Writing, for me, has always come naturally. I am not sure if that is because I have loved to read since I was four years old and would read Dr. Seuss books to anyone that would listen. Maybe it is because I come from a large family of readers. My parents are both from the Midwest and were well educated so I have always heard standard English grammar spoken around me. The areas I grew up in New England and Miami were upper middle class so again the English I heard spoken was exactly what an English teacher wants to see in writing. Most bad grammar strikes my ears - it just sounds wrong to me. I am sure that I am not perfect but I think for the most part grammar is one of my major strengths.
I am also lucky to be able to gather my thoughts and organize them well. I do have trouble with getting started but if I just force myself to write I can get the thoughts to start flowing pretty quickly. I have a hard time letting go of my writing when I am done. I like to edit and re-edit over and over trying to perfect things. I have had to let go of that this summer because there were several papers due in my summer courses that I just didn't have time to hold on to for 2 or 3 extra days. I found that it was ok to let go.
My biggest difficulty when writing is punctuation. I am the queen of the comma splice. It is important for me to have someone read over my papers to find these kinds of mistakes. I also need to work on citations because it doesn't come naturally to me. I guess it is not something that flows and I find it really tedious. I know it is important I just wish there was a way to have all that information magically appear on my papers. I do want to give credit; I just hate all the time it takes. I have noticed that when pulling journal articles from the library's electronic data base I am seeing citation information along with the articles. I think that is great, anything to make that process easier. I know that the more I work with citations the easier it will get.
Overall I would consider writing and Language Arts my strongest subjects. As with any writer getting started can be difficult but once I get going I am able to clearly convey my ideas through my writing. Language arts come naturally to me. Math and science are a different matter!
Hi Aimee, I can agree with your stance on citations. It is a tedious, though necessary, process. When I write, I usually make that part the very last thing I do because it does take such a long time; plus, editors get really nitpicky about the citations being 100% correct (periods, commas, etc. in the right place). For me, so long as I give credit when/where it is due then what does it matter if I want to use caps for the entire title instead of just the beginning word? Sorry to go off on that tangent, but it strikes a nerve with me! I look forward to reading some of your work this semester.
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