So I’m going to take my friends’ advice and my teachers’ commands on writing this paper, “do not site procrastination.” Instead I’ll sit here with my blue vans sweater and blue aeropostale shirt reflecting the glare of my monitor and reflect on my writing from this semester.
Over the course of this semester I realize that certain aspects of fighting can actually relate and be applied in writing. By that I mean in turning a weakness into strength, as to minimize having a broad array of flaws. Although in order for that to be done those flaws have to first be addressed. This was one of my problems. When I wrote, I too often ignored the snake of letters that formed into a run-on sentence, gaining strength with every comma and semicolon. I paid no attention to that trail of green which had underlined my words and let it simply fade into the white canvas. Then when the graded paper returned to the hands that typed them, that universal tattoo that I saw on every one of my papers returned as well. The red sometimes blue, black, or even green title of “run-on sentence,” was more vibrant than the glow of the screen from my blue vans jacket. Although over the course of the semester with the additional help of the SILKS, and the student teachers, I finally acknowledged my problem. By that I’m talking about that chronic habit of creating a Saint Patrick’s Day themed paper, in the way of how the green underlined illustrated more than the bland black text. With that, I discovered that the reason for these constant run-on sentences was due to my style of writing. I don’t quite understand when I made the transition into using such drawn out, unnecessarily detailed metaphors and similes, or if I had always been writing in this fashion. However this semester it was another flaw that I realized.
Correcting such failings was always difficult because I never noticed when I made them, and when I did I ignored them. When I ignored them was primarily because I was rushing to finish a last-minute paper because I had become partners in crime with procrastination. With that comes my next problem, checking and rereading over my work. See, now many people would’ve easily inferred I was going to say procrastination, well procrastination is a main contributor to this flaw. Often too many times of waiting to the last day to last minute to finish an assignment or paper, do I scramble some sentences together and slap them on a white sheet of paper. Even when it’s not just scrambled words, but rather well thought out sentences I still forget to review my work and that flaw reappears. I always would ignore the advice of my parents and will refuse to reread over my work. Thus allowing all the misspelled words and grammatical incorrect sentence to reside, and later be accompanied by familiar red writing. I saw this as a major problem cause there was always many times where I could’ve gotten a better grade if I had simply read over my work instead of depending on spell check at the most sometimes. This problem was easier to correct than I thought all I had to do was break the constant habit of procrastinating and reserve a minute or two to simply review my writing.
This semester, with the help of the student teachers they showed me that all my writing isn’t simply flaws and weaknesses I have strengths too. The strength is primarily in those “drawn out, unnecessarily detailed metaphors and similes.” Though they do not serve as a strength when they are in a run-on sentence, they are reverted back to a weakness. Although when they are in a grammatically correct sentence and used appropriately they serve as striking lines, great transitions, and so on. I’d rather have striking lines over perfectly formatted sentences anyway, because grammar can always be corrected, striking lines take creativity which can’t really be artificially made.
This semester I’ve acknowledged my major weaknesses and primary strength when it comes to writing and since then have gradually corrected the faults. Although still tend to fall into the ever so familiar habit of not reviewing my work, but at least I can honestly say this was not one of those times.