Since the dawn of civilization, individuals have been inscribing their names and text onto

historical monuments, stone carvings and ancient documents for many purposes. Many of those
individuals wish to have their identities remembered for eternity, others sought to express their
internal thoughts delicately in the form of written text. It is truly a privilege to attain this skill
through public education since human beings depend on this technique on a daily basis to
communicate with each other via letters and text messages. As a student, I enjoy writing during
the refreshing morning because I am able to see and hear myself articulate my thought processes
through a different medium, allowing me to understand who I am. More often than not, any junk
or creative thought bubbles that flow through my stream-of-consciousness will end up on my
paper without proper organization, and that basically sums up my impulsive nature. Other
writers may begin their first piece of writing with a similar method of spontaneously jotting
down whatevers on their minds in that moment in order to prevent their intuitive thoughts from
fading into the void. As E.B. White noted, A writer who waits for the ideal conditions under
which to work will die without putting a word on paper.
Since English wasnt my first language, I always had trouble with writing in primary
school. The letters and symbols of the western world seemed so foreign and exotic by
comparison with the Chinese characters that permeated my household. With a disadvantage in
writing already, English would continue to become my least favorite subject until high school.
Many of my papers were solely written without any purpose and goal other than for the incentive
of earning a grade. Up till now, every piece of writing ranging from poems, essays, and scripts
were crafted with my teachers guidance through a four-step process of brainstorming, writing a
rough draft, making revisions and edits, and wrapping up with a final draft. My essays following
this process would still end up with minor errors that were left unnoticed despite constant

revisions. Personally, I prefer typing my pieces of writing at school without music as my home
would offer too much distractions such as food and video games that are constantly available,
diverting my attention away from my work. Like New Years Resolutions, I promised to initiate
my writing assignments early. The promise usually lasts for a few weeks after the first day of
school when stress and other priorities seep into my consciousness to push away writing
assignments till the last minute. Given the right circumstances, I would undoubtedly enjoy the
process of rewriting numerously to increase clarity; however, the time constraints and other
priorities such as work makes the process difficult. Typically, I enjoy reading blogs for their
informal and conversational style, especially when the author is also a competent writer who
could skillfully weave together inner thoughts together to forge an intellectual and casual piece
of writing. On other hand, no matter how sophisticated a writer may be when writing literary
analyses, I am not fond of reading a third partys views and their attempts to grasp another
authors piece of writing.
During my first semester in Dual Enrollment, I had grown significantly as a writer. I was
able to perfect my personal narrative and my college essay through the technique of showing
instead of telling. Later on, I understood the varying formats and the decision to use formal or
informal writing based on my audience. Specifically, my appeals letter was purposefully written
in block format using formal language to voice my complaints rather than painting an imagery as
shown in descriptive writing. The purpose of descriptive writing, on the other hand, was to
stimulate the readers mind using the five senses. The compare/contrast essay also taught me to
be become more concise with my writing by providing concrete examples that pertained to the
similarities and differences of two subjects rather than inserting filler material that seemed to fit
in the context.

As a writer and a person in general, I was never great at managing my time efficiently.
One of the many weaknesses that preyed on me throughout the duration of Dual Enrollment was
my incredibly sluggish pacing. Whether it be coming up with ideas or developing syntax, I
would spend all day. That didn't help with my editing and revising process either, as I would
also spend hours analyzing my writing for better changes. These setbacks made it extremely
difficult to develop an essay within a time constraint and made it tempting spend half of my
given time to write the introduction. However, I had found salvation and reification in my
writing through the process of rewriting and rewriting, a technique that was previously thought
of as tedious and unhelpful became my best method of developing an essay. With these
newfound discoveries of efficient techniques, I intend to use them in the future by writing earlier
and practice rewriting while incorporating these techniques more frequently. My only concern
about me is my speed, which is unbearably slow and causes me to write for prolonged periods of
time despite starting early. If theres one question that has still been left unanswered, it would be
what can I do to become a faster writer?