Over the four years that I have attended high school I have developed as a writer by improving my grammar, organization of information, and style of writing by using better diction and imagery. Although my work has not developed into a perfect process of gathering details and putting them together, it has become more coherent. Many of my works since my freshman year have been reflective of my age and maturity. As I have matured over the years my work has developed like a worm into a butterfly. Hopefully when my work is reviewed later in life I can clearly see where I improved and why it was better than previous years.
As long as I can remember I have liked writing about anything I choose, but disliked writing about something the teacher has assigned me. I would describe myself as a free writer that can conform to a style that is assigned. However, I do struggle a little when it comes to timed writings, as it is hard for me to put all of my thoughts down in a compact essay along with the time limit. For some reason I have become more accustomed to typing my essays than writing them. I guess it’s due to the fact that half of my day is spent in front of a computer either doing schoolwork or just browsing the web for interesting and funny things. I feel that my writing skills have become more solid since my first year of high school because of the teachers helping and the practice I attained in school.
Since I was a young boy I have struggled a bit with my reading skills because I did not enjoy reading assigned books or schoolbooks, but as I have gotten older I have come to enjoy reading in my senior year. I feel that I am a moderate reader with a grasp on comprehending most of what the author means to say. Since seventh grade I can remember reading goose bumps and other fictional stories for fun as I still enjoy it now. Although my taste in literature has matured since my senior teacher has helped open new doors to books I would have never glanced twice at. At moments I sometimes have trouble understanding Shakespearian plays, but I have learned to reread what I am struggling with aloud once and try to picture it in my mind to get a better grasp on the subject. These helpful tools have changed my reading for the better now and in the future.
As my reading and writing have improved so has my thinking process for analyzing literary pieces. When I first start to analyze a piece of literature I first try to understand the author’s purpose and from there I reread it to see if my understanding has changed. Sometimes the answer is not as easy to see in literary pieces so it requires deeper thought to understand it. I feel that deeper thinking is a valuable tool when using the reading and writing process. In order to fully understand piece of literature you cannot simply guess about the meaning, but go further into detail by asking yourself why the author wrote the work. All three of these tools used in English tie together so the reader can attain a better understanding and interpretation of what literature is really about.
I believe that my reading and writing will take me further into college after I graduate and hopefully help me when I get a job. The skills I learned will allow me to take on tasks such as writing up reports and other business like things as well as help in college when I really have to write a lot for essays and research papers. This year alone I have learned more about how to be a better writer than any other year with more knowledge about how to interpret literature and apply it to my own view. My feelings towards literature and writing are simple in the fact that they will help me no matter what I am writing about. The skills will not only help me in my job but also in getting my job, as I have also learned proper business etiquette. Overall my reading and writing skills are useful to not only future employers but also my colleagues and me.