While deciding for a college I knew for a fact I wanted to go into an engineering field. I just knew that I liked building things and figuring out how was the best way to build it. You’re never limited to anything because there are so many ways you can build a structure. I decided to major in this at city tech however city tech didn’t really go into depth with it, they only had a two-year program which isn’t all that great to me. This brings up that when looking into college I didn’t want anything below a bachelor’s degree and I honestly I don’t even know the reason but that no going to stop me moving ahead. Coming into college I realized it is not at all what people described it to be. When hearing about college I thought it was some type of prison that the guards abuse you at. Attending college for the first time I didn’t see that at all. If anything it felt like High School 2.0 with more responsibility. This made me think that people don’t know what they’re talking about when they say college isn’t for them. I would understand if it was because of financial issues but rather than that all I’m hearing is that you’re not responsible that’s why you can’t handle it. I know I’m pushing my way through college whether it kills me or not. I’m going to be an engineer because I’m passionate about building and I feel that it’s best you go to college for what your passionate about rather than what you think is a better career option that pays. Although I’m going to college for this and my goal getting into the engineering school, I don’t know what the future holds especially since getting into the engineering school has some ludicrous requirements.

I feel like writing will play a role in my education and life to come because first it a requirement for school and second, there are actually lessons in writing. You write every day whether you think so or not, texting is digital writing if you ask me. This year in writing I realized that there is more than just a teacher reading your work and grading it. You’re not writing for the teacher you’re writing for an audience. I feel like this helps show students that it is more than what’s in front of us. We thought it was simple as we are writing for the teacher to grade and be done but this is showing us that we’re older now and the world isn’t so black and white, we can’t go to college then work our dream 9 to 5. People tend to miss the steps in between and reside in the future instead of making this happen in the present that matters. An example of this is to ask any senior college student or graduate how did they ever change their major. You’ll find out a lot of people do and not just one time either. This tells me that when I’m writing don’t make it black and white, but my own passion in it and see my work as art.

Writing a persuasive essay is different from writing a creative essay because with a creative essay I can speak freely about something. I don’t have to go into heavy research about anything I write. With a persuasive essay, you need to research because how are you gonna argue your point without any type of evidence. That is why I’m less interested in research essays, also because most research essays have to follow a certain topic instead of being more in a free form. My scientific source doesn’t fuel my thinking as much as creative/narrative non-fiction does. This is because when I write creatively nothing really holds me back from putting what I really feel. Research persuasive essays are harder to write in my opinion because sometimes I agree and disagree with something and I’m forced to choose a side and then regret it halfway.

Writing techniques and rules that remain no matter what essay I write is that everything must flow, make sense and not be irrelevant to your topic. If what you’re getting into doesn’t directly answer your main question it shouldn’t be there. Also, you can’t talk about one thing and then just jump straight into another thing in the next sentence. You need to set up the next sentence or paragraph with a nice introduction. If it doesn’t flow the reader will get thrown off and lose focus.

My research was enhanced midway through the essay and that messed me up a little but I kept going. I had new ideas midway of the essay when I already had an outline on how to do the essay. The outline really never goes according to plan when you’re passionate about what you’re saying but it’s still good to have some type of structure so I knew what I was doing. When I found evidence that’s when my thoughts began to pour out because I had to analyze what I was seeing.

When I look for additional sources sometimes I change my argument. When you’re looking for sources sometimes you stumble upon evidence that is so good to argue and your claim would be better supported with the newly found evidence rather than the old. I sometimes experience this while looking for counter-arguments. This is starting to teach me to look for evidence that’s against your claim so you can have a full idea of what you agree with and which is better to argue.

If I was given a two-week extension there are factors that would make my essay better. If I am all by myself and try to revise my work it still wouldn’t be all that great from the original. Whereas if it was a productive two weeks with my pears editing it or giving me feedback I could integrate that into my work and make it better. Sometimes you may not agree with your peers and keep your work the way it is and in my opinion, that’s when you’ve written a great essay because you feel like it is perfect and others’ ideas aren’t good enough to alter it.

