Writing Project 4: Portfolio Reflection

 
In the majority of my life, I have never been fond of writing. In past academic courses,

writing assignments that were given were tedious and boring. For example, a prompt that I had to

write about in high school was about the concept of brotherhood and how it is represented within

a specific text. The response to this prompt had to be a minimum of 1600 words in an analytical

essay format. Along with having no personal insight into what brotherhood is like, I also had no

interest or motivation in answering prompts similar to this. Over time, I started to feel less

inspired to write. This hindered my performance in writing and it became one of the most

mentally challenging things for me. At one point, I dreaded and procrastinated on writing essays,

discussion boards, emails, and even text messages. Going into my freshman year of college, I

worried that I would not be able to get over this struggle. The reason why this concerned me so

much was that the courses I signed up for integrated many writing assignments and essays within

the class. I also knew that I would need to communicate with my professors and peers via email

and other platforms significantly.

Within the first week of college, I was given an in-class writing assignment in my

humanities Human Event 171 course. The writing prompt for this assignment stated to draw

specific evidence from the book we were reading that week, ​The Iliad ​by Homer, and how it

correlates to themes of love, violence, and the law. Because ​The Iliad ​is a long, complicated

read, I started to freak out. We were given ten minutes to construct a thesis as well as find and

include supportive evidence. Weeks later, the professor handed back our in-class writing

assignments graded. The average score for the in-class writing assignment was a 6.5 out of 10, I
received a 6. Receiving this score set me backward about I how felt about writing--less inspired

to engage in it. I knew at that point that it was crucial for me to seek help about my struggles in

writing before it impacted my grades significantly.

A few times throughout the semester, I would visit my professors in office hours about

how I was struggling as a writer and what approaches I should take to improve on this. Each one

of my professors that I talked to about this concern recommended several ways. One example is

my humanities professor, Dr. Young, told me while I am drafting an essay, I should continue to

write down my thought process until I finish answering the prompt. He recommended this

because as I write, I tend to edit my diction or grammar while I am in the middle of my thought.

Correcting errors as a write results in sentences not flowing together as a whole. After this

meeting, I took Dr. Young’s advice and applied it to any written assignments I was given to see

if there would be a significant change in my skill. Luckily, I started to see mild changes in my

writing skills such as making fewer errors in my sentence structure and thought processes.

Although I still had trouble with my willingness to write.

My willingness to write depleted because I often associated it with past written

assignments I had to complete in high school--the written assignments were often tedious and

boring to complete. I carried that same mentality of having no inclination to write from high

school to college. Having no motivation in writing was a part of my struggle that I knew I

needed to address. Therefore, I decided to start a private blog. I started a private blog to motivate

me to write about something I enjoyed or liked. It was an outside-of-class activity I would

engage in a few times a month. The blog was about the different bikinis I owned or recently

bought and what I liked and disliked about it. At first, I thought it was a silly idea because I was
unsure if it would help me with my inclination to write. After writing several ratings, I started to

realize that I enjoyed making blog posts about the bikinis that I have in my closet because I was

able to express something that I was highly interested in. After getting into the routine of writing

blog posts, I started to look forward to my next swimsuit purchase so that I can share my

personal thoughts of it. Therefore, creating this blog increased my willingness to write

outside-of-class as well as inside-of-class.

In the English 102 course taught by Professor Moody and Haunschild, all the writing

projects sought personal interest within the assignment. This semester I enjoyed having the

freedom to write about something that personally interests me while meeting the requirements of

the essay prompt. For example, I have many opinions about animals being treated poorly.

Therefore, for writing project 3, I knew I wanted to research and write a persuasive essay on

animal testing and why it is wrong. Usually, I can not find the motivation to write a 1500-word

essay assigned in class, but being able to research and highlight evidence about an issue that

interests me increased my willingness to start and write this essay.

Occasionally, I continue to struggle in wanting to write. This struggle is rooted in the fact

that I am not the best writer and that I often view writing as uneventful because of the writing

prompts I was given in high school. I worried that I would be in the same situation going into

college. Instead of letting my writing struggle to take its course in my first year of college, I

directly addressed the situation in order to improve as a writer. After asking several of my

professors about how I could improve as a writer, I received many tips. I applied the

recommendations from my professors toward in-class writing assignments and slowly started to
see an improvement in my grades. As a writer, I have evolved to realize that I should seek a

purpose in each of my writings whether the assignment is monotonous or compelling.