Thursday, August 27, 2015
High school writing experience
Hello all. Looking back to my high school days, writing is not something that prominently sticks out. My school wasn’t really writing focused, yes we did timed-writings and such but it was always focusing more on the mathematics and the sciences. However, that being said, we did have a few writing assignments that stood out among the rest. My sophomore, junior, and senior year in various AP and honors English classes, we were assigned research papers. These were papers that were to be at least 15 pages long and extensive research and citations were also required. As a class, we did extensive writing labs, peer edits, and instructor editing sessions. These papers had to be perfect. Coming from a school that didn’t focus on writing that much one would expect me to not like writing as much as the other guy, on the contrary, I love writing. I may not be the most concise writer, or the most grammatically correct writer, but I do love it. I look forward to the writing aspect of this class and college in general. One thing that I learned from my high school writing experience is not that “practice makes perfect” but “perfect practice makes perfect”. Seeing as I didn’t get the extensive practice in high school as some of my peers, I look forward to getting that practice time in during not only this class, but also my college career. My major concern with this class and college writing is the strict scrutiny that my writing will be put under. Every little mistake is another point off my paper’s overall grade. Every misplaced coma is another point off, every misspelled word, another point. With the practice I will get in this class, I hope to alleviate those worries into oblivion and go through college writing stress free.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hello, I completely agree with you when you mention that writing was not prominent in your high school experience. My classes were exactly the same as my math and sciences classes seemed to be more encouraged than any literature or writting class. In addition, I don't know if I'm taking the word "perfect" too literally, but I don't know if I agree with the phrase, "perfect practice makes perfect". Personally, I see practicing new material as a place to expose what you don't know and a place to make mistakes. I understand how the quote may be referring more to how an individual needs practical practice, instead of busy work that seems like practice. However, I don't know if "perfect" is the right word to use.
ReplyDeleteHello, I completely agree with you when you mention that writing was not prominent in your high school experience. My classes were exactly the same as my math and sciences classes seemed to be more encouraged than any literature or writting class. In addition, I don't know if I'm taking the word "perfect" too literally, but I don't know if I agree with the phrase, "perfect practice makes perfect". Personally, I see practicing new material as a place to expose what you don't know and a place to make mistakes. I understand how the quote may be referring more to how an individual needs practical practice, instead of busy work that seems like practice. However, I don't know if "perfect" is the right word to use.
ReplyDeleteI like that you brought up that you thought your school was more focused on science and math than writing. To me, it seems like your school really stressed that writing was a priority! I thought my school focused a lot on writing as well as math and sciences, but I really only did the peer edits and instructor editing in one of my English classes in high school. I suppose we all learned different descriptions of what "good" writing practice is and what isn't, but I definitely think your school did focus on writing if you had that much practice and guidance.
ReplyDeleteHey Brian, I definitely understand how some high schools focus on the structure of there core classes like math and science as opposed to English. Maybe it's because those two subjects are most affiliated with standardized tests and general knowledge. I do feel that writing is important however. In our last class we discussed how writing gives people a chance to speak as sophisticated as we can. Even as a write this post it is still tempting to use slang terms and abbreviations which is quite frustrating I suppose that writing is truly about digging deep into topics that you would never discuss in a conversation. It gives people a chance to learn from themselves. I hope that my post helped open things up for you Brian. I hope that you really enjoy your writing experience from here on out.
ReplyDelete