Writer Introduction

Ever since my high school European history class studied the impact of the Enlightenment on the French Revolution, I’ve been fascinated with the idea that “the pen is mightier than the sword.”  I think what interests me about this quote is how strangely true it can be.  At least in the case of the French Revolution, and many other times throughout the extensive history I’ve been privileged to study through numerous high school AP classes, written words and literature have shaped minds towards an intentional purpose, persuading the (literate) masses to believe in the author’s mission.  I once thought I wanted to be a part of this, to write for my profession.  Now, I’m not so sure.

            When I was in fourth grade my teacher was one of those over-encouragers who felt that every minute accomplishment must be rewarded with a smiley sticker and extensive praise.  Fourth grade was also my first year to take the TAKS writing test, the standardized test that basically tells the state if schoolteachers are doing their jobs well enough.  Naturally, the test was highly emphasized during fourth grade.  In fact, my entire memory of fourth grade is about preparing for this test, learning how to tell a short story in a descriptive, emotion-filled manner.  With my teacher’s encouragement and my love of the Harry Potter books I soon was convinced that I wanted to be an author when I grew up. 

            Over middle school, however, writing became more of a chore to me.  I guess I wrote one too many 5-page analysis papers of ancient Greek tragedies or left the comfort of my encouraging fourth grade teacher, but somewhere through freshman year of high school writing lost its excitement.  But that would all change with my amazing sophomore and junior year English teachers.  In my sophomore year I was assigned to write a 60 page biographical essay about someone who had made an impact, contributed to the world. The assignment was just what I needed to rekindle my love for writing; I took it as an opportunity to develop my faith along with my writing ability and chose to write about Martin Luther, 16th century Protestant Reformer.  Through this assignment I learned so much about myself.  I learned that the way I learn best is through writing.  I learn best through formulating facts with my words and writing a paper about it.  I’m grateful to have learned this lesson so early on so that writing would remain a very important part of my education and even grow into one of my strengths.

            Junior year of high school I had an amazing AP English teacher, Mr. Wevodau.  He was truly a genius and taught me almost everything I know about how to write persuasively.  He taught my class a foundation in rhetoric, teaching us to frame language to shape ideas and portray them to readers.  I’m so thankful for Mr. Wevodau’s class for giving me the skills I needed to be successful in getting into college and scholarships and even in my first semester of college.  Because of the techniques we learned and extensive practice in Mr. Wevodau’s class, I actually was able to get a near perfect score on my SAT essay and get a scholarship to TCU.  Last semester, I took Honors European History 1789-present with Dr. Sanders.  Her essays, though mentally challenging and time consuming, were somewhat a easy to me; I received an A on almost every one. This is pretty much entirely due to my awesome high school teachers who taught me how to write proficiently.

            I feel that writing about history is one of my strengths because of my extensive practice in high school and last semester.  My biggest weakness in writing is how long it takes for me to write descriptively.  I’m a bit of a perfectionist for most writing assignments and am embarrassed to turn in an essay that I know isn’t my best work.  Unfortunately, my best work can at times take hours for a short paragraph.  I’m going to work on writing descriptively and try to not be so picky when it comes to diction and sentence structure.  I think this is reflective of my personality as well; I am indecisive in a lot of my endeavors and but always put my best effort in.  Where do I stand in terms of writing?  I enjoy it at times but at other times am impatient about it.  I know it will not be my profession as I thought in elementary school but it can still be an occasional escape and interesting homework assignment for class.