I feel like the most thought-provoking piece we have read is “What Writers Really Do When They Write” by George Saunders. I feel like I related to this piece because it did have reasons why I write in there and it wasn’t reasons I really thought about. I mostly only write because I have to for school but even when you’re forced to write about something and in a certain way, you still have your own style to it. I have seen a style a write like in the reading, I actually related to a few of them. A piece I didn’t find thought-provoking was “How To Break Up With Your Phone” by Catherine Pierce. I didn’t find this thought-provoking at all because I just felt like it was unnecessary. She encourages people to use their phone less but people aren’t on their phones doing nothing at all, they could be trying to entertain themselves or even doing work on it. I wouldn’t really call this an addiction and I don’t see a problem with it.

I feel like there are countless reasons why people write, I can’t disagree with any of the reasons Orwell states because I’m me and I wouldn’t know about anyone’s reasons except my own. I can say that I agree with one of his reasons because it applies to my reasons for writing. This reason he calls aesthetic enthusiasm. He states that no book is free from it and I agree. I feel like every book has to have a lesson in it because what a good story has no conflict. In every conflict, there is a lesson learned after it is resolved. All authors use conflict in their stories to carry out their message. Depending on the author the message can be vague or direct. Most of the time there is more than one lesson and depending on the reader they will cling on to one of those lessons based on how they read the story and what they took from it. When I write a story I focus on what I learned and integrate that into the story. That can change with the flow of the story which is ok to me because it just shows more thought is beginning out in and the results would show that. At the end of the day, it is up to the reader to interpret the text. I feel like Orwell was spot on with every reason that people write but I feel like there’s still a lot more that we don’t know. For example, I feel like one reason people write is that they cannot express their message in any other way. English is broken up into speech and writing, what if the person can’t really speak and get their message across the way that they think their writing can. You can say that would fall under aesthetic enthusiasm but I don’t think it’s their desire to share it. I feel like that’s their only way to communicate in general. There are some people who would rather text than to speak to others. There are people who use their writing to speak for them. It’s more than just sharing and experience, to some people that is their lives. Also, I feel like another reason people write is to see how their views changed over time. For example, someone writes a piece and then, later on, they read it and disagree with their past opinion and decide to rewrite a new piece. This has happened to me a few times, I’d read something and realize that I don’t agree with it. Although I never thought to rewrite it, I know there are people who would do that with their own writing. People have plenty of reasons for writing some may unknown to readers.

When I first started my essay my initial thoughts were that this task was going to be easy however this was not the case. I’m not gonna lie and say the task was easy but it also wasn’t hard. Talking about where I live should be easy for me since I’ve lived here all my life. But the thing is it was more than just talking about where you live, it’s about the story behind where you live and the experiences you’ve had. My challenge was getting started with the outline. I have this issue where it is hard for me to start my thoughts but once I finally get started all of my ideas come flowing in. I had to think about my most meaningful experiences and make them flow into a story. Not only that but it has to be interesting and has some type of meaning to it. I kind of used a bit of symbolism in my writing without paying much attention which was good because it made sense to me and I thought it would be great for readers to understand me more. The hardest part about writing this story was finding a quiet place to write. My home is very loud due to my annoying dog and siblings. I tried to just work these conditions and ignore them but it was just not working out for me. I ended up shifting from the task more often than I should and kept giving up on it. However, I found a way around that by playing a video on youtube that played noises that you would hear at night in the woods. This may seem like a weird tactic to use but it worked for a little while. I’ve known from doing work in high school that I am more efficient at night time when I wide awake and everyone else is sleeping not interfering with me. So once night time came around I got down to business and I finished it all with no interference. A problem I faced was sticking to the outline. It was hard having to write everything in such a strict way so I altered the outline even after I’ve started writing. When I start writing and feelings begin to pour out into the story ideas tend to change. Also if I had used my initial outline I feel as if I would have been repeating myself to fulfill the word count. When the story began to pour out it was more than just word count, I wanted to get my message out there. I think this caused me to write a great piece. I think this is what is making me a greater writer. A great writer doesn’t look at how much words they put into their work or how long the story is, it is more than that. A writing piece is the work of someone’s art. I feel like I have expressed my art in this writing piece, therefore, I feel accomplished.