Writing Timeline

The first piece of writing that I have ever written was in second grade and I was a report on what we wanted to be when we grew up. It was written on the like super wide ruled paper that you have when you are learning how to write. I remember I wrote it all out and my mom had to come and make sense of it because I was only in second grade and all I knew is that I wanted to be a dentist. I didn’t know how to write and my handwriting was worse than it is now (hard to believe, I know), but she came and she told me that if I wanted to become a dentist I would have to work on my writing because they do a lot of it during the day. Now, she wasn’t telling me this to be serious and start practicing writing like a dentist when I was six years old, she just wanted me to practice and get better so she didn’t have to sit and do my homework with me every night. However I really took what she said to heart and I worked on my writing style. I would always sit and think for a really long time before I wrote anything down no matter if it was homework, tests, or actual papers because I wanted what I was writing to be perfect.

My first essay was in fourth grade about Amelia Earheart. This was the first real research paper that I had ever written and we had to present it in front of the class. I remember I was so nervous going up in front of everyone because I was one of the first to go. I went up and I gave the main points of my essay that I had written on note cards because we weren’t suppose to read the whole paper to the class. After I gave my presentation I was so relieved to be done with it and I felt even better listening to the other kids in the class who got up there had had no idea what they were talking about. I was proud because I did the research and I learned the facts and I composed an A+ essay.

There are two essays that I would consider to be the most successful that I’ve ever written the first is a research paper from junior year about homeschooling and the second is the essay that I talked about in my first journal prompt.

My research paper from junior year about why children should not be homeschooled was a huge part of our grade for that quarter, so I took it very seriously. This paper had to be ten to twelve pages long and had to include citations, source cards, and research cards. I had only done one paper like this before and I didn’t do the note cards correctly so I received a B for my paper. I was determined to get an A on this one. I remember sitting in my living room with note cards spread all around me spending hours on this paper, reading and rereading over and over again. When I turned it in, the envelope felt like it was ten pounds. Throughout the course of this essay we would have “peer edits” where we would get feedback from our classmates about our essays, I never got negative feedback about my homeschooling paper so I felt very confident turning it in. My English teacher was so surprised that that piece of writing came from me; he never knew I could compose a paper with the adequate facts to prove my point on why children shouldn’t be homeschooled. Even though this was a difficult topic to write ten to twelve pages about I was able to find the facts needed to prove my point and I received an A.

The second piece of writing that I consider to be successful was the essay that I threw together in twenty minutes. I don’t consider this essay to be good because of how in-depth and well constructed it is, I consider it to be good because of the personal meaning that it has.  

I really think that there are two sides to writing; the informative and the personal side. My research paper was the informative side of me, but this short essay is the epitome of how I like to write. I really feel like making your writing more personal draws people in and makes them more inclined to read it. That is why I am drawn to Hemmingway and Dickinson; even though Hemmingway is fiction and Dickinson’s writing is so obscure you still know that there are connections to both of their personal lives in their writing. My writing may not be obscure and as meaningful as theirs but to make a personal point I don’t think it always has to be. Telling people your story the way that it happened could make a deeper connection with your audience and that is my goal with my writing.