Dominica Beverley Megan Keaton ENGL 1103 29 April 2013 Writing History Response All throughout my schooling, I never

really liked writing. I always dreaded every writing assignment that was assigned unless it was something that let me express myself and my creativity. I didnt feel like thinking for long periods of time or even writing for long periods of time. To me, writing was a tedious part of school that I just had a dislike towards. I put up with writing when I had to but that was only for a grade. The only time I would write in school was for a grade. Even if we could write about anything I wanted, I still had a hard time because so many ideas would pop up into my head and I could not choose which one I wanted to write about. Outside of school, I didnt write much because I was so tired of writing during school. If I did write, it was because I was feeling some way and I decided to express my feelings by writing them down. As a developing writer, I really need motivation to write. I am not good at writing freely because I have no drive or motivation to do so. There is one instance that I recall from elementary school and it was writing BCRs and short stories. BCRs are brief constructed responses. I remember my fourth grade teacher, Mr. Byrd, telling me that these responses were 4 sentences minimum (this was the length of a paragraph back then.) He told me that in order to answer the writing prompt, I should use these four steps when writing a BCR. The steps were 1) to restate the question, 2) find evidence in the text, 3) explain how this example supports your answer, and 4) conclude by restating the first sentence of the BCR. Im surprised I even remember this method because nowadays BCRs dont exist. They have evolved to papers and essays and paragraphs are not 4 sentences, not even five sentences long anymore. Either way, I was still required to write regardless of the length. In

the long run, these steps helped me develop a structure in my writing that I would not have had during free writing. This method of answering a prompt or a writing assignment allowed me to organize my thoughts like an outline and then somewhat fill in the blanks. I liked this method of outlining and then entering information in a writing piece because it kept my thoughts in order while making sure I hit each point I wanted to cover. The only time I recall willing to write was when it had to deal with me creating fictional stories about anything I wanted. I liked to be creative when coming up with a setting, a cast of characters, and a plot. It let me be free and write without any boundaries. As I grew older, my thinking and my writing skills progressed gradually. I was starting to get into a set way of writing, but still being creative and thinking outside of the box. I think that the reason I became a decent writer now is because I remember certain keys to writing. A decent writer has most of their thoughts together, but may not know how to present them to the reader or the audience of their piece. As I learned in fourth grade with the BCRs, I know that structure is essential to me in which I write my papers or essays or anything for that matter. As a part of my writing process, I need a main topic to write about and then I build on that. Similar to mnemonic devices, there is always something to help me structure my writing or to help me start or continue writing. In fourth grade, it was the 4 steps to help me write a BCR. In 9th and 10th grade, I had the same English teacher so he came up with this acronym to help students like me format and outline my paragraphs to answer writing prompts. It was called TICECEC. Each letter stands for a piece of information that you will need to include in order to write a lengthy and thorough response. The letters in the acronym stood for a piece of information you would place in your response to the writing prompt; T: Topic, I: Introduction, C: Citation, E: Explanation, C: Citation, E: Explanation, C: Conclusion. I felt like it was way easier to organize

what I was going to write if I had an outline or something to help me remember key components of my writing. This kind of outline helped me be thorough in my response because I was including all of the information needed and by following the outline, I could show evidence to the reader and tell them how that citation supports my claim. That method was only for answering prompts in English class but when writing essays based on readings or research, I brainstormed first about how I would present my view or what research I found. Then, I would take what I came up with from brainstorming and turn it into a list of points I would like to cover in my paper. Once I had my points, I would take each point and turn it into one paragraph each for the body of my essay. Over the years, I figured out that some teachers know that writing is a tedious and sometimes non-stimulating process so they try to come up with ways to make writing fun. Heres where the creativity comes in. They give assignments that involve music, television, social media or anything that deals with pop culture or something else that interests the students. I listen to a lot of music so when I combine writing and music, I find a lot of inspiration. It also motivates me to write in the same sense that music motivates people who jog or lift weights. As I stated before, I am not a zealous writer. I write for purpose and not for fun unless there are no boundaries and I am allowed to express myself through my writing. In my senior English Literature class, my teacher, Ms. Woods pushed me and my writing to the next level, in my opinion. Every time I would write an essay or a simple response to the writing prompt, she would always ask the question, why is it important? By asking this question, she pushed me to think more critically and it opened my eyes to more to write more into depth. In depth means that the reader could tell that I was really thinking about what I was writing about. For example if I was writing about the authors view in a piece of literature that

was discussed in class, I would show through my writing that I really understood what the author was trying to say by what he didnt write. This mean that I had to take what the author wrote and interpret it, figure out why they wrote this and what it means to them. Not only did she help me with my writing in class, she helped with my writing outside of class. I was the Salutatorian of my class and I wrote a speech for the graduation ceremony. I have never wrote and speeches because normally when I speak publicly, I improvise and go off the top of my head. But my writing process for the speech was a crazy one. I had so many restrictions and things that I had to include in my speech. This really tested my ability to write and it was a showcase to those listening to my speech what I could do as far as my ability to write. Ms. Woods really did a good job helping me get my intended message across to my fellow classmates and it was a success. After the ceremony, my classmates and other faculty members applauded me on my speech and told me how nice it was. The writer that I am now had been hidden, but seems to be breaking out as time goes on. Everything that I learned in school and from outside experiences has helped my writing and there are more things that I will learn as I transform from a decent writer to a great writer.