I have found writing papers to be a difficult task.

It has never come easily to me, and I

struggled the most my freshman and sophomore years of high school. It was junior year,
however, when I finally got the help I needed as a writer. My language and literature teacher,
Mrs. Hartle, was the first teacher that saw how much I was struggling with writing and wanted to
help me. She changed my life, not just in writing, but in my personal life as well. She
introduced me to this quote by John F. Kennedy: Efforts and courage are not enough without
purpose and direction.. This quote is relevant to not only writing but to life in general. One can
put forth effort and have courage in any situation, but if they do not have a purpose or direction
they will not go anywhere.
Effort is a critical aspect of writing. Mrs. Hartle taught me many things about writing and
because of this I did not have to put much effort into the first assignment in my UWRT 1101
class. The first few weeks of class were focused on how to avoid bad writing techniques and
learning to express myself on paper. The first assignment was a Writers Journal Entry based on
the two readings we did: "Unteaching Writing Myths" and "Students' Right to Their Own
Language". Both this assignment and Mrs. Hartles coaching, taught me that a paper does not
have to have the traditional five paragraph, clearly identifiable thesis, and conclusion. Due to
this previous knowledge, I did not have to put forth much effort at the beginning of this course.
As the semester progressed, I saw that this writing class was not going to be like any of the other
English classes I had taken. This course was about digging deeper and developing my own
personal writing style. As the course load became heavier, I slowly came to the conclusion that I
needed to put more effort into my writing if I wanted to benefit from all the class had to offer.
This occurred to me when the first topic, Literacy Narrative, was assigned. The objective of this

assignment was to write about my personal experience with becoming literate in a particular
subject. The topic I chose was cheerleading; being that my cheerleading career started when I
was in the fourth grade, I knew this assignment was going to take deep thought and effort. At
this point, I started putting more energy into my writing and into the course itself. The next
assignment was the Altered Book Literacy Narrative. This required me to transform my Literacy
Narrative paper into a book filled with illustrations and visuals. As I dove into this task I became
overwhelmed and anxious. I knew the only way to overcome this anxiety was to replace it with
courage.
Courage is essential in expressive writing to conquer the fear of failure. I recognized that
I was struggling with this assignment and I felt as if failure was inevitable. Thoughts of defeat
due to my assumption that my writing ability was inferior to my classmates led me to seek help
through peer review. To participate in peer review each student had to complete two out of nine
pages of the altered book. I was not confident with the pages that I produced, but my peers put
in genuine effort to help me improve the content of the pages in a way that would guide the
illiterate reader to a better understanding of my topic. I had to gain courage so that I could
diminish my fear of failure and create my altered book without the restraints of anxiety and fear I
had within me. I was not only concerned with failure, but that because I did not have Mrs. Hartle
by my side, I was going to regress back into the battle I had with writing during my high school
career. I knew the only way to overcome this fear would be by reflecting on John F. Kennedys
motivational quote that Mrs. Hartle had introduced me to and find a way to implement it into my
current situation. I had put forth effort and courage in this situation, but those things, when
standing alone, are not enough.

At this point in the semester, I had to step back and look at the bigger picture. I needed to
discover what the purpose was for putting effort into developing my personal writing style and
determine why I had courage to keep pushing through. I realized on the Found Genre
assignment that there was a purpose to personalizing my writing. To complete this task I had to
find a genre that I was going to use in some aspect of my life and then create examples of that
genre. I chose the Facebook group, Outback Family, which was created by my coworkers to
announce that shifts needed to be picked up or released. The goal of this assignment, for me
personally, was to help me formulate a better proposition to get my coworkers to pick up my
shifts when needed. I noticed that the effort I was putting into this assignment had a purpose
because it would help me not only on my creative writing skills but, also, my personal life. This
assignment was the first step towards the realization that the effort and courage I was putting into
this class was not enough; I needed, not only purpose behind my writing, but somewhere to go
with it, as well.
Due to my recognition that purpose is critical in finding my personal writing style, I had
to take a step back and look at where I was focusing my effort and courage. The last topic in this
class, that all the other topics and assignments led up to was the Ethnography. The Ethnography
assignment was meant to inform the readers about the subculture of the International
Baccalaureate Diploma Program. This was the largest project out of all the assignments I had
completed in this class because I not only had to use personal experience to educate the reader,
but primary sources and quotes from people currently in the subculture, as well. This assignment
showed me that with the effort and courage I now had consistently flowing within my writing, I
needed direction to keep my writing focused. I realized I needed direction alongside purpose in

order to plant my personal writing style into other aspects of my life. The Ethnography
assignment gave me the tools I needed to guide myself towards the peek in my writing career
where I am overflowing with courage, effort, purpose, and direction.
One can put forth effort and have courage in any situation, but if they do not have a
purpose or direction they will not be able to advance their writing skills. I began this semester
and this course thinking I could get by while putting little effort in and still get good grades. I
soon understood I not only had to put effort into my writing and have courage to find my
personal writing style, but I also had to find a purpose to my writing and direct that purpose to
lead to something bigger and better. I believe that this college writing course helped me gain an
understanding of my personal writing style and how to incorporate it in all of my assignments.
This new knowledge of writing I received this semester is going to help me, not only in future
writing courses, but also in other classes I take in college and in my personal life. This writing
course has led me to see exactly how I want to proceed to write future papers and has guided me
to express myself in every aspect of my life - from my college career and courses to my future
job.