When the STP session began I thought of myself as a satisfactory writer, but with no aspirations to sit for long periods of time only to write about an assigned prompt. Ideas do not come to me well when I am staring at a paper knowingly I have to fill up six pages of size twelve font words. In high school, I would put sentences down that was very broad and unnecessary just to take up space. With small classes and brilliant professors, there is no way that will work at Virginia Military Institute.
Over the course of this session, LTC Ticen has helped me with so much, I have learned to appreciate more pieces of work and to think positively when assigned to write a paper. With her comments, conferences, and multiple peer’s response sessions I have able to overcome the obstacle of figuring out how to expand off my ideas and correct an unbelievable amount of grammar errors.
There is always something I can improve on in every aspect of my life. With writing, it is developing and proving how my evidence is relevant to the topic of discussion. Understanding the topic is one thing, but then applying it to vital evidence and proving how it works with one another is another thing. The short and simple answer is always the route I try to take. This does not work when writing college papers. I am improving on this writing requisite, but still have the most trouble with it as well.
As I prepare to take ERH102 I advise myself to go to the writing center more because all of the staff were very helpful on giving positive feedback from a new set of eyes. Reading papers out loud and explaining the prompt to someone who has a fresh pair of eyes and ears can help exponentially. I will never forget reading “Shitty First Drafts” on the first day of class. Anne Lamott, a successful author, explained how writing a first draft that is terrible is allowed. I will continue to remind myself of this with every paper I write in the future.