application of
an extended metaphor that I used throughout the piece. It could have been better though. I
didnt revise it as much as I should have, whether out of laziness or a feeling of it being
good enough already, Im not sure. Either way, I left some writing on the table with this
one. I think the writing occasion was awesome for the way it forced me to look at
writing, and more importantly my own experience with writing. It asked me to think
further than the feeling that I was a good writer and I liked to do it. Because of this I
think it helped me mature as a writer, and a thinker. This essay was pretty open ended and
I was allowed to approach it in whatever way felt best to me, which I really liked.
Nielsen, A. (2015). Rating Mood Stability for College Students. Psychology 303. University of
Michigan.
This writing came from my upper level writing class within my major. I created a
survey study, conducted statistical analysis of it, and then wrote a research report
detailing my findings. Because of the academic nature of this writing it is fairly dry, with
almost no room for creative phrasing or showing off. The study was a self-report survey
questioning college kids on the perceived stability of their mood. I put together a
questionnaire and after all of the statistical analysis of the results had to write up a report
styled like a research article in psychology. I think it was important in my writing career
because it allowed me to write within my own field. I gained the experience of creating
and conducting a psychological experiment (even one that wouldnt hold up in literature)
and then writing about it as if I would be sending it to an academic journal. While the
writing I am personally interested in has nothing to do with psychology research, I was
able to add more to my writing repertoire which is always a good thing for someone who
is a writer. While the writing is dry, it is almost perfect for what it is supposed to do. It is
simple, clear, and describes everything it is supposed to in an appropriate way. While this

piece allowed me to develop my skills writing in psychology, it did nothing to further my


skills creatively in either style or thought.
Nielsen, A. (2015). No Single Place and Time. English 328. University of Michigan.
This essay comes from my nature writing course. This class required three essays
about nature be written, but we were free to pick our own topics. This was the first essay
I wrote in the class and I wrote it about a clearing in the woods where a family builds
their home. The interesting thing about this piece is that it looks at this place from
multiple time periods and multiple weather conditions and angles. This essay displays in
some ways how I have evolved as a writer. I finally had combined both the good ideas
that I had for writing projects and also some of the finer aspects of revision and prose
writing. During the essay I take the reader through several different perspectives as the y
revisit the same place over and over. They see the scene in sunshine and snow, and as
people, a tree, and a house. The goal was to point out that with time, weather, and
perspective a single place can be experienced in a multitude of ways. The majority of the
piece is very well done with a few minor errors that should have been rectified during
revision but I missed them. This essay allowed me to just think about something that I
thought was interesting. And with the advent of writing about nature and within nature, I
think it was almost a spiritual piece. I think this piece is significant in my development as
a writer because it is one of the first where I feel like I did an all-around good job. I wrote
about something that I cared about, I thought it was interesting, and I paid attention to
stylistic detail more than I usually would. This essay allowed me to do just about
everything that I would like to do in my writing.
Nielsen, A. (2015). Dark Chocolate. English 328. University of Michigan
This is an interesting piece. It is also from the nature writing course that the
preceding annotation is from. All the essays in this class, save for one meta-essay,
allowed me to pick a topic and write about it, and with the only restriction being that it is
a nature essay. This essay looked at a couple things, a gas station, a chocolate bar, and a
cultural disposition to environmental harm for the benefit of consumerism. The idea is
that by looking at just one item sold at a gas station (a Hersheys chocolate bar in this
case) one can begin to see the roots of the troubling situation we are in concerning the
environment. I did some research on how Hersheys makes their chocolate and where all
the ingredients come from. I argue that all of the resources that go into the manufacturing
of just one product lead to a troubling narrative for all products that are manufactured on
a global scale. I think that this essay showed a lot of growth in my writing abilities as
well, even surpassing the other essay (the preceding annotation). In this essay I take on an
even harder subject, and in my own opinion, I think I handle it well. The one drawback is
that it isnt as much of a nature essay as it could be, or should be for that classbut in my
opinion the essay does the work it should in its current state. The writing is good quality,
and after revision all, or practically all errors were eliminated. This writing allowed me to
write about a subject that bothers me and to tease out connections and analyze the whole
processone that people could write dissertations about, so I definitely didnt cover it
all. This essay helped me to build confidence for my abilities to take on tough subjects
and write about them effectively. I also learned from this essay that I could make
mistakes even while thinking I am accounting for them. While it may have been made to

be a bigger deal than initially perceived by the class, when we workshopped my essay,
the instructor made a point to talk about preachiness. And after that my essay was looked
at as if it were coming from atop a soapbox. And all the while I thought I was including
myself in the negative aspects of the message in the essay. But mostly it helped to show
me that even at this point, a senior at University I still have a lot to learn about writing.
Nielsen, A. (2015, Oct 5). Personal Paradox. Retrieved from
http://writingminor.sweetland.lsa.umich.edu/2015/10/personal-paradox/
This is the last citation I have in the essay and it has to do with a perceived
problem of mine. This blog post talks both about my issues with revision and also why I
think this problem exists. This blog post was meant to help me think about my writing
process and satisfy requirements for the writing capstone course. The post discusses my
overconfidence and lack of care at times when it comes to the revision process. I also
openly divulge that I am a lazy writer sometimes. And lastly, that perhaps it is the way in
which I have thought about writing for my entire writing career that influences my
approach to writing. I think this is a pretty significant thing in my writing because it
publicly, and directly identifies my problem. I think writing through the problem could
work. Moreover, it is the type of thought that takes a hard, and truthful look at my own
work. It is a recent assessment and identifies exactly who I am as a writer at this point in
time. I think that the post is pretty good as far as a blog goes. The one thing it is missing
is some sort of multimedia componentno pictures or videos here. There is one link, but
its to my dads website. The writing is very honest and I think very well donewith one
mistake! But, while it wasnt my intention, it works out well in a post about a lack of
revision. In this occasion I was somewhat limited in this post because it was a response to
a specific question from class. I could have probably written about other things, but this
was the first thing that came to mind.

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