Over the last semester, I have gone from a novice writer, fresh out of high school, to a college writer. Along the way, I have had ups and downs. I have learned new tricks to writing. I have polished old skills.
My first college paper was My Adventures in Writing; a history of my pre-college writing career. I used phrases like, “My general opinion about writing is negative” and “I think of those writings as tedious and time consuming.” I still may not enjoy writing, but that essay did remind me of how far I have come as a writer. A long time ago, I was learning to make letters, now I am writing papers for a professor. After all the hard work I have put in, I am in the shoes people dream of filling. It may be rough, so is the ratline. I may not like it, but I grind through it. As William Ernest Henley one famously put, “My head is bloody, but unbowed.”
Essay two was a true test for me. Entitled Split Ethos, was an opinion on of the effective use of Ethos in Disliking Books at an Early Age, from the book Beyond the Culture Wars: How Teaching the Conflicts Can Revitalize American Education written by Gerald Graff. Before matriculating at VMI, I have never even heard of ethos. I did not have much time to learn what it was, and then teach my self the application of Kairotic elements. Split Ethos has been the best paper I have written. It was hard to write, it felt frustrating, it was also satisfying. I spent few nights writing instead of sleeping to complete that assignment. Never before had I thought I would write four drafts and a final copy on a paper, combing through it to polish every thought, make every word just right, and make my argument as clear as a crystal. When I was in high school, I was what some would call a “night before kind of guy.” I no longer consider myself that kind of writer.
My third essay is yet to be titled. It is yet to be written. It was the first time I have not turned in an essay. The third essay was supposed to be about discourse communities, something I do not understand. Unlike essay two, I never pushed passed my obstacles, I let something so small kick my ass. There is not much for me to say about this paper, other than the only thing that has changed about me is that I missed a deadline for the first time as a writer.
Over the past semester, I have changed from a “night before kind of guy” to a writer who wrote an essay four times to get it right. Aside for one time, I have become a writer who would grab the bull by the horns. Whether it is the ratline, ERH-101-04, or a combination of both, I have become a writer who attacks problems from the front. A writer who learns and adapts to new challenges.
Help Received
Easybib.com
Essay 1: My adventures in Writing
Essay 2: Split Ethos
Works Cited:
William Ernest Henley, “Invictus”, Modern British Poetry, Louis Untermeyer, New York, Harcourt, Brace, and Company. Print.